History Of Whole Foods Inc. - 1934 Words

Introduction History of Whole Foods After dropping out of the University of Texas in 1978, John Mackey and friend, Renee Lawson (Hardy) were able to borrow $45,000 from Mackey’s family to open a small health food store, Safe Way Natural Foods, in Austin, Texas. A few years later in 1980 they met Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, who owned the Clarksville Natural Grocery, they decided to merge their stores. Thus Whole Foods Markets was born. The first Whole Foods was hardly a small market. It was a 10,500 square foot supermarket with only nineteen employees. And although it wasn’t the first natural food supermarket, the threesome found instant success. Their stores not only included the typical natural food fare such as organic fruits and†¦show more content†¦This strategy proved to be quite successful as the Whole Foods label included more than five hundred SKUs in over twenty-two categories. In the early 1990’s Whole Foods bought out Wellspring Grocery in Raleigh spawning the birth of their presence in the southeast region of the United States. However, Whole Foods decided to keep the name Wellspring for these two stores, even opening another just months later. The third store however, was launched as a central distribution center for the region. In 2004, Whole Foods expanded globally when they acquired the Fresh Wild chain of seven natural food stores in the United Kingdom. In 2007, they opened a three level store in West London. (Whole Foods Market History) Over the course of their existence they have acquired multiple stores that have added to their growth, including Bread Circus, Mrs. Gooch’s, Fresh Fields, Bread of Life, Amrion, Merchant of Vino, Allegro Coffee, Nature’s Heartland, Food for Thought, Harry’s Farmers Market, Fresh Wild and Wild Oats Markets. In 2002, the company opens its first store outside of the United States in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Their mission statement and eight core values are the underpinning of their company culture. The eight core values include: 1) Selling the highest quality natural and organic products available, 2) satisfying, delighting and nourishing its customers, 3) Supporting team members excellence and