Whole Foods Market, Inc. 550 Bowie Street Austin, TX 78703 Contact: Cathy Cochran-Lewis Cathy.CochranLewis@wholefoods.com 512-542-0380
Immediate Release
Whole Foods roller coaster success Whole Foods Market was created with the concept that our nation was ready for the natural food industry to invade the grocery store world. In 1978, John Mackey and his girlfriend Renee Lawson borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to start their own natural grocery store called Saferway in Austin, Texas. Two years later, Mackey and Lawson partnered with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to merge Saferway with Clarksville Natural Grocery officially creating Whole Foods Market. On Sept. 20, 1980, Whole Foods opened its first store in Austin with 12,500 square feet and only 19 staff. Since then, Whole Foods has grown astronomically. First, in 1980 with one store in Austin, to today 270 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. Now they have stores in Atlanta, Detroit, Seattle, Hawaii and even West London, etc. Secondly, Whole Foods has grown from 19 employees to now 54,000 employees all over. Fortune Magazine ranked Whole Foods the number 16th of 50 “Best Companies to Work For� in 2007. -more-