The reductions would help narrow a pricing gap between Whole Foods and conventional competitors on those items and in some cases could bring the retailer to price parity with them. Conventional grocery stores have long maintained basket-price advantages over Whole Foods in the range of 20% or more, analysts say, a phenomenon due in part to Whole Foods’ stricter buying standards but also to longstanding advantages in scale, logistics and category management that Whole Foods has only begun to address.