Whole Foods Paper

Company Organizational Culture Project

Explanation of Author’s Choice of Whole Foods

For the company organizational culture project, I chose to focus on Whole Foods Market, Inc. As of 2011, the company is ranked 284 out of the all the Fortune 500 companies. I was interested in this company ever since a friend recently introduced me to it. Whole Foods Market is a very unique grocery shopping experience for anyone who has ever been there. Along with the company’s core values for promoting environmental stewardship, the food, the atmosphere, and the workers make it an enjoyable experience. It was recently reported that its fourth quarter profit is up by 101% (cite). I’m interested to analyze and determine the factors within the company, which have led to its recent impressive financial performance considering most people don’t have the resources in this volatile market to become loyal customers. Whole Foods Market must be doing something right.

Company History

John Mackey, cofounder and current CEO, founded Whole Foods Market along with his then-girlfriend in 1978 in Austin, Texas. These businesspeople believed that the organic food industry was prepared for its own type of supermarket. In 1980, the first Whole Foods Market opened and was quite successful. In 1984, Whole Foods Market expanded out of Austin and into Houston, Dallas, and New Orleans. In 1988, it acquired Whole Food Company, and then in 1989, it grew to California and much of the West Coast. The expansion process took place slowly, but steadily and six new stores were added during the 1980s. In 1992, Whole Foods went public and began buying out other natural-food chains across the U.S. From Wellspring Grocery in North Carolina to Bread of Life stores in California and Florida, along with many others, Whole Foods Market has exponentially grown from its original staff of 19 workers. It was through these buyouts, combined with Mackey’s untraditional ways and management style, which have...