Introduction The US organic food industry has remained relatively competitive throughout the 80s and early 90s. However, in recent years, Whole-food market has maintained a competitive advantage through various means (Nina, 2007, p.3). Whole Foods tendency to merge with its competitors, or entirely acquire the operations and businesses of other organic food companies in the US has left Whole Foods with a near monopoly of the US organic foods market. Whole Food Competitors Trader’s Joe Company, head quartered in Monrovia California, has remained one of the main competitors to Whole Foods (Kroll, 2009, p.3). Over a three-year period between 2000 and 2003, Trader’s Joe posted annual profits that were near those of Whole Foods, and had an annual average increase in profits of about 14%, while Whole Foods had an annual average profit growth of 19%. The two organic foods companies were also the only companies during this period to post sales figures in the realm of billions. The sales figures for Whole Foods over the stated period were $ 1.8 billion in 2000, $ 2.2 billion in 2002, $2.6 billion in 2003, and $ 3.4 billion in 2004. For Trader’s Joe, the figures were $ 1.6, $ 1.9, $ 2.2 and $ 2.5 billion respectively. The third ranked organic foods company in terms of sales figures during this period, Wild Oats, posted annual sales figures in the realm of hundreds of millions, with its sales figure for the year 2003 being $960 million. Therefore, the singular challenger and competitor of Whole Foods during this period was Trader’s Joe. However, since this period (2000-2003) there have been many changes in the US organic foods industry, mostly occasioned by Whole Foods tendency to merge with its competitors in order to gain a competitive advantage. In the year 2007, Whole Foods acquired Wild Oats, effectively gaining a sales figure advantage over Trader’s Joe. Managerial and structural changes within Whole Foods have also seen the company change its corporate outlook slightly with the virtual retirement of founder and CEO John Mackey as the chairperson of Whole Food’s board. Besides Trader’s Joe and Wild Oats (which Whole Foods subsequently acquired in 2007), Whole Food faces competition from rival supermarket chains such as Stop ‘N Shop and Shaws, with both these chains having the competitive advantage of engaging in sales promotion for their products. Another company that offers competition to Whole Foods is Stonyfield, which while primarily involved in the production of yoghurt, also distributes fresh organic foods and vegetables. General Introduction All the four competitors of whole Foods mentioned above have certain general characteristics that provide a hint to their business and economic plans and desires. By the simply skimming through the websites of Stonyfield, Trader’s Joe, Stop ‘N Shop and Shaws, the common thread running is the interactive nature of these websites. Therefore, one inference that a person can draw is that, these companies have put in place measures to interact with their suppliers, consumers and even employees in the most open, transparent and interactive format. As the business world invests more in online transactions, these companies will stand a good chance to capture as many online c