Health food is their focus and a lot of the difference in practice is what they don't carry. There is a spectrum of stores between stores that don't carry any

Health food is their focus and a lot of the difference in practice is what they don't carry. There is a spectrum of stores between stores that don't carry any organic food and local cooperatives that tend to be exclusively organic, whole grains, etc. food (there used to be more independent health food stores but Whole Foods bought them or drove them out of business). Whole Foods is a mass market compromise that was able to dramatically lower prices on some key items vs. cooperatives and has about half organic food (and for the other half tries to find at least somewhat unusual products with some, often dubious, claim to being healthier in some way or higher quality or more environmentally friendly). One thing Whole Foods does that is unusual (other than cooperatives) is to label where the perishable food comes from. I don't know if they actually source more locally than others, but because it is labeled it is possible to tell if a particular item is local or not. These days many large chains have organics/natural foods sections; they might have 10-20% organic products, but being much larger there isn't that much that is only found at Whole Foods. Those other stores often have organic sections because people who buy organic food often are not interested in most of what those stores sell. Some chains focus on cost and have very little organic food; the lowest cost organic food is frequently double the price. Long winded response, but none of what Whole Foods sells is really unique. Also, Whole Foods has limited reach and there may be quite a bit of demand for health food stores that is not currently met, particularly outside large cities. The problem with independent stores is the cost; there are a lot more people who will pay 2x for healthier food than people who will pay 4x or 8x, and enough items need to be 2x to make the store a regular stop. For all the reputation Whole Foods has as being expensive (and it is for many things), part of the key to their success is relatively low cost key health food items. Cooperatives have been able to lower their prices but often still have areas where everything they sell is quite a bit more expensive. The article has a lot of obvious inaccuracies but might be on to something with the overall theory. If so, hopefully it wouldn't just be regular grocery products but also health foods. It makes more sense than anything else I've heard that Amazon might want to expand the distribution operation while leaving the stores themselves relatively untouched.