Organic Supermarkets

Just returned from my first trip to an "organic" supermarket.  While browsing around with my cousin, I started thinking about the whole organic supermarket trend, and what it means for business.  First off, I think the distributors of organic foods are going to be in great shape for the future.  Their market can and I think will grow exponentially over the next few years, and they should continue to see rapid growth because of it.  On the flipside, I'm not really seeing how small organic grocery stores can survive.  Almost no one in the store was buying a complete grocery order.  Everyone seemed to be purchasing a few items here and there, which proves that most people still view organic foods as a luxury and not a necessity.  The store is about half the size of a normal grocery store, so clearly they will have less overhead than most traditional grocery stores.  However, I am failing to see how these stores can survive in the long run unless people begin shifting their preferences to purchasing all organic foods.  Another interesting observation is that the store didn't have traditional checkout lines.  They have one long counter with about 6 different registers.  The result:  you couldn't purchase more than 20 or so items without it becoming a huge pain in the ass.  This further emphasizes my point about the small order sizes.

That's enough about the business end of organic grocery stores, now some personal thoughts.  The store that I visited did not carry Heinz Ketchup.  Before I went to school in Pittsburgh, that was a sin.  After living in Pittsburgh for 4 years, that becomes an unforgivable sin.  I really don't understand what can be so organic about ketchup?  I guess they don't use pesticides or whatever, but no Heinz Ketchup is inexcusable.  Second thing, they don't carry Gatorade at this organic store.  They carry like "Organic Sports Beverage" or something like that.  It's a freaking sports drink, what is so terrible about carrying Gatorade or Powerade?

Closing thoughts:  I think some of these organic grocery stores are taking this trend a little too far, and so do the people that shop there.  I can understand the need for organic fruits and vegetables and those types of things, but when you're knocking out Gatorade and Heinz Ketchup, there's a problem.  Maybe I'm somewhat old-fashioned, or maybe I just lived in Pittsburgh for too long, but I haven't quite bought into this organic trend.

Thoughts, comments?  I'd love to hear them.