Whole Foods Market

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Whole Foods Market
Type Public (NASDAQ: WFMI WFMI)
Founded 1980 (Austin, Texas)
Headquarters Austin, Texas
Key people John Mackey, CEO
Industry Grocery store, Health food store
Products Food, Organic food
Revenue $3.87 billion USD (2004)
($3.15B)
Employees 39,000
Website www.wholefoods.com

Whole Foods Market NASDAQ: WFMI is an Austin, Texas-based natural foods grocer, which, as of May 2006, consisted of 183 locations in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Whole Foods Market is widely known throughout the United States for its high quality natural food products, many of which qualify as certified organic. Many of their stores are certified humane by the Humane Farm Animal Care program, a collaborative program by organizations such as the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).[1]

Contents

[edit] History

1978: John Mackey opens SaferWay in Austin, Texas, (the name being a spoof of Safeway, which operated stores under their own name in Austin at that time).

1980: SaferWay merges with an Austin natural grocery store to open as Whole Foods Market with a staff of 19.

1984: Expands outside of Austin with store in Houston.

1988: Expands outside of Texas with purchase of Whole Foods Company in New Orleans.

1991: Acquires Wellspring Grocery of North Carolina.

1992: Company goes public and is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market; purchases Bread & Circus in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

1993: Acquires Mrs. Gooch's Natural Foods Markets in Los Angeles, California.

1995: Purchases the Northern California Bread of Life stores in the San Francisco Bay Area.

1996: Purchases Fresh Fields on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

1997: Adds Florida Bread of Life stores; adds Whole Foods Market's 365 Everyday Value product line; purchases Allegro Coffee Company; acquires Merchant of Vino stores in the Detroit area.

1999: Acquires Nature's Heartland of Boston; opens 100th store in Torrance, California.

2000: Acquires Food 4 Thought Natural Food Market & Deli in Northern California.

A popular Whole Foods is located in Union Square in New York City
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A popular Whole Foods is located in Union Square in New York City

2001: Opens first store in Manhattan; acquires three Harry's Farmers Market stores in Atlanta.

2002: Opens first location outside the United States in Canada (Toronto, Ontario); Whole Foods added to the NASDAQ-100 Index. Store in Madison, Wisconsin, unionizes.

2003: Becomes United States' first national "certified organic" grocer; acquires Select Fish of Seattle and opens seafood processing plant in Atlanta. "Bread & Circus" store banner retired.

2004: Acquires seven Fresh & Wild stores in the United Kingdom; Whole Foods Market–Madison no longer union after National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruling.

The Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, is located above its flagship store.
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The Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, is located above its flagship store.

2005: Opens new world headquarters in Austin. Joined the ranks of the Fortune 500, entering the list for the first time at position 479;[2] Downtown at the Gardens location opens in Palm Beach County two days after Hurricane Wilma.

2006: On November 3, 2006, Whole Foods Market's stock dropped 18 percent after the company lowered its 2007 sales forecasts.[3] Additionally, it was announced that the company's salary cap was raised from 14 times the average pay of a full-time worker to 19 times the average pay. This is up from the original eight-times cap that stood in the early 1990s.[4]

Whole Foods Market has recently matched the prices of every product carried by Trader Joe's.

[edit] Distribution

Whole Foods is also in the process of emulating retail giant Wal-Mart by replicating their successful purchasing and distribution models. By dictating selling prices to manufacturers, Whole Foods takes advantage of their "economy of scale" by distributing goods through their own regional distribution centers. This theoretically allows for lower retail prices on the store shelves while creating greater profits and dividends for the stakeholders.

[edit] Product quality

Chocolate fountain at the flagship Whole Foods in Austin, Texas
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Chocolate fountain at the flagship Whole Foods in Austin, Texas

[edit] Organic

Whole Foods has been widely criticized that its products may not be as progressive as they are touted to be. Author Michael Pollan has contended that the supermarket chain has done well in expanding the organic market, but has done so at the cost of local foods, regional producers, and distributors. Parts of the debate have taken place publicly through a series of letters between Pollan and Whole Foods CEO John Mackey.[5]

Ronnie Cummins, national director of the United States Organic Consumers’ Association said Whole Foods simply uses the term natural as a marketing tool (Mesure). Whole Foods’ food is grown traditionally and sometimes genetically altered (Mesure). In other words, natural food is grown traditional, and organic food is not genetically altered. This image that they portray can be misleading for people going to Whole Foods expecting to get organic food, but just come away with something natural.

Whole Foods is accused of giving rise to organic super farms which have changed the idea of organic food from and environmentally savvy way of life to an inexpensive product. (Mesure). Because of Whole Foods’ need to find suppliers to supports its constantly growing business, the taste and quality of the food is being threatened (Mesure).

[edit] Toxins

In January 2004, in California, the Environmental Working Group and Center for Environmental Health Center, presented a notice of intent to file an anti-toxin lawsuit against salmon producers because Whole Foods accused companies of failing to warn consumers the fish contained potentially dangerous levels of cancer causing chemicals known as PCBs.

Shareholders of Whole Foods filed a resolution in February 2006, suggesting Whole Foods to report toxic chemicals found in their products (Baue, Whole Foods). Toxins such as Bisphenol A (BPA), found in Whole Foods products such as baby bottles and children’s cups, are detrimental to human development (Baue, Whole Foods). According to scientists at Nagoya University in Japan, BPA is linked to miscarriages (Baue, Whole Foods). Once born, if exposed to BPA, a human could experience birth defects, attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD), premature puberty, or breast cancer (Baue, Whole Foods). While Whole Foods no longer sells baby bottle and children’s cups made with BPA, products with BPA contents are still being sold (Baue, Whole Foods).

In March 2006, Whole foods discredited their shareholders. The shareholders were going to present their resolutions in a formal presentation; however, Whole Foods switched gears and allowed the shareholders an informal question and answer session (Baue). This part of the meeting was held too late, because the votes regarding the issue at hand had already been tallied (Baue).

[edit] Causes

[edit] Environmental involvement

In May 1999, Whole Foods Market joined the Marine Stewardship council.

As of 2006, Whole Foods Market became the only Fortune 500 company to offset 100 percent of its energy cost with the purchase of wind power credits.

[edit] Humane treatment of animals

In 2002, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) began petitioning Whole Foods to take steps to ensure the improvement of treatment of animals sold in the stores. As of June 2003, Whole Foods had declined to respond. In June 2003, members of PETA gathered in front of Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, to protest the company’s practice of purchasing duck meat in which the workers chop off the end of the duck’s bill to keep it from mutilating other ducks.

Whole Foods created the Animal Compassion Foundation[6] in January 2005, a separate nonprofit organization, to help other producers evolve their practices to raise animals naturally and humanely. According to Whole Foods Natural Meat Quality Standards and Animal Compassionate Standards, pulling feathers from live ducks, bill trimming, bill heat treatment, toe punching, slitting the webs of the feet, and toe removal are all prohibited in the raising of ducks for Whole Foods Market. Any ducks treated in this manner, treated with antibiotics or antimicrobials, cloned, genetically modified, or not allowed medical treatment when necessary are to be removed from Whole Foods Market stock.

[edit] Community involvement

In October 2005, Whole Foods Market launched the nonprofit organization Whole Planet Foundation.[7] The mission of the Whole Planet Foundation is to offset poverty through microlending.

[edit] Labor relations

Whole Foods Market suburban store in Redwood City, California
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Whole Foods Market suburban store in Redwood City, California

Whole Foods Market has been included in Fortune magazine's annual list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For" [8] every year since the list's inception in 1998, most recently at number 15 in 2006.[9] Among its primary values, the company lists "supporting team member happiness and excellence."[10] The company argues that its treatment of workers obviates the needs for unions. Full-time workers are given free health insurance that includes a personal wellness account, and the starting pay at most stores is highly competitive.

Whole Foods has been accused by labor activists of union busting. [11] CEO John Mackey, a libertarian, is overt in his antipathy to labor unions. Mackey's anti-union beliefs are laid out in a lengthy document titled "Beyond Unions," in which he describes having a union as "like having herpes. It doesn't kill you, but it's unpleasant and inconvenient and it stops a lot of people from becoming your lover."

An attempt at unionizing in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2002 was met with considerable resistance from store management.[12] A controversial 2004 ruling by the National Labor Relations Board upheld the actions of Whole Foods at the Madison store, [13] although many workers considered their tactics illegal and unethical. Further attempts at unionizing Whole Foods Market stores have been unsuccessful.[14]

Whole Foods has been criticized for its refusal to support campaigns by the United Farm Workers (UFW) on behalf of agricultural workers laboring on the farms that supply the grocer's produce. During the late 1990's, the UFW persuaded several large supermarket chains to sign a pledge in support of improved wages and working conditions for strawberry pickers. In 1996, UFW sent a letter to CEO John Mackey requesting Whole Foods join more than 5,000 stores nationwide in signing the pledge (“The New Yorker[…]). Whole Foods refused to support the effort. "If you say we don't support the farmworkers union because we don't support unions in general," said Don Moffitt, a regional president for the company, "I'd say that's true."[15] Strawberry Worker’s Campaign hand delivered a second letter in which Whole Foods responded by passing out propaganda to consumers full of distorted facts and half truths (“The New Yorker[…]).

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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