With Amazon acquiring Whole Foods, many organic food groceries are noting the significant price drop that Whole Foods is offering their customers, a strategy that the President of Organic Garage Matt Lurie has been implementing for years.
“Our goal is to continue to drive costs out of our system so that we can continue to be competitive on price,” Lurie tells SN.
When asked about Whole Foods and their strategies to target consumers who want natural products without the weighty price tag—an action plan that began in 2016 with their 365 program—Lurie commented that Organic Garage has already achieved those lower prices points. “I laughed when they launched that,” admits Lurie, “I said ‘that’s us.’ We’ve already been doing that here for 12 years.”
What began in 2006 with the first Organic Garage opening in Oakville Ontario, has now become a three-store chain that has a 60 percent organic roster—a percentage that most mainstream grocers don’t have.
“Those chain stores are just introducing organics to all of those conventional customers who were eating conventional stuff before and getting them onto the program,” explains Lurie, who believes that the organic trend in mainstream chains will only help to increase his in-store traffic with Organic Garage’s large organic selection. “Thus, I have a chance to acquire [those customers] at a very low cost.”
“They have A through B. We have C through Z,” says Lurie, who takes pride in Organic Garage’s extensive organic variety.
In order to keep his prices down, Lurie uses signs and low-cost alternatives instead of dietary experts and expensive equipment to communicate with his customers. In this way, Lurie can focus on prioritizing low prices to draw in clientele.
