The market analysis will identify the markets for the products and services that the client should market to. A primary market and secondary market will be identified; these are going to be the vast majority of projected sales. Most all of the information in this section has been compiled from a targeted survey created and distributed by the research team. Demographics and knowledge of the county and the surrounding areas have also been taken into accord. All of the data will be represented either through the means of discussion or graphical representation; beginning with some general knowledge and trends of the current low-carb market place.
             A great deal of information was gathered to help to understand the low-carb diet market. To start, the U.S. population is 293,318,848, according to the 2000 Census. This national Census is only done every 10 years. It was also found that 17.2 million people are on the Atkins diet. That is 6% of the U.S. population. Since the population of Kalamazoo and Portage combined is 122,042, it can be assumed that about 7,300 people are on a low-carb diet in this area. A slightly higher number (19.2%) reported that someone in his or her household was once on such a diet, but is no longer. One article provided research that annual sales of non-restaurant retail food is about $433 billion, while about $3 to $5 billion is spent annually on products labeled as low-carb. This is a little less than 1% of the total food sales nationally.
             Many articles were found that support, as well as criticized, the opening of a low-carb retail store. It truly depends on whom you ask. The same can also be said of, ¡§experts,¡ expectations of the future. All this uncertainty is mainly due to the fact that this industry is so new. There is very little historical data to back up any claims to the growth, or lack there of, for the future. Two articles are highlighted below to show both the positive and negative sides o...