Whole Foods Market

Motto: To sell the highest quality foods possible at the most competitive prices possible. They evaluate this in terms of nutrition, freshness, appearance and taste. They trust their buyers within the company with this neverending search for a healthy way of life. From restrictions on ingredients like artificial color, benzoates in foods and MSG to a five step requirement of how the animals we eat are farmed, Whole Foods has really set the bar for fresh in the grocery market.

Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas in by four business partners that realized the growing demand for organic foods. Started by 25 year old college dropout John Mackey and his girlfriend Rene Lawson with a $45,000 loan from family and friends, what at first was called "SaferWay" became home to the couple after an eviction from their apartment, leaving them to shower with nothing but a hose attatched to the dishwasher in the back of the building. Two years later, they decided to partner up with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to merge SaferWay with Clarksville Natural Grocery creating the first Whole Foods Market in the year of 1980 with a staff of 19 employees. The next memorial day a devastating flood caused over $400,000 in damage completley wiping out Whole Foods' inventory and wrecking most of their equipment. Knowing the company had no insurance, the customers neighbors and staff helped clean up and restore the store to its original glory. After the few mishaps in the beginning, Whole Foods Market began to expand now housing over 340+ stores not only in the United States but also in the United Kingdom and Canada making it the leading grocer for organic food and products today.

Most of Whole Foods' growth is from many mergers and aquisitons1 from other grocery companies with a high standard for quality products and hope to create a better community not only for customers, but employees and suppliers as well. Some of these mergers include Wellspring Grocery, Wild Oats, Merchant of Vino, ect. In 1992 you see Whole Foods appear on the stock market with a split adjusted IPO price of $2.125 per share, the same year they aquired Bread and Circus.

Wild Oats was not as easy of a gain to the Whole Foods' family for the Federal Trade Comission2 (FTC) had a complaint that if the assimilation did occur then the company can charge higher rates for lower quality products. Assuring the court of no such plans, John Mackey did not give up hope and won his case in the federal court. John Mackey recently gave up his CEO position and chairmanship to John Elstrott and today Whole Foods Market is ranked number 264 on the list of Fortune 500 companies.3 It is also ranked number 71 FORTUNE magazines top 100 companies to work for for the year of 2013.4 (previously ranked number 32).

There is a huge amount of competition today for the consumer's dollar. There are over 100,000 grocery stores in the U.S alone that range from