Earth Fare: A place to find innovation, plant-based foods and customer service

As part of Natural Foods Merchandiser’s 2023 Market Overview, we talked with four independent natural products retailers to provide a more colorful, nitty-gritty picture of the forces and trends influencing business so far this year. These retailers’ stories are being published online on consecutive Tuesdays: Kimberton Whole Foods, on Sept. 10; Earth Fare, Sept. 17; BiRite is scheduled to publish on Sept. 24; and St. Vrain Market is set to publish on Oct. 1.

What used to be called the Juice Bar at Earth Fare has been rebranded as the Wellness Bar. The shift symbolizes the attention this savvy, independently owned 18-store chain devotes to trends that impact both consumers and retailers.

As Earth Fare engages with today’s exciting yet increasingly complex marketplace, it constantly invests in innovations that best serve its customers while supporting its business model.

Recent innovations include working with GenoPalate, a tech platform that uses saliva swabs to determine people’s DNA and help inform their diets. Earth Fare is also serving as a test site for a device that delivers hot miso soup from a pump. On the business front, Earth Fare was the first retailer to join the Plant Based Foods Association. And to minimize food waste, the company is working with Flash Food, a service that makes it easy for retailers to sell items nearing their do-not-sell dates.

Related:INFRA founding member Earth Fare rejoins retailers trade group

Mitch Orland, Earth Fare’s senior vice president of merchandising and procurement, says the strongest trend beginning in January revolved around “craft vegan,” a term he coined to identify high-quality plant-based products that lean heavily into gourmet. Orland says he nearly “stalked” the vegan charcuterie brand Prime Roots for months leading up to the company’s release of its first products. Earth Fare brought Prime Roots products into all 18 stores within six weeks of their availability.

Earth Fare’s success with craft vegan defies the broader picture of the plant-based meat industry. Orland credits the exceptional quality of the products his stores support.

“The new wave of craft vegan is doing well [for] those that embrace it,” Orland says. “People are looking for new nutrition, and nutrition density in their foods. And this new wave is all about whole ingredients, health and taste—not filler.”

At the same time, Earth Fare is paying attention to inflationary pressures and coming up with value innovations to keep customers walking through the doors.

“How do you feed a family, and keep it healthy, for a good price?” Orland asks. “We have $5 and $10 meals in our meat department. Five dollars will feed two people; $10 feeds four. We make less margin, but we bring in more people.”

Other growth drivers for Earth Fare include private-label meat and dairy, a new endeavor for the retailer. Cheese sales, in particular, have been booming, Orland says, which dovetails with the category’s ascent in the broader industry. After languishing at a 0.7% decrease in sales in 2023, growth projections for cheese are solidly positive this year, at 4.4%.

Produce sales, sluggish for Earth Fare in 2023, have come roaring back. Similarly, sales of products that fall into the broad wellness category, such as beverage tonics, limped last year but now are moving along at a steady clip—hence the Wellness Bar rebrand. Within wellness, mushroom drinks are trending at Earth Fare, along with beverages containing CBD. (Maybe CBD isn’t dead after all?)

Earth Fare is also benefitting from the phenomenon of new GLP-1 weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. People who take these drugs eat a lot less. As a result, they often lack proper nutrition.

“Thanks to Ozempic, more and more people now want higher nutrient density, with less calories and more protein,” Orland says. He thinks this demand could, at least in part, explain surging interest in specialty produce at Earth Fare, such as black garlic and unique peppers.