Whole Foods CEO on the company’s fast growth and overall business strategy

As most of you probably already know, I wrote a column and made a blog post about the redevelopment of the Backus Cadillac property on Victory Drive at the Truman Parkway here in Savannah.

The developer is currently working closely with Whole Foods on three other projects — one each in Virginia Beach, Tallahassee, and Charlottesville.

Click here to read a short but interesting interview with Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb. He comments on their 25% growth in sales over the last two years and the changing nature of their target customer:

The original customer was the natural organic person. Then the foodie customer came in. That customer started to come in because we had good, fresh food. We had fresh fruits and vegetables and good fresh meats. Now with the Millennials coming in, they are interested in things like fair trade and whole trade. What we’ve seen is that our customer has become more ethnically diverse as well. People think well it’s just rich white people. No it’s actually not. It’s students and people of all ethnicities that are interested in health. Health is the great common denominator, the great platform of the 21st century.