Whole Foods And Wild Oats: A Top-Quality Case Study For Your Inspiration

Whole Foods Company was founded by John Mackey and his ex-girlfriend after they were loaned 45000 US dollars to start up a small business in natural foods. Their first business together, SaferWay, was successful. This enabled them to expand and partner with Clarksville Natural Grocery to create Whole Foods Market. This was the first natural whole food store and was large enough to employ 19 workers. In the 1980s, the store ventured into a plan to buy off small stores that were in the business of selling off natural, organic and healthy foods. The stores that were acquired included Bread and Circus, Bread of Life in Florida and North Carolina, Nature's Heart and Wellspring Grocery among others. Additionally, John Mackey ventured into opening up stores outside of the United States in 2002. He also bought off some stores in the United Kingdom.
Whole Foods had a motto saying that it was in business to make a profit, be ethical and show social responsibility to the society at large. By donating 5% of the profits it made, the company attracted more customers. It also wanted to brand itself so that those who shopped in its stores were able to term it as an adventure. To make sure that this was possible, Whole Foods ensured that it upgraded the look its stores had. It also included new restaurants in its stores where customers could eat cheap, healthy food.
As far as its employees were concerned, the store provided good wages and huge benefits to its workers. Wild Oats Market was created in 1987 by the Cooks. The company bought out a small store named Crystal Market and gave it the name Wild Oats. In the year 2007, Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Market signed a merger whereby Wild Foods Market would acquisition Wild Oats Markets. However, four months later the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) blocked the merger through a law suit. The Commission argued that this merger would create a monopoly regarding the health food industry. Whole Foods and Wild Oats defended themselves saying that they were not the biggest players in the market since the market was filled with supermarkets. The US District Court supported the merger saying that the market was indeed that of supermarkets. However, in 2008 the FTC appealed saying that most of the Wild Oats stores were still operating without changing their name to Whole Foods. The CEO of Whole Foods was at cross roads because he could either change the Wild Oats names or wait until the court made a decision.