It's a tough operating environment in retail right now -- not that Costco investors would know anything about it. The warehouse giant this week made it look easy by posting another quarter of market-thumping revenue growth. Sales rose by 7% in existing U.S. stores. And that's a result that competitors from Whole Foods to Wal-Mart just couldn't touch.

Third-quarter comparable-sales results. Data source: Company financial filings.

The organic food opportunity Costco's membership model is clearly resonating with customers on everything from televisions to bulk paper products. But there's one area that likely stood out from all the other grocery departments: organic food. Costco has targeted that category as a key growth opportunity, and not just because so many shoppers are choosing these healthier products. The warehouser also likes organic groceries because they cost more than other comparable food items.

However, Costco doesn't see that higher price point as an invitation to goose profits, like many other retailers do. Instead it's a chance to deliver bigger savings and thereby win loyal members. In other words, organic food offers a nice showcase of Costco's strength as a price leader.

Here's how Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti explained the strategy back in October: "We can generally provide a better savings than others [in organic] because other retailers sometimes will use it as an ability to get more margins, and so we show greater savings."

Amazon.com 'sCEO Jeff Bezos put it another way when he said , "Your margin is my opportunity."

Winning market share That explains why at least some of Costco's recent organic food sales gains seem to be coming at the expense of Whole Foods. The organic food grocer sports a 4% profit margin, which is huge by grocery standards. Kroger and Costco, by comparison, both stay consistently below 2% of sales by that metric.

Meanwhile, Whole Foods has seen its comps growth slow for five straight quarters as Costco and others fight to capitalize on the popularity of healthier grocery shopping.

Whole Foods' quarterly comparable store sales growth.Data source: Company financial filings.

Link:
How High Organic Food Prices Are Boosting Costco's Results

Courtesy City of Port Coquitlam

VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) While Metro Vancouvers new organic food scrap ban kicks in January 1st, most people will actually have until 2017 before its strictly enforced.

Starting in the new year large restaurants, hotels and supermarkets need to separate the scraps from their garbage but theyll have a six-month grace period.

Andrew Marr with Metro Vancouver says it will be phased in for everyone else.

Obviously the inspectors will start looking harder for smaller quantities of food scraps. So the quantity theyre looking for will go down in 2016 and then itll go down again in 2017.

It will be up to the people bringing in the loads to make sure they are clean, or theyll be fined.

We have people who randomly inspect loads of garbage when theyre arriving at our facilities and so they just do a visual inspection. Its a very simple thing, they dont open bags or anything like that. So theyre just looking really for large obvious quantities of food scraps.

Metro Vancouver feels the phase approach will help to resolve any initial issues.

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Metro Vancouver organic food scrap ban to be phased in

When I was first learning about organic food production and consumer values in the 1990s, the organic Twinkie problem was being hotly debated in both the academic and popular presses. Could a Twinkie really be considered organic even if all of the ingredients were USDA certified? Twinkies are, after all, an iconic symbol of our industrialized food system, with ashelf life spanning yearsand the supernatural ability tosurvive a nuclear holocaust(along with cockroaches). While neither of these well-known facts turns out to be true, Twinkies certainly represent the pinnacle of modern food science and mass distribution systems.

But despite those who believe the values associated with organic food should extend beyond the production materials and techniques overseen by the USDA, a growing number of reputable natural food companies are producing what can only be called organic junk food. I have to admit that I, along with many other greenies, am happily eating it up!

Based on anecdotal evidence alone, it appears that as alternative organic brands like Earthbound Farm and Newmans Own continue to gain mainstream traction, a new era of artisan-crafted treats is emerging and many of them are hitting every possible green button at once.A classic example isOscar Williams Gourmet Cotton Candy.

This gourmet spun sugar delight features all of the following green values:

1. Founders With A Story & A Social Mission.The company began as afundraising effort for an HIV outreach program (PASTD.ORG) that the founders set up afterlosing several friends to the disease.We were only planning to sell the product once, but the community loved it so much, that after muchdiscussion we decided to become an official business, founder TashaHolland-Kornegayexplained.

2. Giving A Portion Of Sales To Charity. Oscar WilliamsGourmet Cotton Candy contributes 10% of all sales back into the community, by distributing HIV/AIDS pamphlets and sponsoring educational workshops.

3. All Natural, Vegan & Gluten-Free Products. Their gourmet cotton candy is all-natural, allergen-free and gluten-free. As a result, many of their products are also white so you do not get any unnecessary dyes.Being that my husband and I are both vegans, we wanted to make sure we offered a product that reflected who we were, Tasha explains.

The rest is here:
Organic Junk Food 2.0