Game Changer

CHAPTER 8The Uniform Game: The All‐Time Classic

With contributions from Javier Anta, Matt Beckett, and Sebastian Bak

The supermarket chain Whole Foods announced in January 2023 that it wanted to work with suppliers to reduce prices for shoppers as inflationary pressures began to ease.¹ That posed a daunting challenge, because their stores at the time carried as many as 20,000 items.² How could suppliers and Whole Foods guide themselves to that new equilibrium?

Such questions are vitally important for a smaller supplier such as Nona Lim, an entrepreneur who pioneered home meal‐kit delivery service in the early 2000s. Drawing on her background as a competitive athlete and her knowledge as a nutrition consultant, Nona had experimented relentlessly to develop commercial versions of the recipes she loved growing up in Singapore. Her California‐based company launched prepackaged healthy broths in brick‐and‐mortar retail with Whole Foods in 2014 and has since created a national brand for soups and broths.³

She had learned to defend her margin equation in previous negotiations. One key to her success is “to say ‘no’ to business that's not going to give you the minimum gross margin target that you have set.”⁴ That often means turning down retailers that demand too many concessions. This consideration of costs is important to the Uniform Game, which sits at the intersection of value ...