The news that Whole Foods will open a separate chain of stores designed to appeal to millennials stopped me mid-aisle. According to Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb, these future stores will feature “modern, streamlined design, innovative technology, and a curated selection” of lower-priced organic and natural foods.

As millennials would write—facepalm.

My dismay is not about the concept. After all, who wouldn’t love to shop for lower-priced, organic, and natural foods in a store that boasts a clean and modern design? My dismay is about how this new chain is being communicated to the public and designed to win in the marketplace.

By describing this new concept as “geared toward millennial shoppers,” Whole Foods is essentially saying one (or both) of the following:

Gen X and Baby Boomer shoppers are fine with or even prefer old, cluttered stores that sell a confusing array of stuff at high prices. We (Whole Foods) need to create new stores because our current ones are old and cluttered and sell all sorts of poorly organized stuff at high prices.

To be fair, communicating the statements above was probably the last thing Whole Foods intended, but it was what I, and many of my Gen X and Baby Boomer friends and colleagues, heard.

This is the problem with traditional segmentation approaches. By relying on demographics to define a consumer base, executives are implicitly, or explicitly, saying that all people of a certain demographic (in this case the same age cohort) are the same and that they are also distinctly different from everyone in other demographics. As most people will tell you from their own experience, this thinking is fundamentally flawed. This flawed approach applies not just to Whole Foods but to any business.

A better approach is to target and design for consumers based on what my colleagues and I call their “jobs-to-be-done” – the fundamental problems they are trying to solve or goals they are trying to achieve. By understanding consumers’ jobs, companies can identify what drives their behavior and their buying decisions—and then create offerings that resolve their most important and unsatisfied jobs.

Within its existing stores, Whole Foods has demonstrated its ability to successfully design offerings that satisfy a range of functional, emotional, and social jobs. For example, the Whole Foods in Dedham, Massachusetts, is home to the “Dedham Culinary Center,” which offers two types of classes – “Cooking Live,” in which a chef demonstrates new recipes and techniques, and “Get Your Hands Dirty,” which are hands-on sessions where participants create (and get to consume) dishes. These classes fulfill a range of jobs—not only building people’s culinary knowledge and skills but also increasing their confidence as cooks and forging new social connections.

Reading between the lines of last week’s announcement, it’s possible that the new chain will actually be designed to solve more of these kinds of functional, social, and emotional jobs, but it’s difficult to see how these jobs are exclusive to millennials. For example, it’s reasonable to assume that the new stores will be located in urban areas, where the job of “allow me to conveniently access healthy food” is incredibly important and unsatisfied. But this situation is likewise not exclusive (or universal) to millennials. After all, only 32% live in urban areas (versus 54% who live in suburbs). This job could be held by anyone who lives in the city. According to recent population estimates, more than 50% of urban dwellers are over the age of 35 (the oldest age for millennials).

Certainly, Whole Foods’ concerted effort to solve important jobs that are not currently satisfied by existing stores is laudable. But it’s thrusting the company into a field crowded with other large and established retailers seeking to fulfill the same jobs of urban consumers willing to trade off selection for value and natural/organic foods, including, namely:

“Give me convenient access to healthy food” – Both Target and Walmart are aggressively working to satisfy this job by rapidly expanding the number of CityTarget, TargetExpress, and Walmart Express stores. Perhaps the real solution to this job goes beyond simply locating stores closer to city dwellers to actually bringing the store to the consumer. But with $10 billion in 2014 sales and an annual growth rate of 14% over the last five years, the grocery delivery market is booming. Everyone from Amazon and Google to Instacart (partnered with Whole Foods) and FreshDirect are already jumping into it.

Both Target and Walmart are aggressively working to satisfy this job by rapidly expanding the number of CityTarget, TargetExpress, and Walmart Express stores. Perhaps the real solution to this job goes beyond simply locating stores closer to city dwellers to actually bringing the store to the consumer. But with $10 billion in 2014 sales and an annual growth rate of 14% over the last five years, the grocery delivery market is booming. Everyone from Amazon and Google to Instacart (partnered with Whole Foods) and FreshDirect are already jumping into it. “ Let me feel confident in the choices I’m making” – “Curated selections” are an effective solution for this job, and Whole Foods’ is already delivering brilliantly in its existing stores, with its 365 Everyday Value house brand (which may be the focus of the new chain, if trademark filings are to be believed). But, again, Whole Foods is not alone here. For example, in February, Target announced that its “Made to Matter – Handpicked by Target” collection of value-priced “high-quality, better-for-you products” will double in size to 31 grocery brands, including 200 new and exclusive products, generating an expected $1 billion in revenue by year’s end.

– “Curated selections” are an effective solution for this job, and Whole Foods’ is already delivering brilliantly in its existing stores, with its 365 Everyday Value house brand (which may be the focus of the new chain, if trademark filings are to be believed). But, again, Whole Foods is not alone here. For example, in February, Target announced that its “Made to Matter – Handpicked by Target” collection of value-priced “high-quality, better-for-you products” will double in size to 31 grocery brands, including 200 new and exclusive products, generating an expected $1 billion in revenue by year’s end. “Give me good value” + “Enable me to make healthy choices” — Whole Foods is often referred to as “Whole Paycheck” because many perceive its prices to be significantly higher than those of traditional grocers. But the market void created by this perception is quickly being filled by big players like Walmart and Costco (which many believe will be the largest U.S. food retailer in a few years). Walmart last year began selling organic foods from Wild Oats in an attempt to disrupt prices in the market for which Whole Foods is best known.

Consumers are already visiting an average of 2.5 stores or online venues to solve their many grocery jobs, eschewing the supermarket’s traditional goal of being the one-stop shop. So the success of Whole Foods’ new chain relies on a strategy that both differentiates it from other grocery stores and does not steal shoppers from Whole Foods’ existing stores.

Perhaps the cannibalization concern explains why the company is opting to create a new chain instead of expanding its current brand into small formats, as competitors are doing. But it remains to be seen how the new chain will differentiate itself from the competition (or even Whole Foods itself) by solving a new set of jobs or by solving jobs in a truly unique way. Until it resolves the question of differentiation, the company will likely be forced to answer a far more awkward question, eloquently posed by one millennial: “Why don’t they just call the new chain Trader Joe’s?”