Despite overall performance declines they describe as short-term, Moody’s Investor Service is giving Whole Foods Market a “thumbs up”. They expect that Whole Foods will maintain and strengthen their lead in the organic/natural health retail sector.

“The company is also implementing a long-term plan to broaden its appeal to more price-conscious consumers and alter the perception that the natural and organic lifestyle it promotes is only accessible to a higher-income demographic,” notes Moody’s.

This is a real shot in the arm for the industry leader after several boycotts and protests by activist groups and a layoff of 1.6 per cent of its work force last year.

Although Moody’s expects flat comparable sales growth during fiscal 2016 for Whole Foods, it expects greater improvement of 1.5 to 2.5 per cent in 2017.

According to a February 8th report by TD Economics, U.S. cross-border spending is at an all-time low. It’s expected that daily visits to the U.S. for shopping by Canadians will be at its lowest levels since the Great Recession in the late 2000s. The same report projects the loonie will average roughly US $0.71 this year, leading many Canadians to rethink their travel plans to the U.S.

This is not all bad news. The report’s co-author Derek Burleton, vice-president and deputy chief economist with TD Bank Group suggests that Americans will likely cross Canadian borders more this year, injecting some tourism dollars into their hungry economies.

Burleton says he believes Canadian border communities that are seen as tourist destinations will more likely benefit from an increase of U.S. visitors. “You can’t paint all border communities with the same brush,” he told the Globe and Mail. “Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake, for example, stand to benefit more from U.S. traffic because they have that lure as a tourist destination.”

General Mills EVP and COO Jeff Harmening announced they have decided to not only comply with the state of Vermont’s pending GMO labelling laws, it will soon do so nationwide. In an effort to not increase costs to customers, General Mills plans to include GMO labels on their products for the entire United States.

“We can’t label our products for only one state without significantly driving up costs for our consumers and we simply will not do that,” says Harmening in the company’s blog.

It makes sense to make this change across all company marketing, and Harmening noted the company’s organic and natural brands Annie’s, Cascadian Farm, Muir Glen and Larabar are already GMO-free.

General Mills has also created a search tool on its website where consumers can find which products contain GMOs.

In a similar move, Campbell has decided to also support federal GMO labelling requirements. “Campbell is optimistic a federal solution can be established in a reasonable amount of time if all the interested stakeholders cooperate,” said Campbell in a company statement. “However, if that is not the case, Campbell is prepared to label all of its U.S. products for the presence of ingredients that were derived from GMOs, not just those required by pending legislation in Vermont. The company would seek guidance from the FDA and approval by USDA.”

Just in time for President Barack Obama’s state visit to Cuba, news reports of improved relations between the two countries are just the tip of the iceberg. New business and trade opportunities are also expected to grow substantially.

Research by the International Monetary Fund has estimated that Cuba could expect as many as 10 million American tourists per year versus the 700,000 U.S. tourists it received in 2015. The most immediate economic benefits will be gleaned by the airlines, cruise ships and related travel businesses that are already gearing up for the Cuba-U.S. intermingling. It’s expected that Cuba’s exports into the U.S. marketplace will be of great interest to Americans wanting to experience new taste and flavour sensations. Cuba has a unique culture and their native food and customs are expected to highly influence culinary trades in the Americas.

With thawing of relations between these two North American countries, we may also see an influx of Cuban tourists and cuisine, which will help drive ethnic food industries. In 2016, one could expect to see increased importation of Cuban coffee, liquors, tobacco, and specialty foods of all kinds.

Statistics Canada reports that January 2016 has shown definite growth over 2015 in retail sales across all industries.

December 2015 to January 2016 growth was 3.5 per cent in the health retail sector, which was bettered only by department store and automotive parts retailers. One year growth from January 2015 to January 2016 was at 6.6 per cent with stats showing that health food retail did better than food/beverage stores and department stores combined. This growth in the health food retail sector surpasses but keeps close to the national average of 6.4 per cent over the previous year for all retail trades.

It would appear our natural health retail market is showing strength and steady gains. So how did your annual or December and January sales stack up against the national average?

Recent reports of products being pulled from a health food store chain’s shelves by Health Canada because they contained yohimbe/yohimbine or ephedra/ephedrine are disturbing.

Known side effects for both banned substances, according to Health Canada, are a dangerous increase in blood pressure while yohimbine may also cause high heart rate, anxiety, headaches, nausea and other symptoms. Ephedrine, according to the Mayo Clinic, can increase your risk of getting headaches, stroke, heart attacks, among others.

Back in the days of Health Canada and FDA bans on melatonin and kava kava, many stores carried the supplements, hid them under the counter and would sell them to consumers who asked for them.

Consumers will make their own choices at times no matter how well-educated a retail staff member is when advising on supplements. But generally, they do want to trust the retailer and their staff when asking for a product and their opinion on its benefits.

This business is all about healthy choices. News about product seizures should get everyone thinking about that.

Costco has been reportedly reducing its inventory of tobacco products. The double-digit reduction in sales is partly caused by the proliferation of vaporizers. Decades of unattractive ads and warnings for tobacco products, hiding the questionable ingredients behind ominous grey cabinets in stores, and thousands of reports of its dangers didn’t seem to damage sales entirely.

As health food industry people, it has irked some of us that tobacco, such a dangerous and unhealthy substance, a known carcinogen and leading cause of strokes and heart attacks, is still allowed legal sale, yet many herbs with notable health benefits and some small side effects are banned. This isn’t a reference to marijuana, although it does apply to its medical application.

Back to vaporizers, some municipalities have or wish to ban them as well. Perhaps they could be handed out to all tobacco smokers if it will lead them to eventually quit their nicotine addiction as some media outlets have reported.

What benefits are there for the retailer who still sells cigarettes and tobacco products? Eventually, a smart retailer will stop carrying a line that is continually failing in sales. Will we see tobacco products become strictly a black market commodity if the government bans its sale?

U.S. retailer Target’s move out of Canada sent more than shock waves through the Canadian retail industry. A rippling effect is still being felt by retail mall landlords and their tenants across the country.

Last year’s closing of all 133 of Target’s Canadian stores has raised issues with other retailers. Large chains such as TJX Cos Inc., owners of Marshalls, Winners and HomeSense, and Gap Inc, who also own Old Navy, want to exercise their co-tenancy rights. These rights would enable them to negotiate lower rents or leave the mall entirely without penalty. However, this move would cause further financial strain to landlord companies. The retail space must be re-leased, and without an anchor store such as Target in the mall, landlords would have to lower leasing prices.

However, in many an upheaval an opportunity may be found. In the case of retailers looking for a new space, one will probably find a good price for a new store with the former Target landlords. Some of the landlord companies affected by Target’s departure are Ivanhoe Cambridge and Oxford Properties Group Inc. while RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust was the largest former landlord of Target.

Independent health food retailers are often upset about mass market chains carrying the same products, but the failure of Target in Canada shows that even the mighty can fall. Market analysts have many theories, but at the end of the day, most Canadian consumers aren’t swayed by American-style marketing, which is designed more for the mass market.

Canadian consumers appreciate the more personalized approach of independent health food retailers and if you doubt that, then how do you explain the continued growth of our Canadian health food industry while retail giants topple?