Whole Foods Market, Inc. is founded in 1980 as a small store in Austin, Texas, and is presently one of the world’s leaders in retailing natural and organic products, with 167 stores and 32,000 employees throughout United Kingdom and the North America. The company has appeared on Fortune’s “100 Best” list for eight consecutive years (Arthur). It is committed to enriching to enriching lives of all its stakeholders: customers, team members, shareholders, and the larger community.
The company measures its success by how well it meets the needs of these stakeholders. This includes for example, building strong relationships with its costumers, creating a system of local supply “webs” which include organic farmers, community groups, and natural healthcare suppliers. In 1996 Annual Stakeholders Report, Whole Foods Market describes its vision and core values:
Sixteen years ago, the founders of Whole Foods Market combined their love of good food and vision of right livelihood to create a one-stop shopping experience for natural foods in Austin, Texas, since that humble beginning, Whole Foods Market has grown into the nation’s largest chain of natural food supermarkets by offering our customers the very natural, organic, gourmet, and ethnic products available. Our wide array of high quality foods and our customer service provide a unique and gratifying shopping experience. Whole Foods Market’s commitment to its vision, values, and stakeholders has paid off.
Beginning with its first store in 1980, the company grew to 68 stores in seven regions and sales of $892 million in 1996. The company plans to have 100 stores across the US by the turn of the century (Abe, Dempsey and Bassett). Why Organic? Organic food is food grown, reared and manufactured in as ‘natural’ way as possible, with the minimum of artificial chemicals and processes. Many people today are more concerned than they used to be about food quality, the way animals are treated and what we are doing to the environment.
There are many advantages and a couple of disadvantages associated with organic foods. Advantages of organic foods are the following: the absence of chemicals, hormones and antibiotics make products safer to eat, and for farmers to work with; organic foods are free from harmful additives that often cause food allergies; it is of high quality that often taste better; the natural fertility of the soil improves; there is less chemical pollution or rivers; bees , butterflies, birds and wildlife are no longer poisoned by pesticides; and animals benefit by being in less intensive surroundings.
However, there are also disadvantages like their much expensive cost due to its production method, and its unavailability in all shops. Moreover, it is risky and costly to the farmers to re-equip farms to convert to organic methods (Booker). Conclusion Whole Foods Market is one of the most successful business establishments in implementing organic food products in the market and is indeed has a very impressive performance since the beginning. Its mission to serve the people with quality, and healthy organic products makes its way to having a healthy community.
Though there are a few disadvantages with organic food products, its advantages are way more important. As for its expensive cost, eventually, when people get to know the great benefits they could have in organic products, then more business establishments like Whole Foods Market would arise. In account, more and more people would patronize organic products, and then would make the product cheaper in the market.
Organic foods are grown using traditional methods of farming, without artificial fertilizers, pesticides or intensive growing systems. As such, farmers would spend less for the fertilizers, etc and would just focus on how to make the crops grow healthy. Whole Foods Market has clearly shown that running an ethical business is no barrier to making good profits.
References: Abe, Joseph Michael, Partiicia Elizabeth Dempsey, and David Allen Bassett. Business Ecology: Giving Your Organization the Natural Edge. Boston, Massachusetts: Elsevier, 1998. Arthur, Diane. Recruiting, Interviewing, Selecting & Orienting New Employees. Fourth ed. Washington DC: Amacom – American Management Association, 2005. Booker, Julie. Food Technology. London: Nelson Thornes, 2004.