Earth Fare’s intent is changing the way people buy and think about food, making healthy eating accessible, cheap, exciting, and delicious. Their belief is “food should be as close to the ground as it gets.” They are one of the largest natural food retailers in the U.S. They do not stock any items with “… high fructose corn syrup, trans fat, artificial colors, synthetic growth hormones (in the meat and milk), preservatives, antibiotics, synthetics growth hormones, bleached or bromated flours and irradiated spices, and unnatural sweeteners.” This is their food philosophy. What is interesting is that Earth Fare uses all its resources and capabilities to run a full service grocery store like a traditional supermarket where you can find pretty much the same items. The only difference would be Earth Fare is natural and organic. The way they differentiate from their competition is by buying from local farmers. They do have a competitive advantage over other similar grocery stores because of their food belief. Earth Fare does seemingly good compared to their competition. Some examples are they buy from local farmers that share their beliefs, their products are generally affordable, and sometimes even better.
Earth Fare has 28 stores throughout the southeast part of the United States. There are plans for expansion into numerous other college and beach town markets but no exact locations mentioned. Some of the challenges Earth Fare could face would be there might not be any local farmers that grow and produce organic food. The cost of produce would be expensive. Wal-Mart could be a challenge for them because Wal-Mart is well known, and is using its Heritage America program to reach out to people interested in buying organic products.
Earth Fare was established by examining the external environment. Roger Derrough felt discouraged from seeing all the processed food that was