Whole Foods Market Case Essay

John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, the co-founders of the current Whole Foods Market, simply wanted to provide quality healthy food to the American consumer. This was about three decades ago when the first store opened. According to Mackey, making money was not the first priory, but helping people to eat better was. Happily for Mackey and Lawson, the residents of Austin Texas were hungry, no pun intended, for just this type of product. At the time, though there were several small independent healthy food stores, there was not a full sized grocery store. This is what set Mackey and Lawson apart from their competitors, their enormous sized health food grocery store was a huge success and now Whole Foods Market (WFM) is not only a

Whole foods strategy consists of high margins on premium and natural foods. They also offer a wide variety of prepared foods for affluent buyers. Managers are given freedom to stock their stores based on local tastes. Mackey also opposed the idea of unions because of their parasitic existence.

It was a huge hit because there are less than six organic grocery stores in the nation. Knowing his vision well, John Mackey, the main founder put his dream into action. He used his ability as a connector, someone who has broad social network, to integrate others people’s ideas. Soon, expansion came to place starting from Dallas to New Orleans. In order to guarantee each store’s success, he did thorough research on social class, eating habit, and supply and demand. He took his action deliberately.

On averaged their stores are roughly 38,000 square feet and their locations typically carried 21,000 SKUs. They make two-thirds of its revenue by selling bakery, perishable items, and prepared foods. (Ager & Roberto, 2014). Peoples tend to shop at Whole Food Market because of their high-quality natural and organic food. In today’s world peoples are more concern about health concise and effect of pesticide products, more people choose to have organic fruits and vegetables. Whole Foods get most of their produces from local people which are natural and organic, which will help them gain more customer than other company because of increasing demand of organic food (Whole Foods Market History, n.d). They also have a strong brand image and they were the first supermarket who commit to completely eliminating disposable plastic grocery bags to help protect the environment. They also sell many USDA-certified organic

Whole Foods has to pay close attention to its remote, industry, and operating environments to make sure that they choose the best directions and actions available for its organizational structure and internal processes.

Number Eleven: When it comes to management, whole foods has a dynamic and quite unusual method. Wholefoods has an open-salary method; this means everyone working in whole foods knows what everyone gets paid. No secrets! This means that ANY employee can look up ANY other workers pay, including that of the CEO. This policy was implemented to encourage both competition and discussion within the company, to boost productivity.

Whole Foods Market was founded by John Mackey as a healthy, socially responsible lifestyle that customers can identify with (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p 29-1). The company differentiated itself from competitors by focusing on quality as excellence and innovation that allows them to charge premium price for premium products (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p 29-1).

Whole Foods Market, Inc. has long been admired as an innovative company with quality standards, a devotion to community and environmental responsiveness, a healthy growth model and highly-regarded employment practices. However, the company has faced recent difficulties as a result of the economic recession, increasing competition, and complications from acquisitions. To revitalize the company from historical lows in its toughest year in history, Whole Foods Market must reassess its costs, refocus its expansion strategies, and promote its brand to compete for the diminishing consumer spending dollar.

Each location is responsible for its own network and distribution. All products are sourced locally. WFM caters to the needs of its local market. WFM uses a team approach—each store is a team, each department within a store is a team, and each employee is a member of a team. Each location is responsible for their critical decision making, marketing activities and training of employees. WFM is certified organic and believes that it can cultivate customer loyalty by emphasizing the benefits of organic foods. Whole Foods Market is profit oriented—operating under the belief that everyone benefits from profits—team members profit from employment opportunities, customers profit by the in-store experience that profits provide, and shareholders enjoy large dividends derived from company revenue. Whole Foods feels that its customers know the value of its products; therefore the retailer is not focused on lowering prices to increase its competitive advantage. WFM relies on buzz marketing generated by its customers. (The Winning Ways of Whole Foods,

John Mackey, co-founder of Whole Foods, along with Rene Lawson Hardy, Craig Weller, and Mark Skiles opened the first store in Austin, Texas in 1980. Mackey’s passion, philosophies, and belief that individuals should have healthy eating habits and healthy foods was the driving force behind opening the Whole Foods chain of stores. Although Mackey has been noted and criticized as being very outspoken when it pertains to health issues, one of his firm belief’s is that,

If you were to ask people if they enjoy going to work on Monday, I am sure most of them would give you a funny look, and say “No”. Americans dislike of their jobs is very evident. To see the magnitude of this just look on social media. On Fridays, there are vast amounts of thank god it’s Friday (TGIF) memes indicating how happy they are that they are done with work for the week. Many American simply do not enjoy working. However, a select few actually do. They enjoy their jobs and their co-workers. Sure, they may be far and few between, but if you ask one of the 54,000 Whole Foods Markets employees you are sure to get a “Yes”. If fact, not only does Whole Foods Markets employees enjoy their work, their company is one of the top 100 companies to work for according to Fortune.com. What is so special about Whole Foods Market that their employees actually enjoy their jobs, and what is makes them different from all the other companies out there?

This case involves a mid-sized, regional grocery store chain called Reed Supermarkets. Reed has 192 retail stores, two regional distribution centers and 21,000 employees in five states in the Midwest of the United States. This case discusses Reed’s market strategy for the Columbus, Ohio, market in particular, which is one of Reed’s largest markets. The Columbus market has grown slightly over the past five years, while Reed’s market share has dwindled slightly in the market. Reed has watched their market share stagnate with the entrance of new competitors (10% growth in stores) and a dramatic shift in customer preferences to value or

Given the statements from John Mackey, it is his vision to create a positive working environment and Theory Y plays somewhat of a role at Whole Foods. Although Whole Foods wants to

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 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.