Whole Foods Market Inc: Company Analysis

Whole Foods Market’s first retail location was in Austin, Texas. Today there are 342 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The growth of this health conscious conglomerate happened over the years by strategic acquisitions of profitable independent stores throughout United States. Mackey’s idealism and respect is exhibited in his openness about the contributions of these retailers to the success of WFM, as the website provides an in depth summary of each acquisition and its contribution to promoting healthier food choices (Whole Foods Market History, 2014). After four years in Austin, Texas WFM branched out into the city of Houston when it purchased the Whole Foods Company, and shortly after, on the west coast, a new store was built in Palo Alto, California. Subsequently WFM began aggressive acquisitions over the next few years, which help to accelerate the growth rate of WFM in other geographical locations. In 2002 WFM opened in Canada and in 2004 through the acquisition of United Kingdom’s grocery chain Fresh & Wild, it opened seven stores. Holistic eating is a worldwide affair that WFM is taking advantage

John Mackey, founder and CEO, considerers that Whole Foods Market fast growing in the market has much to do with the preferential and distinctively mission with the selective products that they sell. Mackey’s vision was for Whole Foods to become a global

Whole Foods Market has prided itself in the selection of the products it sells and uses by quality, taste, value, and production processes strengthening their business further. They have carried out this key strategy by tasting every product before they purchased them, sourcing from local, organic farmers, requiring livestock and seafood items from farmers to be raised humanely and raised on pasturelands, well water, wholesome grains, and not use steroids, hormones or byproducts. Keeping products at high quality, great taste, comparable prices, and environmentally friendly will allow repeat customers and word-of-mouth advertising to increase the value of Whole Foods Market. (Thompson, 2012)

Whole Foods is a retailer that specializes in organic foods and it has done an excellent job of determining its target market and how to position itself. Instead of going head to head with large food retailers such as Wal-Mart, Whole Foods has found a niche market that works perfectly for itself. This niche market is one that prides itself on being health conscious and environmentally responsible and Whole Foods has done a great job of positioning itself in the same way through its environmentally safe actions and its use of the local community to stock its stores. However, as Whole Foods grows and expands, a person has to wonder if the company will be able to maintain this same position or will have to make

Whole Foods Market Inc. is a popular retail destination for natural and organic foods and byproducts, since its establishment in 1980 by four local businesspeople in Austin, Texas. It is notable for supporting sustainable agriculture, promoting the reduction of waste and consumption of nonrenewable resources and encouraging environmentally safe cleaning and store-maintenance programs. The company showcases its ethics and social responsibility through its green mission, foundations, and Whole Trade Guarantee.

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).

The first Whole Foods was hardly a small market. It was a 10,500 square foot supermarket with only nineteen employees. And although it wasn’t the first natural food supermarket, the threesome found instant success. Their stores not only included the typical natural food fare such as organic fruits and

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,

There are several factors that appeal to me for working at Whole Foods. In doing my research about the Whole Foods Market and John Mackey I learned a lot such as how it was established, and the history of John Mackey as well. In today's era it is very rare to find an employer who has a genuine concern with his employees, giving back to charities, and the community. I feel it is heartwarming to know that Mackey set-up a fund for his employees if they were going through personal issues and needed monies. He gave money to charities, and got to a point in his career that he no longer saw it as a profit to himself. He also promotes growth and encourages his employees to push for higher expectations. I would most definitely work for this company

1.2 Executive Summary Whole Foods Market opened its doors in 1980 in the city of Austin Texas. The idea was clear Whole Foods Market wanted to sell natural and organic products, and with only 19 people working for Whole Foods Market, they were launched into the adventure of opened a supermarket focusing only on natural products regardless of price. One of the main reasons for Whole Foods Market is to have the best supermarkets, with the widest range of organic and natural products, while the goal is to have international presence as a brand in the natural products of higher quality. In a short time the chain of Whole Foods Market has had a most important growth in the supermarket industry in terms of natural and organic products.

1.2 Executive Summary Whole Foods Market, Inc. is been respected as a pioneering company for their quality values, a commitment to community and eco-friendly awareness, a healthy growing model and widely admired employment performs. Nevertheless, the business has confronted current problems as a consequence of the economic recession, growing competition, and difficulties from acquisitions. To renew the company from past lows in its hardest year in history, Whole Foods Market must reconsider its expenses, relocate its development strategies, and encourage its brand to participate for the falling customer spending dollar. Throughout the fluctuations in strategic initiatives it’s imperative for the business to preserve Whole Foods Market’s core values and its brand image integral.

The reasons why the Whole Foods Market has grown over the years is that it has a very ambidextrous organizational structure, wherein it imbibes both mechanistic and organic structures. As the CEO of the company points out that, the store workers do not have to wait for their managers to make the decisions

This vision has been implemented through component strategies such as store growth, product line and merchandising, pricing, store operations, cost containment, social responsibility, supplier integration and sustained financial. To be considered a winning strategy it must “fit” the organization. This means meeting performance targets both financially and from a market position while enabling a sustainable competitive advantage (Thompson et al., 2012).

Whole Foods Market has expanded by a mixture of opening its own new stores and acquiring already existing stores. Today WFM does not follow this strategy, instead their motivation is to open its own large stores. This is due to noticeable sales differences in larger stores as opposed to smaller stores. WFM locates these newer stores in upscale areas of urban metropolitan centers and high-traffic shopping locations. Not all WFMs are isolated structures; some are located in strip malls. WFM offers a larger selection of natural and organic foods than any other grocery store. WFMs marketing expenditure is extremely small. They spend a measly 0.5% of their revenues on advertising. Their chief marketing strategy relies on word-of-mouth. WFM strives to meet or exceed customer expectations. This is so customers receive competent, knowledgeable, and friendly service and become advocates of WFM. The employees here have a decentralized team approach for store operations. This is so some personnel, merchandising, and operating

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.