• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
History of Branding

History of Branding

History of Branding

  • Home
  • About
  • How To Brand
  • Contact Us
You are here: Home / Company History / History of Whole Foods Market

History of Whole Foods Market

February 17, 2007 by Chris Leave a Comment

Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas, when three local businessmen decided the natural foods industry was ready for a supermarket format. Our founders were John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, owners of Safer Way Natural Foods, and Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, owners of Clarksville Natural Grocery. The original Whole Foods Market opened in 1980 with a staff of only 19 people. It was an immediate success. At the time, there were less than half a dozen natural food supermarkets in the United States. We have grown by leaps and bounds since our first store opened.

Whole Food Company (WFC) opened its doors in New Orleans in October 1974. Its mission was to be a grocery store featuring good, wholesome food; not a “health food” store filled with pills and potions. Sales doubled each year for the first four years. By 1978, the store (only 1100 square feet) was doing more than $1 million per year. Success was fueled by a committed staff who were all stockholders in the company.

In 1981, WFC opened a larger store on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans. WFC became the largest outside customer of Texas Health Distributors, the wholesale division of Whole Foods Market. In May of 1988, the Esplanade store became the sixth Whole Foods Market. © 2007 Whole Foods Market.

Check Out These Related posts:

  1. History of Kellogg’s
  2. History of Frito-Lay
  3. History of GSK
  4. History of 7 Eleven

Filed Under: Company History

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Categories

  • Company History

Recent Posts

  • The History Of Skype
  • History of Burger King
  • History of Ray Ban
  • History of Starbucks
  • History of Gatorade

Copyright © 2021. History Of Branding. All Rights Reserved.

  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap