popular news in 2000 image
Stephen
Hi,
I have been loosely following the news lately because of traveling and being busy. I was wondering how did Whole Food Market gain popularity in a down market? I looked at some news saying that its stock rose by a whooping 300%. While all other big-stock values with big names were flip-flopping like pancakes. I don't understand did I miss something on the news? Did the government promote some bill so that organic food can be sold more? Or did some impossible protest made organic food popular? I don't understand it as a person looking at a regular view point or as a financial researcher. Please tell me what happened.
Answer
You're kind of asking a few different questions. Your main ones seem to be about organic foods gaining popularity, and another question asks about the success of Whole Foods Markets, which does sell a lot of organic food, but not exclusively.
Organic food has been around a long time. Probably the 1970s is when it really emerged as a niche market, and specialty stores began offering organic foods. The popularity of organic foods has pretty much steadily increased since then, to the point where now it makes up about 5-7% of all food purchased. That may seem small, but keep in mind the food market is huge. Although it's emergence may seem sudden to you, the development of the organic market has been anything but, instead growing over many years. The rate of growth of organic foods has increased in recent years, perhaps as a response to conventional modern agriculture's rapid adoption of new technologies. Things like genetically modified crop varieties and drugs that accelerate weight gain in animals make agriculture more productive but turn some people off, and as the amount of technology used on farms increases, the number of people who wish to buy food produced without some of it grows.
Around the year 2000, the organic market had grown to a point where national standards and enforcement of them were neccesary to ensure integrity to the organic brand, and the USDA national organic program was created. Some feel the USDA takeover of the organic brand gave it an increased legitimacy, and helped grow organic sales.
As far as Whole Foods goes - yes, they've been very successful, but they're certainly not an overnight success. Their website has a pretty good page with their history, so I won't repeat it here, but they more or less mirror the organic story - they started as a single location health food store and grew both through expansion, and later, acquisition of similar chains. No other "health food / natural food" store or whatever category you want to put them in has managed to achieve the kind of scale and geographical reach they have.
As far as their stock performance goes, yes, over the past 5 years they may be up 300%, but YTD, they've actually underperformed the S&P 500, and they're well below the return of conventional grocer Kroger. I think their long term prospects remain bright, but I'm not sure they're going to produce big gains in the short term.
You're kind of asking a few different questions. Your main ones seem to be about organic foods gaining popularity, and another question asks about the success of Whole Foods Markets, which does sell a lot of organic food, but not exclusively.
Organic food has been around a long time. Probably the 1970s is when it really emerged as a niche market, and specialty stores began offering organic foods. The popularity of organic foods has pretty much steadily increased since then, to the point where now it makes up about 5-7% of all food purchased. That may seem small, but keep in mind the food market is huge. Although it's emergence may seem sudden to you, the development of the organic market has been anything but, instead growing over many years. The rate of growth of organic foods has increased in recent years, perhaps as a response to conventional modern agriculture's rapid adoption of new technologies. Things like genetically modified crop varieties and drugs that accelerate weight gain in animals make agriculture more productive but turn some people off, and as the amount of technology used on farms increases, the number of people who wish to buy food produced without some of it grows.
Around the year 2000, the organic market had grown to a point where national standards and enforcement of them were neccesary to ensure integrity to the organic brand, and the USDA national organic program was created. Some feel the USDA takeover of the organic brand gave it an increased legitimacy, and helped grow organic sales.
As far as Whole Foods goes - yes, they've been very successful, but they're certainly not an overnight success. Their website has a pretty good page with their history, so I won't repeat it here, but they more or less mirror the organic story - they started as a single location health food store and grew both through expansion, and later, acquisition of similar chains. No other "health food / natural food" store or whatever category you want to put them in has managed to achieve the kind of scale and geographical reach they have.
As far as their stock performance goes, yes, over the past 5 years they may be up 300%, but YTD, they've actually underperformed the S&P 500, and they're well below the return of conventional grocer Kroger. I think their long term prospects remain bright, but I'm not sure they're going to produce big gains in the short term.
What do you think about the fact that US president can only serve for 2 terms?Shouldn't it be like in Russia?
Tyler
In Russia, there is no limit to the total number of terms that a President may serve. Only a limitation in how many terms you can serve as a president consecutively, which is two terms. For instance, V. Putin served two consecutive terms(2000-2008) so he had to let someone else to take the office in 2008. But now he can run again after the current pres, Medvedev has almost served his term.
Answer
There are two schools of thought. On the one hand, shouldn't the majority rule, and allow a good President to serve as many terms as he likes? On the other, what if he gets so entrenched that he becomes corrupt and no one notices.
I watch the Russian news every night and Putin & Medvyedev are great. People present problems and they fix them. The United Russia party holds 70% of the seats in the Duma. Those who think him authoritarian are just jealous, since the country is doing really well and they are so popular, they don't need to suppress any opposition. Putin could easily amend the constitution to permit him to serve as President for Life if he wanted.
Remember we had no 3 term limit until Roosevelt won three terms and the Republicans balked. He was just too popular, which upset the minority party. The mayor of Chicago is retiring after his 7th term. There are Congressmen who have served longer.
There are two schools of thought. On the one hand, shouldn't the majority rule, and allow a good President to serve as many terms as he likes? On the other, what if he gets so entrenched that he becomes corrupt and no one notices.
I watch the Russian news every night and Putin & Medvyedev are great. People present problems and they fix them. The United Russia party holds 70% of the seats in the Duma. Those who think him authoritarian are just jealous, since the country is doing really well and they are so popular, they don't need to suppress any opposition. Putin could easily amend the constitution to permit him to serve as President for Life if he wanted.
Remember we had no 3 term limit until Roosevelt won three terms and the Republicans balked. He was just too popular, which upset the minority party. The mayor of Chicago is retiring after his 7th term. There are Congressmen who have served longer.
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