The organic French supermarket chain Naturalia (145 stores), which is is owned by Monoprix in France is opening three vegan (and also organic) supermarkets in Paris, which is taking the ‘green’ supermarket idea to the next level. The fact that this is done in France where cheese, dairy and meat are main product in the food pallet is more than interesting.
On my travels all over Europe with respect to the organic market channel, I have seen only a handful of Vegan stores (mainly Germany), let alone a real vegan supermarket chain and this Naturalia move is for me the first of its kind.
It is very interesting to see how this will change the buying behavior of all people in the store when compared to normal organic stores. On-top, it is maybe even more interesting what happens if non-vegan people go shopping there. Will they even notice that there is no real cheese, meat or dairy available? Will this change the cooking behavior of 100s or maybe in the long-term 1,000,000s of people, since they are confronted with new possibilities for creating tasty, healthy and better-for-the-world food?
“It will also provide an excellent business case for the organic channel in general to see if going Vegan would be an interesting direction to further ‘fight’ the regular supermarket chains”
This move will provide a very nice test to see what happens in real life when you limit the amount of purchasing options and confront people with new options like cashew cheese, bean-meat etc.
Finally, it will also provide an excellent business case for the organic channel in general to see if going Vegan would be an interesting direction to further ‘fight’ the regular supermarket chains which are also focusing on organic foods more and more, after the organic market in Europe has seen massive growth every year for the past 10 years.
Will this be the right way for the organic channel to succeed in the mid-term in Europe?