It's time for Whole Foods to recalculate.
The grocery chain on Wednesday evening reported a fourth straight quarter of declining sales at established locations, and its shares fell as much as 10 percent Thursday morning. Whole Foods missed Wall Street's revenue estimates and said sales in the current quarter are running 2.4 percent lower than a year earlier.
Whole Foods' struggles come even as grocery stores seem to have a lot going for them: Americans are spending less at restaurants, choosing instead to hunker down and make their own food. Lower commodity costs and food prices have allowed grocers to cut retail prices, helping attract more customers.
Restaurants haven't been cutting prices, mainly because their labor costs have risen as higher minimum wages have spread across the U.S. Grocery stores, in contrast, use lower-skilled, lower-paid workers. Indeed, average hourly wages over the past year have stayed essentially flat at grocery stores, while rising 4.4 percent at restaurants, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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