How to Sell to Whole Foods & Become a Whole Foods Vendor

Transcript for Whole Foods Vendor – Learn everything you need to know to become a Whole Foods Vendor!

Hey everyone! My name is Karen Waksman. I’m the founder of a company called Retail MBA. Today I want to chat about how you can get your products sold at Whole Foods. I decided to focus on this because I’ve been teaching product companies across the country on how to get their items, into stores and Whole Foods is a topic among them.

In this discussion, our aim is to empower and inspire you by sharing some insights on how you can navigate the process of getting your product onto their shelves.

Getting Started with Selling to Whole Foods

Lets dive into why selling your products at Whole Foods is an epic idea. When it comes to becoming a supplier for them there’s one point that immediately comes to mind. You see, when you approach retailers like Walgreens or Walmart or even other big players, in the industry…Typically what happens is that they have a buyer who purchases products for all of their stores. This makes it easier to become a vendor, for Whole Foods.

If you have a specialty food product major retailers usually have a buyer for specialty items. The good news is that since the buyer purchases for all the stores they can buy quantities of your product.

What sets Whole Foods apart is that they buy on a level. I find this quite interesting especially if you’re new to the industry or trying to get your products into Whole Foods. The advantage here is that you have the potential to reach out to buyers within Whole Foods and potentially get your products into regions.

Challenges of Working with Whole Foods

Becoming a vendor, for Whole Foods can be a bit challenging. Let me explain.

For instance if you approach Walgreens or any other major retailer. You know if the buyer doesn’t like your product it becomes quite challenging to get your product into that store unless another buyer steps, in or some other circumstances arise preventing you from doing so. When the buyer says “No ” it really puts a halt to your progress.

However when it comes to Whole Foods they have a setup in place. This means that there is a buyer for each region responsible for various variables. What this implies for you is that there is one buyer assigned to one region and another buyer for a region and so on. So hypothetically speaking you can reach out to a buyer at Whole Foods. If that particular buyer says yes to your proposal ! You can then sell your products within their designated region. On the hand if they say no don’t worry because there are other buyers within Whole Foods whom you can approach and potentially sell your products.

The main point I’m trying to convey is that there are opportunities available, for selling products through Whole Foods.
Sometimes a buyer may not have budget to purchase your product in one area. However it’s possible that the same buyer could have the means to buy products specifically tailored for another region. The main objective here is to assist you in generating revenue. Therefore if you encounter a situation where a buyer, from Whole Foods declines your offer consider exploring regions, within Whole Foods and connecting with buyers there accordingly.