Whole Paycheck, no longer? Whole Foods to offer more affordable options, CEO says

The CEO of Whole Foods says the upmarket grocery store chain will soon offer more affordable options in an attempt to minimize the impact of inflation on customers.

Jason Buechel said the store would be investing in a generic, in-store label to offer products at value-driven prices.

It comes as inflation in the US remains stubbornly at a 23-year high leaving Americans facing a cost-of-living crisis.

Earlier this month the Federal Reserve announced that it would not be cutting interest rates until it has “greater confidence” that price increases are slowing. By making it more expensive for businesses and consumers to borrow money, the central bank hopes that demand for goods and services will be reduced, and subsequently so will prices.

Mr Buechel said Whole Foods aims to strike a balance by providing value while ensuring customers “can appreciate the work that goes into it at the same time,” in an interview with Yahoo Finance at the 2024 Milken Institute Global Conference conference in California.

Whole Foods currently has its 365 brand which offers more than 3,000 different "thoughtfully sourced" products, according to the store’s website.

However, the chain has long been associated with high prices, earning it the moniker “Whole Paycheck”. Last month, a Boston shopper claimed in an online post that she had paid $7 for a single apple at Whole Foods.

Yet interest in the store, which was bought by Amazon for $13.7bn in 2017, is far from waning. Whole Foods plans to open more than 30 new stores each year, and 75 locations are in the process of opening.

Some locations will have new formats, such as the tiny Whole Foods Market Daily Shops set to open in New York City, which will implement new technology, Mr Buechel said. This will include Amazon’s Dash Cart, a device that allows customers to pay for groceries as they shop, scanning items on the shelves and using their phones to pay.