History of Whole Foods
Whole Food Market Incorporation is America’s one of the most famous supermarket chain that is famous for featuring natural and organic foods. Whole Food Market is the 1st certified organic and natural grocer of the United States, which features food items that are free from colors, flavors, hydrogenated fats, sweeteners, artificial preservatives, and stabilizers. Whole Food Market was founded 35 years ago in 1980 in Austin – Texas, when 4 local entrepreneurs took the initiative to introduce the supermarket format to the natural food industry. Apparently, in this span of time, the business successfully achieved the title of being the United States’ 30th largest retailer in terms of revenue (in 2014). It all started when two our of the four founders of the business, Renee Lawson and John Mackey borrowed approximately $45,000 from their friends and family, and opened a small organic grocery store, which was named ‘SaferWay’. However, they were later got evicted from their apartment for using it for the commercial purpose and storing food items. After 2 years of struggle, Mackey started a partnership with Mark Skiles and Craig Weller, and merged SaferWay with Clarksville Natural Store. This merger resulted in the opening of the Whole Food Market as a full-fledged brand.
When the Whole Food Market first opened, it only had a staff of 19 members but it received speedy success as there were only a few organic and natural food brands in the United States at that time. The company started to expand after its four years of origin and in 1984, it opened its stores in Dallas, New Orleans, and Houston by acquiring the Whole Food Company. In 1988, it further expanded to West Coast and opened up stores in Palo Alto Calif. These initial expansion geared up the overnight growth of the Whole Food Market that later continued with numerous acquisitions of a number of natural food brands such as Bread & Circus, Wellspring Grocery, Bread of Life, Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Food and Fresh Field Market. The expansion of Whole Food Market increased the need for natural and organic food items. The brand always focuses on bringing the best of organic and natural food product to its consumers as its business objective is to produce and deliver the quality in the highest and the purest form. The corporate prophecy of the Whole Food Market is to nourish, satisfy, and delights its customer (Davis, 2014). As of 2015, John Elstrott is the Chairman of the company while Walter Robb and John Mackey are the co-CEOs of the public limited firm. Whole Foods has also been added to Fortune500 companies in 2005.
Vision of Whole Foods
The official vision statement of Whole Foods is as follows;
“Our slogan — Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet — focuses on our vision that reaches far ahead of just being a food retailer. Our achievement in gratifying our vision and it can be measured by customer satisfaction, return on capital investment, local and larger community support, improvement in the state of the environment, team member happiness and excellence” (Whole Food Market, 2016).
Mission of Whole Foods
“Whole Foods Market is a dynamic leader in the quality food business. We are a mission-driven company that aims to set the standards of excellence for food retailers. We are building a business in which high standards permeate all aspects of our company. Quality is a state of mind at Whole Foods Market.” (Whole Food Market, 2016).
References
Davis. S. (2014). Whole Foods' Holistic Growth Plan. Retrieved From http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottdavis/2014/04/30/whole-foods-holistic-growth-plan/#27aba7de3f65 on June 3, 2016
Whole Food Market. Official Website. (2016) Retrieved From http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values/declaration-interdependence on June 3, 2016
Whole Food Market. Official Website. (2016) Retrieved From http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values on June 3, 2016
