Whole Foods: Democratic Approach To Store Operation

Trader Joe’s has great workforce management practices and its employees enjoy what they do. They have cheerful attitudes and are more than willing to assist customers with anything in the store. Trader Joe’s employees are engaged in conversation with the customers that shop in the store and make the customers aware of any new or exciting products from them to try. The positive behavior of these employees is due to the compensation and benefits each employee receives, which is far more competitive than other grocery food stores. Trader Joe’s has also created an environment where employees feel valued and know their opinions matter to the growth of the

promotes pride in team members. All employees have access to most of Whole Food’s financial

The Expansion Period. Beginning in 1984, Whole Foods Market began its expansion out of Austin, first to Houston and Dallas and then into New Orleans with the purchase of Whole Food Company in 1988. In 1989, we expanded to the West Coast with a store in Palo Alto, California. While continuing to open new stores from the ground up, we fueled rapid growth by acquiring other natural foods chains throughout the '90s: Wellspring Grocery of North Carolina, Bread & Circus of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, Mrs. Gooch 's Natural Foods Markets of Los Angeles, Bread of Life of Northern California, Fresh Fields Markets on the East Coast and in the Midwest, Florida Bread of Life stores, Detroit area Merchant of Vino stores, and Nature 's Heartland of Boston.

He believes that in a conscious business, you can have an expanding pie and potentially everyone can get larger pieces. Basically, the idea is to create value for everyone. This concept seems to be the comprehensive culture of the organization and is infused within everything they do. The employees are referred to as team members to incorporate their inclusion in this philosophy. On a daily basis, they are empowered and encouraged to take opportunities to practice servant leadership towards satisfying their customers. For long term benefits, the also are offered opportunities to develop job specific skills to grow within the organization. Furthermore, team members are encouraged to participate in community outreach efforts as well. The culture of Whole Foods Market is positively affecting the team members in the organization through training, example, and involvement to become servant leaders as

Whole Foods definitely uses human capital as a competitive advantage in multiple aspects of the company business model. Whole Foods built the foundation of their business model around quality, empowered employees. These employees are the key to the unique experience that defines the company and the source of their primary competitive advantage in the marketplace. This competitive advantage is framed around the concepts of human capital value, human capital rareness, and human capital imitability (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015). Whole Foods human capital value is represented by knowledgeable, capable employees empowered to champion the overall strategy of the company and make decisions at the lowest level to ensure a great product and customer experience (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015). Human capital rareness is demonstrated by the emphasis placed on sourcing, interviewing, and hiring practices. This ensures Whole Foods hires the unique employee that will champion the quality of their product line as well as the front-line face of the company to customers. Regarding human capital imitability, Whole Foods overall human capital focus and packaging makes a formidable task for competitors to replicate. From the overall compensation package, degree of employee input and interaction, benefits structure, bonus program, and overall company environment, Whole Foods ensures that sourcing and retention of employees provides a definite advantage (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015).

Whole Foods consistently uses human capital as a competitive advantage in multiple aspects of the company business model. Whole Foods built the foundation of their business model around quality, empowered employees. These employees are the key to the unique experience which defines the company and the source of their primary competitive advantage in the marketplace. This competitive advantage is framed around the concepts of human capital value, human capital rareness, and human capital imitability (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015). Whole Foods human capital value is represented by knowledgeable, capable employees empowered to champion the overall strategy of the company and make decisions at the lowest level to ensure a great product and customer experience (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015). Human capital rareness is demonstrated by the emphasis placed on sourcing, interviewing, and hiring practices. This ensures Whole Foods hires the unique employee that will champion the quality of their product line as well as the front-line face of the company to customers. Regarding human capital imitability, Whole Foods overall human capital focus and packaging makes a formidable task for competitors to replicate. From the overall compensation package, degree of employee input and interaction, benefits structure, bonus program, and overall company environment, Whole Foods ensures that sourcing and retention of employees provides a definite advantage (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2015).

1.A new grocery store is being erected which will demolish a neighborhood basketball court. Who would be some internal stakeholders? Who would be some external stakeholders?

Whole Foods designs its teams to serve the goals of the organization. At Whole Foods, "the team, not the hierarchy, is the defining unit of activity. Each of the 43 stores is an autonomous profit center composed of an average of 10 self-managed teams produce, grocery, prepared foods, and so on with designated leaders and clear performance targets. The team leaders in each store are a team; store leaders in each region are a team; the company's six regional presidents are a team" (Fishman 1996). The emphasis on quality and specialty foods is reinforced by segmentation according to function, allowing different units to establish expertise and is designed to encourage specialization. Each team has a set of distinct performance goals which encourages specificity and focus. It also creates the ability for teams to fulfill short-term goals germane to their team efforts. This boosts morale, versus only focusing on the big picture

When entering a grocery store, most people don’t take the time to stop and observe their surroundings, for their soul purpose at that instant is to purchase what very food they may need for that day or maybe even for that week. However, through all the haste of wanting to go in and out of grocery stores as fast as one can, most are unaware of the very culture that they too are now apart of, the interactions, both verbal and through people’s body language that they are experiencing, how people look and dress, even what is considered appropriate behavior although not specifically written down. Culture is all around us, and we all contribute to it, whether it is through our norms, values, symbols, or mental maps of reality (Guest 2014, 38-43). That is why through this assignment, I took the time to observe the culture experienced in the American grocery store Stater Brothers, the ethnical Filipino grocery store Seafood City, while also taking the time to reflect on my own personal views of what I thought was “normal” through my experience working in Northgate Gonzalez Market, a Mexican grocery store for three years.

Teamwork is important factor, because without social capital an employee will not become a benefit to the company. Whole Foods offer human capital because of the shared knowledge due to training and other qualifications that begin with the hiring process (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). Managers that are selected with potential value to operate very functional is a quality that Whole Foods possess. These are all valuable factors when considering employment at Whole Foods. Overall Whole Foods offer that level of employee satisfaction that is very motivating and compelling to be a part

People can be separated in two categories, which are employees and customers. Whole Foods gives many benefits to its employees. Whole Foods Market creates an equal and honest work environment, which inspirit empowerment, collaboration and creativity, and team members gave 80 percent of vote on the benefits that company provides to them (Whole Foods Market, 2015). 72 percent of employees at Whole Foods Market tell that their bosses almost always act with their care and honesty, also Whole Foods Market accepts and provides an equal employment opportunity to all jobs applicants without considers on genders, colors, religious, and other status (“Whole Foods Market”, 2015). Furthermore, Whole Foods Market supports its employees to submit their ideas (Tkaczyk, 2011). The employees say that they have a free exchange of the ideas and information within the organization (Great place to work, 2015). Also, Whole Foods Market is the 47th of the America’s best employers (Forbes, 2015). However, Whole Foods Market has the negative effects to customers and its employees. Whole Foods Market has disregarded the requirement of shareholders for the information on using of the toxic chemicals on the products, and its shareholders were asked to vote against the report about toxic chemicals in its products (Bluejay, 2013). As claimed by Bill Marler, 5 people had to go to hospital because of eating E.coli contaminated beef from Whole Foods Market in 2008 (Bluejay, 2013). Also, Whole Foods Market sold fish that are toxic in mercury, and one customer’s blood levels needed to report to the Centre of Disease Control (Bluejay, 2013). Much of Whole Foods Market’s frozen fruits and vegetables come from China where organic foods are unregulated, besides, a government does not check to make sure that they are used in the organic methods (Bluejay, 2013). Moreover, Many people criticized Whole Foods Market for keeping

They are a great company because they care about the needs of their employees and believe achieving unity of vision about the future of the company by building trust and aim to cultivate a strong sense of community and dedication to the company. The Whole Foods Markets has many opportunities for growth, but they ask team members to take responsibility for their own

Have you thought about getting involved with a co-op for you groceries? A co-op is a great solution as a way to save money when you need to stock up on groceries. You will find there is a greater selection of items than you can find at a grocery store. This is why you need to order from a bulk co-op.

After reading the case study and researching Whole Foods on their website, I would most definitely enjoy working for Whole Foods. The working environment that is available to employees is quite close to the one where I presently work. What most appeals to me as an employee is the ability to voice my opinions on how we could do things better or ways to save money without taking away from the customer service we provide our customers. Additionally, the company seems to care about the customer’s as well. Excellent customer service shown to the customers that come through the doors, as well as their suppliers and vendors, shows that they truly care about the product that they are providing for the consumer. Their customer service values will

Whole Foods Market began in 1970 as a local supermarket. Over the past 31 years, Whole Foods Market has grown from a single store in Austin, Texas, to becoming one of the worldwide leaders in providing consumers with natural and organic foods. They have grown to over 300 stores in both North America and the United Kingdom. (Whole Foods Market, Inc., 2011) This report examines the chief elements of the strategy that Whole Foods Market has put into place. Also, it uses past financial data to provide an assessment of the condition of the company going forward. Those assessments include recommendations of future actions, along with concerns I have about the way the company is currently operating and some difficulties that may be on the way.