Whole Foods Market

• 1. A Store With No Shower

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  Whole Foods Market began in 1978 as a vegetarian shop called SaferWay, a spoof of the name Safeway, in Austin, Texas. John Mackey and Renee Lawson paid for it with $45,000 borrowed from family and friends. Soon afterward, the two were evicted from their apartment for storing food products there, so they moved into the store itself. The building was zoned for commercial use, which meant it had no shower stall. Their answer was a water hose attached to the dishwasher.

  That makeshift arrangement grew into a supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, with more than 500 stores in North America and a handful in Britain. Its shelves are built around food without hydrogenated fats or artificial additives, and shoppers know it best for organic produce and groceries.

  How did a shop with no shower become a national name? What does the word natural mean when a supermarket writes its own rules? Why did a federal agency try to block one of its purchases, and who ended up owning the company?

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• 2. Flood and Growth

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  In 1980, Mackey and Lawson teamed up with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, who ran the Clarksville Natural Grocery. Folding SaferWay into that shop produced the first Whole Foods Market, and unlike its predecessor it sold meat. At 10,500 square feet and with a staff of 19, it dwarfed the typical health food store of its day.

  On the 25th of May 1981, the worst flood Austin had seen in 100 years struck the new store. The inventory was ruined and most of the equipment was damaged. The loss came to about $400,000, and the business carried no insurance. Customers, neighbors, and staff pitched in with the cleanup, while creditors, vendors, and investors helped the company recover. The store reopened 28 days later.

  Beginning in 1984, the company started leaving Austin, with Houston and Dallas first. It reached New Orleans in 1988 by buying The Whole Food Co., then opened in Palo Alto, California, in 1989. On the 23rd of January 1992, it offered shares to the public and began trading on the Nasdaq under the ticker WFM.

  Wellspring Grocery of North Carolina was one of many natural foods chains the company absorbed during the 1990s. Others included Bread & Circus in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Mrs. Gooch's in Los Angeles, and Fresh Fields on the East Coast and in the Midwest. It bought Allegro Coffee Company in 1997, and the Bread & Circus banner was retired in 2003. The 100th store opened in Torrance, California, in 1999.

  Natural Abilities, which traded as Food for Thought in Northern California, was the first purchase of the new century, in 2000. Around then, president Chris Hitt and regional president Rich Cundiff left. Mackey promoted A. C. Gallo and Walter Robb to co-chief operating officers, and they soon became co-presidents as well. Three new regional presidents followed. In 2001, the chain moved into Manhattan and took over the assets of Harry's Farmers Market, including three stores in Atlanta. Select Fish of Seattle joined in 2003.

  In late 2004, reports said the company had cleared $188 million in profits over the previous two years. In 2005, it opened an 80,000-square-foot flagship in downtown Austin and moved its headquarters into offices above the store. Hawaii got its first store in 2008. That year also brought a distribution center in Braselton, Georgia, which the company called its first green distribution center.

  Not every deal added stores. In 2007-35 Henry's Farmers Market and Sun Harvest Market locations were sold to a subsidiary of the Los Angeles grocer Smart & Final for $166 million. Seven Dominick's Finer Foods locations in Chicago came the other way in 2014.

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• 3. Overseas Ambitions

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  Hazelton Lanes, an upscale shopping center in Toronto's Yorkville neighborhood, hosted the chain's Canadian debut in 2002. The store covered 40,000 square feet. By 2013, the company ran nine Canadian stores, all around Toronto and Vancouver. Mackey forecast 40 more over an unspecified period, with yearly Canadian sales eventually reaching $1 billion.

  The plan shrank. By January 2017, when the company cancelled its 2015-2016 plans for Calgary and Edmonton, it counted 467 stores in three countries. Twelve were in Canada, five each in Greater Vancouver and Greater Toronto and one each in Ottawa and Victoria. Nine were in Britain. By March 2020, the count stood at 487 in the United States, 14 in Canada, and seven in the United Kingdom.

  Seven Fresh & Wild stores gave the company its way into Britain in 2004. In June 2007, it opened its first full-size British store on the site of the old Barkers department store on Kensington High Street in West London. The store spans 80,000 square feet over three levels and ranks as the chain's largest anywhere.

  Executives claimed that as many as forty British stores might eventually open. By September 2008, however, Fresh & Wild had shrunk to four stores, all in London. The flagship Bristol branch closed after missing its profitability goals. In the year to the 28th of September 2008, the British subsidiary lost £36 million. A £27 million impairment charge drove much of that loss, and fears of a global recession hurt trading.

  In 2011, global sales grew 8% in each financial quarter as shoppers returned. The first Scottish store opened on the 16th of November 2011 in Giffnock, Glasgow. It closed in November 2017, along with the Cheltenham store, as part of a rationalization plan. The chain's London stores include Camden Town, Clapham Junction, Kensington, Piccadilly Circus, and Stoke Newington.

  In March 2024, the company announced it would close its Fulham and Richmond stores and its distribution center in Dartford. It also signed a lease for a King's Road store in Chelsea, expected to open in 2025.

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• 4. The Wild Oats Fight

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  On the 21st of February 2007, Whole Foods and Wild Oats Markets announced a merger agreement. Whole Foods would buy all outstanding Wild Oats stock in a cash tender offer at $18.50 per share, roughly $565 million. It would also take on about $106 million of net debt that Wild Oats had reported on the 30th of September 2006.

  On the 27th of June 2007, the Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint against the deal. The agency argued that it would break federal antitrust law by removing competition between two close rivals in premium natural and organic supermarkets nationwide. It said Whole Foods would then be able to raise prices and reduce quality and service. Both companies vowed to fight, and a court hearing was set for the 31st of July and the 1st of August 2007.

  Mackey started a blog to explain his opposition to the agency's position. Then papers released by the commission revealed something else he had written. Under the pseudonym Rahodeb, he had posted highly opinionated comments on a Yahoo! investment message board. The Securities and Exchange Commission looked into whether the Regulation Fair Disclosure law of 2000 might have been violated. It cleared Mackey on the 25th of April 2008.

  On the 29th of July 2008, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned the district court's decision to allow the merger. The judges ruled that premium natural and organic supermarkets form a distinct submarket of all grocers. They found that mission-driven shoppers, who care about social and environmental responsibility, would be hurt. The commission had shown substantial evidence that Whole Foods meant to raise prices after the merger.

  While fighting the ruling, Whole Foods subpoenaed financial records, market studies, and future strategic plans from New Seasons Market, a regional competitor based around Portland. In 2009, Whole Foods agreed to sell the Wild Oats chain.

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• 5. What Natural Means

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  An online document titled Unacceptable Food Ingredients sits at the center of the Whole Foods definition of natural. The company sells only products that meet its own proprietary standards, which call for minimally processed food. Hydrogenated fats are out, and so are artificial flavors, colors, sweeteners, and preservatives. The company also says it will not sell meat or milk from cloned animals or their offspring, even though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ruled them safe to eat. Stores carry no foie gras and no eggs from hens in battery cages, a result of pressure from animal welfare groups.

  Until June 2011, body care products sold at the chain could be marketed as organic even with ingredients the USDA does not list as acceptable in organic food. Urvashi Rangan, an environmental health scientist at Consumer Reports, said petroleum-derived and synthetic ingredients turned up in organic shampoos and lotions from brands including Avalon, Nature's Gate, Jason Natural Cosmetics, and Kiss My Face. The gap existed because federal organic food rules do not cover cosmetics. From June 2011, personal care products had to follow the USDA National Organic Program, and anything labeled Organic needed 95 percent or more certified organic ingredients.

  In a Wall Street Journal article in August 2009, Mackey admitted that the company had lost touch with its natural food roots. His blunt verdict was, "We sell a bunch of junk." He promised more health education in stores. By 2013, many stores employed Healthy Eating Specialists, who answer shoppers' questions, suggest recipes, and help build meal plans.

  Four departments run their own rating systems. Seafood has a Sustainability Rating System for wild-caught fish, while farm-raised fish must meet aquaculture standards, with third-party auditors judging both. The meat department rates animal welfare with an outside partner. Produce ratings weigh a farm's environment, GMO transparency, worker safety, and wage practices. Grocery uses an Eco-scale to measure the environmental impact of cleaning products.

  In March 2013, the company promised to label products containing genetically modified organisms in its North American stores by 2018. Grocery buyers had long sought Non-GMO Project Verified items, and Seafood planned a similar verification process for farm-raised fish. No USDA organic regulations exist for farmed seafood.

  Most purchasing happens at the regional and national levels to win volume discounts. Some regions employ a "forager" whose only job is to find local products for each store. The company also has a rolling ten-year distribution arrangement with UNFI. It donates at least five percent of its annual net profits to charity, partly through store-level giving days.

  In April 2007, the Whole Trade Guarantee launched for goods imported from the developing world. Its criteria include fair crop prices, environmentally sound practices, and better wages and conditions for workers. One percent of proceeds from certified products goes to the Whole Planet Foundation, which supports micro-loan programs in developing countries.

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• 6. Green Credentials

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  In May 1999, Whole Foods joined the Marine Stewardship Council, a global not-for-profit group promoting sustainable fisheries. The company began selling certified seafood in 2000. The Environmental Protection Agency later placed it third on its list of Top 25 Green Power Partners. It won the agency's Green Power Award in 2004 and 2005 and its Partner of the Year award in 2006 and 2007.

  An Environmental Protection Agency report dated the 8th of January 2007 named Whole Foods the second-highest purchaser of green power nationwide. The chain used 463.1 million kilowatt hours a year, and the report counted all of it as covered by electricity from biomass, geothermal, small hydro, solar, and wind sources.

  In 2006, Whole Foods became one of the first retailers, and the first Fortune 500 company, to offset 100% of its emissions by buying Renewable Energy Credits. Skeptics were quick to respond. Harvard Business Review explained that, in theory, the money subsidizes the higher cost of clean electricity. Yet wind farms feed the same grid as fossil fuel plants, which makes the benefit hard to track. Energy policy researcher Michael Gillenwater said claims that the American green power market produces additional wind power lack credibility. A 2022 study found that buying such credits inflates the value of the environmental commodity.

  SolarCity signed an agreement to install solar panels on up to 100 stores. By 2015, Whole Foods ranked in the top 25 companies by number of solar installations. Some stores run entirely on UTC Power fuel cells. In Raleigh, North Carolina, the company worked with the U.S. Department of Energy to plan an extremely energy-efficient building. Through the Environmental Protection Agency's GreenChill program, it adopted a refrigerant with a 68% lower global warming potential than the most common ones. Energy use fell 21% between 2010 and 2021.

  The Whole Planet nonprofit carried the energy push overseas. In 2023, the company announced funding for solar home kits across Sierra Leone on a Pay-as-you-Go model. In August 2024, dairy suppliers planned a pilot with the startup Windfall Bio, which adds microbes to farm soil to consume methane and produce fertilizer.

  In January 2008, Whole Foods became the first U.S. supermarket to commit to eliminating disposable plastic grocery bags. On Earth Day, the 22nd of April 2008, it ended their use at checkout company-wide. Shoppers could choose reusable bags or paper bags made from recycled paper. The company also sold large "Better Bags" made mostly from recycled bottles, under a campaign called BYOB, for Bring Your Own Bag. Refunds of 5 to 10 cents, depending on the store, rewarded bag reuse. Critics note that single-use plastic bags remain available in the produce department.

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• 7. Animals and Activists

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  In January 2005, Whole Foods created the Animal Compassion Foundation to help producers raise animals naturally and humanely. Its registration was canceled on the 5th of December 2014. In 2008, the company created the Global Animal Partnership. All fresh beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and lamb, except kosher turkey and chicken, must be certified to meet more than 100 animal welfare standards set by that group.

  In June 2006, the chain said it would stop selling live lobsters and crabs. In February 2007, it made an exception for a store in Portland, Maine. There, lobsters are kept in private compartments rather than piled in a tank, and employees use a device that delivers a 120-volt shock so the animals are not boiled alive. Trevor Corson, a former lobsterman, criticized the decision as damaging a New England tradition and cutting people off from where their food comes from. In 2022, Whole Foods said it would temporarily stop selling Maine lobsters over sustainability issues and a possible risk to whales.

  In May 2014, a pilot program began selling rabbit meat in 5 of the company's 12 market regions. Domestic rabbits are the eighth most common pet in the United States, and the House Rabbit Society and its supporters launched a nationwide boycott. In June 2014, Whole Foods still awarded a financial grant to Oz Family Farms, a family-owned rabbit meat business.

  In January 2015, the network Direct Action Everywhere released video of laying hens at a Northern California farm that supplied eggs to the chain. The footage showed crowded, dirty henhouses and injured birds, even though numerous boards had labeled the farm Certified Humane. That year, the animal rights groups PETA and Direct Action Everywhere both released investigations accusing Whole Foods suppliers of cruelty. PETA wrote in a joint letter, "Under the guise of compassion, Whole Foods is profiting from violence against animals." PETA co-founder Ingrid Newkirk argued that the failures showed a need for animal rights rather than welfare. Abolitionist vegans such as Gary L. Francione called the company's policies a betrayal of the animal rights position.

  Sweet Stem Farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, supplied pork and became the subject of a 2015 PETA investigation. Video showed pigs in a dark structure with no outdoor access, and some animals lying sick or injured. Whole Foods cited its animal welfare program and said that, after visiting, it "did not see the issues PETA alleged."

  Plainville Farms, another supplier, was suspended from the Global Animal Partnership program after a video from a 2021 PETA investigation. It showed turkeys being kicked, stomped, and thrown by workers at Pennsylvania farms. Law enforcement charged twelve men with 141 counts of animal cruelty, including six felonies, the largest number of charges in a U.S. factory farm case. Two of the men pleaded guilty and were sentenced in 2023.

  In 2023, PETA called on Whole Foods to stop selling coconut milk from Thailand. In November 2022, it had released video of monkeys chained to trees and forced to pick coconuts. The Thai Embassy later reported that more than 25,000 retailers worldwide had stopped carrying coconut milk from Thailand.

  In 2024, Mercy For Animals accused the company of humanewashing, meaning misleading animal welfare labels. The group focused on a pledge to stop sourcing fast-growing broiler chicken breeds by 2024. Whole Foods' 2023 impact report said higher-welfare breeds made up only 4.42% of fresh chicken units sold that year. In March 2025, a federal class-action lawsuit targeted supplier Alexandre Family Farm and the certifier Humane Farm Animal Care over the Certified Humane label. The farm denied systemic cruelty and called the issues isolated incidents.

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• 8. Workers, Critics, and Amazon

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  In 2002, employees at the Madison, Wisconsin, store voted to unionize. Mackey, a libertarian, believes unions foster an adversarial relationship between management and labor. Store management resisted, and labor activists accused the company of union busting. Whole Foods refused to bargain, and after a year it moved to decertify the union. Later attempts elsewhere failed. The company also ran a nationwide campaign that required workers to attend Union Awareness Training, complete with PowerPoint presentations.

  On the 23rd of May 2016, Whole Foods hired Kulture Consulting after a union election at a distribution center in Florida. A member of the National Labor Relations Board wrote that the firm's founder, Peter List, had engaged in "patently unlawful" activities during a 2007 organizing campaign. In April 2020, Business Insider reported that the company monitored stores to identify and target unionization, using a metric built on racial diversity, employee loyalty, turnover, and more. In January 2025, workers at a Philadelphia store voted to form the first union in the chain. Whole Foods said it was "disappointed" and asked the National Labor Relations Board to reject the result. In April, several open union supporters were fired and alleged retaliation.

  The company argues that its treatment of workers makes unions unnecessary. After 800 service hours, full-time U.S. workers can buy health insurance starting at $20 per paycheck. Deductibles are high at $2,000 for general medical costs and $1,000 for prescriptions. Wellness funds of $300 to $1,800 a year, depending on years of service, offset some of that. After the deductible, the plan pays 80% of costs but excludes mental illness. All employees get a 20% store discount, and optional yearly fitness tests can raise it to 30%.

  On the 11th of August 2009, Mackey published a Wall Street Journal editorial criticizing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and holding up the company's plan as an alternative. He argued that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution contain no intrinsic right to health care, food, or shelter. A Boycott Whole Foods page appeared on Facebook in response. On the 24th of December 2009, Mackey resigned as chairman, a post he had held since 1978. John Elstrott took the title, which Mackey wrote reflected authority Elstrott had held for years.

  Author Michael Pollan contended that the chain expanded the organic market at the expense of local foods, regional producers, and distributors, and the two men debated in a series of letters. Ronnie Cummins of the Organic Consumers Association called it a big-box retailer more concerned with rivals than with ethics. Researcher Stacy Mitchell argued that its local food marketing was more hype than substance.

  In late April 2017, Whole Foods reported its sixth consecutive quarter of declining sales and announced nine store closures. Two each were in Colorado and California, and one each in Georgia, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Illinois. Foot traffic was down, and other supermarkets offered a similar experience for less. In June 2017, Amazon announced it would buy the company for $13.7 billion, adding about 400 physical stores to its online business. Whole Foods's stock price soared. The sale is dated the 28th of August 2017. Amazon planned to let customers with a Prime account order groceries online and collect them in store for free.

  In June 2015, the company had announced 365 By Whole Foods Market, a more affordable concept aimed at millennials, with digital price tags and a smartphone app. The first store opened in May 2016 in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles. By early July 2017, as many as twenty-two more were under construction, but work at most sites halted when the Amazon news broke. Only 12 opened. In January 2019, the concept was discontinued, and the stores were converted to regular Whole Foods locations. The 365 name survives as a low-cost private label.

  On the 6th of November 2020, Canada's House of Commons unanimously adopted a motion condemning Whole Foods and its owner Jeff Bezos for banning employees from wearing Remembrance Day poppies. The company reversed the policy the same day.

  In April 2022, the Austin store began letting shoppers pay by scanning their palms through the Amazon One system. In September 2022, Mackey stepped down as chief executive, a job he had held since the company's start in 1980. Jason Buechel took over. He had been chief information officer from 2013 to 2019 and chief operating officer from 2019 until his promotion.

  In March 2024, Whole Foods announced a new chain of Daily Shop stores for Manhattan, between 7,000 and 14,000 square feet. They would sell grab-and-go snacks, sandwiches, weekly essentials, seasonal produce, bread, alcohol, meat, and seafood, plus a Juice & Java counter making coffee, tea, and smoothies. The company had tried a short-lived convenience store of the same name in Chelsea in 2019.

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