A Thasos Group report showed Trader Joe's and Sprouts Farmers Market gave up 10% and 8% of their regular customer traffic to post-Amazon Whole Foods in the week following the merger.
The analysis covered metrics including customer growth, attribution, loyal customer defection from competitors and customer demographics of customers of Aldi, Costco, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, Sam's Club, Sprouts, Stop & Shop, Target, Trader Joe's, Walmart and Whole Foods.
It showed Whole Foods traffic increased 17% year-over-year during the week following the announcement of price reductions.
While the largest number of new Whole Foods shoppers came from Wal-Mart (24%), Kroger (16%) and Costco (15%), the most impactful change, when adjusted to total size of customer base, was seen in Trader Joe's, which lost 10% of its shoppers to Whole Foods, and Sprouts, which lost 8% of its shoppers.
The analysis showed customer defection rates stayed elevated through the second week of September, and price reductions did not attract a lower income demographic or incentivize longer driving times to reach Whole Foods stores.
Stores closest to a Whole Foods location were hit the hardest, according to the report, but Trader Joe's was less affected by proximity than other stores. The specialty retailer saw defection rates significantly higher, even 10-20 miles from the nearest Whole Foods.
