Whole Foods Market Is Responsible For Protection Of Human Health And The Environment

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

One of the biggest external environmental threats against Whole Foods is increases in domestic competition. At its inception Whole Foods was one of the only providers of organic foods. However now there are many rivals who have taken apart of this ever going interest in our society for better living. Stores such as Wal-Mart and Target have joined the bandwagon of providing their customers with organic foods. With many stores now offering organic foods this has put a dent in the availability of organic foods in other words has shorten the supply of organic foods to Whole Foods. Another external environmental threat was the economy. When the economy went down during the recession many people had to make tough choices when it came to their finances and one of the biggest things that were changed was the amount that they spent on groceries. Many people just simply deemed natural organic foods as being expensive and not a necessity. A major opportunity that Whole Foods have embraced was that during the recession Whole Foods recognized that they need to make adjustments decrease the overall prices. Another major opportunity that they need to embrace is marketing the necessity of whole organic foods. Letting people know that eating right is vital to

In Aug 2012, a Toronto Maple Leaf Foods (“the Company”) plant was confirmed as being involved in the outbreak of the food-borne illness, caused by the bacterium Listeria. A day later, Maple Leaf upgraded a precautionary recall of 23 of its products in previous week to all 220 packaged meats from the plant at the Bartor’s Road, which has been shut down. The company has estimated the recall will directly cost it at least $20 million, with further costs expected due to lost sales and reputation damage. Since the outbreak of Listeria bacterium, 22 people died and there were 57 total confirmed cases of illness caused by Listeria 1. Although the Listeria outbreak was described by the Company’s CEO as “the

The application also asks about raising practices, transportation of animals, slaughterhouse procedures, and conditions at the meat processing plants. The Whole Foods Market visits farms and ranches and sends independent, third-party auditors to check that the conditions described by the supplier are accurate. Once the suppliers are on board Whole Foods continues to monitor each supplier with annual audits. The customers buy from Whole Foods because they know how extensive the organic food products are and how strict the safety procedures are at Whole Foods. The supplier must also meet the criteria of slaughterhouses and meat processing plans. There are also food safety audits of the facilities which check the bacteria levels, safe equipment, the meat is processed through required sanitation baths and that the temperature logs are updated.

Kenner reported that companies found it more beneficial to keep diseased food on the shelves and pay out the law suits (25:15). It is crazy to me that companies would not want to spend the money to conserve the reputation and respect of their company, but would rather pay off the individuals who actually report a recall. The scariest thing is that, as consumers, we are not given any information and are not able to avoid chemically treated or processed foods (18:10). The antibiotic-treated chicken is sold without warning and E. coli exists within meats. As humans, we eat food for nourishment. What happens when the food we are eating acts as a poison to our

Besides being the first nationally organic certified grocer in America, Whole Foods has always been on a green mission. It was the first chief retailer to use wind energy to satisfy 100% of its energy requirement. Through the use of recycled materials and the usage reduction of the use of toxic gums and virgin materials, it strives for ecofriendly building techniques in construction of its stores. Some of its stores also evade the emission of 1,650 tons of CO2 by putting solar energy to use. Additionally, it supports farmers who exclude the use of toxic pesticides and

"A formal written Food Defense Plan has been developed and implemented (includes vulnerability assessment and broad and focused mitigations as appropriate based on risk; vulnerability assessment clearly covers key activity types such as bulk receiving/storage, mixing, and secondary ingredient handling etc.). Observation: The current approved Food Defense Plan is approved by Quality and this process does not include Site Director signoff at this time. The current approved plan does not cover key activity types/vulnerabilities with matched mitigation strategies. The site has a drafted Food Defense Plan using the FDA Plan Builder, currently unapproved.

Whole Foods, just like any other retailer right now, has been struggling with the economy. The external environment has been changing in uphill and downhill motions daily, something that Whole Foods has never experienced before. Not only is there pressure on the financials of the corporation, but also there is the pressure to go green.

In my opinion, One thing that stands out to me as far as factors the Whole Foods possessed is the fact that they continued to stay as close to their mission-based strategy as they originally planned. Whole Food states that “Our mission to bring healthier natural foods to the marketplace is with underserved communities that don’t have access to fresh food or have access to it in different ways.” Therefore, if Whole Foods catered to the more health conscious segment with natural, organic foods which they produce without chemicals, people from diverse backgrounds and segments can benefit for health reasons such as diabetes, cancer and other respiratory issues that may require patients to change their eating habits. Studies show that non pasteurized

When the Washington Post releases the finding from “Friends of the Earth” that Kraft Foods product labeled Taco Bell Originals taco shells contain “Cry9c” known as StarLink, Taco Bell Corporation will face a public perception that Taco Bell restaurants are serving or selling tinted food products. Less than one year ago (November 1999) Taco Bell Corporation lost some public confidence due to the E-coli outbreak from tainted ground meat. Our response during the November 1999 outbreak should be duplicated to assist with the public perception related to tainted products. While the restaurant products are separate from the home products, they will be linked by our Taco Bell branding. Our use of media outlets, phone banks, and websites should be used. Our legal team will need to begin its preliminary research into the subject for reports and recommendations before the press release. Senior executives from Kraft Foods are being contacted to begin planning a united response to the upcoming press

The food drug administration should become more hands on when it comes to the way that farmers and producers harvest there produce. “The food industry hires for-profit inspection companies-known as third-party auditors-who aren’t required by law to meet any federal standards and have no government supervision.”(Armour, Lippert and Smith p.2) The workers hired by food industries are not required by law to make their findings public. Most workers who find problems with the local produce stores and produce farmers are not reporting that there may or may not be diseases found in produce. The focus should be to help prevent anymore foodborne illness, educate the public, and create more technology that will protect the consumers.

Over the years Whole Foods Incorporated has faced a number of challenges when trying to adhere with its mission of stocking and retailing organic foods which contain no artificial flavors, sweeteners and colors. The major challenge has been how to increase revenues without stocking foods that contain less than 95% organic ingredients (Johnston & Szabo, 2011). The products that have been most affected have been cosmetics which are not regulated by the food and drugs administration board. In 2011 John Mackey the founding chief executive officer of the company admitted that the company had lost touch with its mission and had consequently stocked a bunch of goods that contained a higher percentage of inorganic ingredients. The United States Food

Nutritional Foods Inc., a company that manufactures healthful products, has a major problem to address. Some of the company's products are allegedly responsible for a number of acute food poisoning cases. The problem has escalated from just a few cases of food poisoning to dozens of other reported cases. The company's chief executive, Fred James, has convened an emergency meeting comprising of members of the Crisis Action Committee. The key agenda of the meeting is how the situation that is threatening to get out of hand should be handled.

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.