Article on Whole Foods

[Dirty Martini]

I love "Fast Company" magazine & wanted to share this excellent article on Whole Foods & its corporate strategies.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/84/wholefoods.html

:up:

amy

[Frost]

I love "Fast Company" magazine & wanted to share this excellent article on Whole Foods & its corporate strategies.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/84/wholefoods.html

:up:

amy

I agree great article. I had Fresh Fields near where I worked, the only thing that changed was the sign when Whole Foods bought them out.

Whole Foods is also a public company so you can buy stocks in them. It started out years ago around the $20 range its about 3X that now per share.

[thebelovedtree]

That made me really really want a Whole Foods :(

[Frost]

That made me really really want a Whole Foods :(

Have you checked the whole foods web site? they have a store locator thing you can check. Maybe there is one at least in your state.

[catgirl67]

There are Whole Foods in so many states! Check the store locator like "Frost" suggested. You may be surprised.

I am one of the lucky ones. I live in Houston, and we have several Whole Foods, because it's based out of Austin. One of them is in walking distance from my house! I really lucked out there!

[vegfan]

I love whole foods, but what do you guys think of trader joes, and which is better for what? I usually get all my produce at WF and other items at TJ that are not as expensive.

[SallyK]

I was so impressed with John Mackey in this article and the article about him in VegNews recently. But I was confused by this (and it was not mentioned in VegNews):


He's now a vegan, on the principle that all food causes harm to the animals that produce it. He does eat eggs produced by the chickens that he and his wife raise on their Texas farm "because I know those chickens are happy. They live in chicken heaven."

I just love Whole Foods though. It is always a pleasant experience to shop there. I was just there this afternoon. :lovesign: :smitten: It sounds like it's a cool place to work, which is great!

[sweetashoney]

I'm not trying to be a negative nancy here, but don't you guys think its really just an overpriced grocery store? Most of the stuff I find there I can get in my home town grocery store or health food store for $3-$5 cheaper. I do like how clean everything is and the brown bags with handles are awesome, but personally I think its over-rated. JMHO~

[Walter]

Naturally, that article made it seem a bit shinier than it is. In the end, it is just a grocery store.

I think they gave the person who wrote that article one of the rule books because some of the things in that article don't exist anymore (like the 20 hours for community service a year) or is far too simplified (stores ordering whatever products they want.)

There are unpleasantries that are not mentioned such as the turnover rate which is very high. Just how long can a person be a cashier?

In the end, that article was pretty good, but there's one thing I want to clarify. It makes it seem like individual stores get a lot of control about what goes on in that store. This was more true in the past, but in my opinion, is becoming less true each year. While the "store team leader" can make pretty much any decisions he wants to, there are plenty of rules that simply cannot be broken.

For instance, there is a list of several hundred ingrediants that are banned from Whole Foods (preservatives, colorings, MSG, etc) and you will never find a product with one of those ingrediants no matter how many store team leaders want them in their stores (this is good, in my opinion) but at the same time if you clock in 7 minutes late 9 times in one year, you're fired. It's a very simple rule and there are no store team leaders who can change that. Not even if the person doing the punching runs a department. See ya. (I'm obviously disgruntled over seeing at least a dozen of the best workers fired because they were 7 minutes late.)

I'm torn working for them because I'm rather anticorporate, but I recognize that if I'm going to work for a corporation they're probably one of the best ones to work for.

[rincaro]

there are some things i used to get at trader joe's that i can't get here unless i go to the overpriced health food store. i've never been to a whole foods. and there is *not* one close to me. i checked. feh.

[epski]

My Whole Foods locations are less expensive than a "regular" grocery store only 1 block away from my apartment, and less expensive than the other "regular" grocery store I used to shop at.

Trader Joes has a much smaller selection, and you can't count on stuff being there. I go to the store with a list, and I expect certain items to be in stock, not just when they get a good deal. So, cheaper yes, better no.

[SallyK]

My Whole Foods locations are less expensive than a "regular" grocery store only 1 block away from my apartment, and less expensive than the other "regular" grocery store I used to shop at.

Trader Joes has a much smaller selection, and you can't count on stuff being there. I go to the store with a list, and I expect certain items to be in stock, not just when they get a good deal. So, cheaper yes, better no.

Agreed. Whole Foods is where I shop when I want to save money. Health foods in the conventional grocery stores around here are much more expensive. I can get them much cheaper if I make the trip to Whole Foods.

[MoSpinach]

Wow, that is an awesome article. I already shop there regularly, but now I will for as many things as possible that I need. I hope there is one near my college campus.

[Walter]

I'm not trying to be a negative nancy here, but don't you guys think its really just an overpriced grocery store? Most of the stuff I find there I can get in my home town grocery store or health food store for $3-$5 cheaper.
Well, I don't want to sound like a negative nancy either, but what on earth are buying that Whole Foods sells for three to five dollars more?

I agree that some things in Whole Foods can be expensive, definitely, but I also think you can shop there for cheaper than probably any other grocery store if you're dedicated. I've absolutely seen customers shop for items almost entirely from produce and the bulk section (along with 365 items throughout the store) and completely fill their entire basket for $100. Do you know how long one of those nice paper bags with handles filled with dried rice and beans can last you? :surprised

I'll tell you though, that basket cart will go far over $100 if they start throwing in pounds of prosciutto and fancy cheeses from France.

I also want to point out that I think the prices at Whole Foods are more aligned with a true economy. You have to ask yourself "why are the prices lower at regular grocery stores?" It has a lot to do with the fact that they pay their employees minimum wage (or slightly higher a dollar or more) and at Whole Foods employees get a livable wage. Cashiers start around $8 but can start as high as $12 in places like San Francisco and New York City and cap at $15 an hour. Also don't forget that conventional stores' foods are often filled with preservatives. At Whole Foods there isn't a single unnatural preservative in the entire store. Everything in the bakery is new each day for example.

From all my thinking, I think the only way they could lower their prices in general (certain items are overpriced, but that's another post, another day) is if they stopped building new stores. They could take the profit that they use to build new stores and instead give it back to the customers in the way of lower prices, but what sense does that make for a company that's doing so well as it is?

[Walter]

I was so impressed with John Mackey in this article and the article about him in VegNews recently. But I was confused by this (and it was not mentioned in VegNews):

Quote:
He's now a vegan, on the principle that all food causes harm to the animals that produce it. He does eat eggs produced by the chickens that he and his wife raise on their Texas farm "because I know those chickens are happy. They live in chicken heaven."

I agree, it's a bit confusing, but I'm not unnerved by it at all.

If the only time he ever ate nonvegan food was the eggs that were laid in his very back yard then I would gladly argue that his diet wasn't entirely vegan, but that he himself was. He is still as removed from causing harm to animals as the rest of us.

If he ate eggs whenever he left the house, in random party's cakes and such, then no, I wouldn't say he's vegan, but I don't think that's the case.