When you think of Whole Foods, what’s the first thing that pops in your head? How about when you think of Trader Joe’s? Never been to a Trader Joe’s, you say? Well, there are 325 to choose from in 25 states, noticeably more than the 280 stores that Whole Foods operates…and that’s in 38 states, Canada and the UK! I for one was surprised there were more Trader Joe’s, especially since the closest one to Collective Intellect is over 300 miles away. Road trip, anyone?

Consumers who shop at these grocers are downright passionate about them. They’re not just going grocery shopping….they’re going to check out seasonal, exotic foods, sample new cheeses and buy those special one-of-a-kind grocery items in a friendly environment. They’re tweeting and blogging about it, too. Using CI’s semantic categorization technology to help us hone in on grocer conversations, we’ve evaluated roughly 44,600 and 12,300 conversations about Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, respectively, occurring over the past 6 months.

Do those numbers surprise you compared to the number of stores in each grocery chain? Let’s look at it this way:

Wow. Whole Foods is generating A LOT more conversations than Trader Joe’s, even though there are only 45 stores that separate the two. You could say each Whole Foods store generates 159 conversations while each Trader Joe’s generates only 38.

What’s just as interesting are the places consumers are talking. 53% of Whole Foods conversations happen on Twitter while only 29% of Trader Joe’s conversations occur on the popular microblog. Compare that with 38% of the Trader Joe’s conversations occurring on blogs while only 28% of Whole Foods conversations happen here. So why are consumers talking more about Whole Foods on Twitter and more about Trader Joe’s on blogs? And what are they talking about? Well, we can answer the second question right now utilizing the Collective Intellect proprietary auto discovery thematic artificial intelligence capbilities…

OK, there’s a lot going on here. No surprise consumers from both camps are talking about recipes, dieting and organic products. A couple bubbles that caught my eye were the Whole Foods chatter about the CEO’s healthcare comments and the friends and dinner bubbles on Trader Joe’s side.

Whole Foods CEO’s personal thoughts about healthcare really hit a nerve with consumers, and not in the warm and fuzzy way. Regarding the Trader Joe’s friends and dinner bubbles, there is interesting discussion of customers experiencing a wonderful evening with friends and family over a dinner from Trader Joe’s.

Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s: When it comes to specialty food shopping there’s a lot to listen to, a lot to garner insights from and a ton both companies can learn from their consumers. Let the shopping begin.