Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM) is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of Top 25 Green Power Partners.
In 1978, 25-year-old college dropout John Mackey and his 21-year-old girlfriend Rene Lawson, borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open...
More
Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFM) is a foods supermarket chain based in Austin, Texas which emphasizes "natural and organic products." The company has been ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and placed third on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's list of Top 25 Green Power Partners.
In 1978, 25-year-old college dropout John Mackey and his 21-year-old girlfriend Rene Lawson, borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open a small natural foods store called SaferWay in Austin, Texas (the name being a spoof of Safeway). When the couple were evicted from their apartment for storing food products in it, they decided to live at the store. Because it was zoned for commercial use, there was no shower stall, so they bathed using a water hose attached to their dishwasher.
Two years later, John Mackey partnered with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to merge SaferWay with their Clarksville Natural Grocery, resulting in the opening of the original Whole Foods Market on...
Less
