No. 1 Organic Grocer Isn't Who You Think

Costco moves ahead of Whole Foods
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 3, 2015 4:06 PM CDT
No. 1 Organic Grocer Isn't Who You Think
In this Sept. 8, 2010, photo, a Costco shopper buys organic lettuce at Costco in Mountain View, Calif.   (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

One out of every 10 organic-food sales is made at Costco, the Seattle Times reports—enough to propel the warehouse club to estimated annual sales of $4 billion and allow it to beat out Whole Foods ($3.6 billion) as the No. 1 organic grocer, per an analysis from BMO Capital Markets cited on the TakePart website. Costco's numbers were revealed in an earnings call with CFO Richard Galanti last week, who noted that Costco's sales of organic have doubled over the past couple of years.

What this means, the Times notes, is that organic is moving from just being on the shelves of specialty venues to mainstream sellers—and right into the sights of the younger "millennial" generation. So while Costco's relatively new tack may seem surprising—as TheStreet's Jim Cramer puts it, the news is "quite a change from when management of Costco admitted to me just a few years ago that they thought it was a fad that would go away"—it's probably just the start, with retailers like Walmart not far behind, per the Times. (Click for America's 10 favorite grocery stores.)

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