I think it was the moment the news story about tares in NY got out. Then it was the asparagus water right after that if I remember correctly.
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Walter Robber
When they put a limit on how many FT TMs stores could hire. PTers way less committed, need second jobs, then often more loyal to the other job, etc. In the old days, the company prided itself on having as many full timers as possible. That was very important, until it wasn't.
Florida regional is big on nepotism the whole marketing team has been build over the years based on that.
Florida region is hot with the nepotism and cliques...who remembers our old rvp who had flings with Stls....
When regional started to create fake positions just to get their friends to get out of the stores and to be in regional with them. Example Florida region.
Count me +1 for Ken & David.
Also, poor real estate choices, remodeling stores to get a bar venue where there is no demand, not preparing for the cannibalization effect on already open stores, overall design choices (why wouldn't we hire a kitchen design firm?), letting older stores age beyond repair, huge departments with little to no refrigeration/freezer space, bars with over 100ft of keg lines, bar menus designed to accommodate regional egos, weak management with low (our VP) or overly high self esteem (our other VP, as well as our RP who is so aloof, it's easier to turn around or fake going to the bathroom when he approaches) and my personal favorite reason our 'cutting edge' technology including eStore, click and collect, maple, AV, Slaw, R10, Aloha, the kiosks, Irma, Smore, StoreOps, and that none of these are truly integrated.
The moment the consumer base all realized they were overpaying by shopping at wfm. When they realized wfm wasn't the only place to get premium grocery products.
Couldn't last forever, and Mackey's stubborn refusal to compete on price will be the final nail in the coffin.
When they pushed to open all these new stores but never went back to improve and remodel old existing ones
The real question is when will it end?
This started a long time before Ken and David. The hubris involved in this company has been it's achilles heel. The decentralized approach worked when we had a few dozen stores, but fails to replicate successful results on a large scale. When 8 different stores in a state each have a different method of making the same pasta salad, counting inventory, organizing labor costs, and applying policy, growth is unsustainable. The dysfunction is built within the structure's lack of effective systems and controls, not within individuals who may seem 'incompetent'. We have spent so many years just winging it that we got lost in lingo that lacked substance. You can demand that a department meet a checklist, but fail to see that struggles to meet those demands come from the way we source ingredients, pay our employees (and benefits structure), and make conflicting decisions among all the bureaucracy. A Store Team Leader could have been obsessed with HSH, but no customers want to buy it, and the TL would be harassed about a program nobody liked and cost way too much in spoilage. We may knock our competition because they sell crappy food, but at least they have their systems under control. It used to be enough to know that we sold more healthful food than conventional grocers. But once you've spent 5 years of your life wiping dead roaches out of a chef case nightly, it quickly fades.
When Ken Meyer started the Fair Lakes store (aka "Wegman Killer") concept. Poorly designed and laid out. Too big, plus horrible location.
After a few years and it was very apparent it was not what the company had hoped for and it was publicly acknowledged it was the wrong direction for the company. However instead of changing their strategy what did Whole Foods do? They continued rapid expansion and while some of the newer larger stores might not have been quite the same size as Fair Lakes, they were still very much within the same ballpark. They expanded into markets and locations with seemingly no foresight. The new stores were just big for the sake of being big.
Much also has to be said about what the rapid store openings did to the Whole Foods workforce. The continual openings caused so many new team members to be hired who did not get the training or experience they needed to excel. The new stores created so much demand for new positions that a multitude of team members were rapidly promoted. In many cases these team members were not experienced or skilled enough to succeed in these higher positions and were also incredibly untested. I would love to have some numbers in terms of the failure rate of departmental team leaders was well as ATLS. The numbers of individuals I personally saw reach a leadership position only to crash and burn was massive in one store alone.
when Ken and David were put in their positions
When a specialized grocery store got preachy like they're saving the planet but really they're just selling pricey food.
Investor capital..mid 90s
When Walter Robb was never held accountable, not once, ever.
when Ken and David were put in their positions
The downfall began long before that. I'd say it was around the time they announced the 1200 store goal in the face of known unsustainable growth and looming competition. Those more recent events just brought the rot to the surface in public view.