1. Whole Foods Market (WFM) was founded in 1980 as a single local grocery store by John Mackey for natural and health foods. By 1991, WFM had 10 up-and-running stores with revenues of about $92.5 million in United States Dollars (USD), and a net income of about $1.6 million in USD. In 1992 WFM became a publicly traded company with its stock trading on the NASDAQ. By 2006 Whole Foods Market had progressed into the world’s largest retail chain of natural and organic foods supermarket. As of September 2007 WFM has 276 stores up-and-running. 263 of the stores are located throughout 37 of the U.S. and the District of Columbia. 7 of the stores are in Canada and 6 in the U.K.
Whole Foods Market is a supermarket distinctively devoted to offer the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and naturally preserved foods. In other words: organic foods. However, there have been many challenges and misconceptions about the definition of organic products in past years. In October 2002, the U.S. Department of Agriculture set standards and definite meanings for organic products. Once standards were set Mackey had a vision of aggressively expanding WFM stores. He believed that the company’s cash flow from operations in upcoming years would be an ample amount to cover the capital costs of the expansions. WFM growth strategy was to open new stores and acquire small, owner-managed chains. The store sizes and location was an important issue in their growth strategy. Another issue was the products that WFM offers. Most consumers are brand name buyers; WFM offers organic foods that do not come with the usual brand name label that consumers are used to. Even worse of an issue are the prices. Non-brand –named products that are high in price can be a ...