Saferway Business Ethics

Once named SaferWay as a spoof on Safeway, Whole Foods was started in 1978 by two entrepreneurs in their twenties. John Mackey and his then-girlfriend Rene Lawson Hardy used a $45,000 loan to open a store in Austin, Texas selling natural foods in hopes of helping people live better. It didn’t come without challenges. They were kicked out of their apartment for storing food products and was forced to use the store as a residence. After two years they merged SaferWay with Clarksville Natural Grocery and named the newly merged company Whole Foods Market. Another challenge arose less than a year after the merge. The store’s inventory was wiped out when a flood hit the Austin area. With $400,000 in damages and no insurance this devastating event

Then in 1988, a New Orleans store was acquired, followed by one in Palo Alto, California that following year. This growth continued during the 1990’s with over a dozen mergers of smaller natural groceries stores across the nation and the success continued into the early twenty-first century with John Mackey still at the reins, leading the company as CEO.

Challenges grew as well with Whole Foods involvement in several issues related to Business Ethics, including unethical decisions, careless handling of relationships among rivals, complaints of violating anti-trust laws, and controversial activity by the CEO. In addition to Whole Food’s products being considered too expensive, they were also criticized for their acquisitions of small community grocery stores. Numerous residents did not want their stores bought out or closed down, they worried about the impact on the smaller

In an article written by Mackey, he criticized President Obama’s universal health care plan and claimed, “Healthcare is a privilege not a right,” which angered the health care supporters and caused some consumers to boycott. Mackey has also publicly implied that unions “create an adversarial relationship in the workplace.” Some have accused Whole Foods of union-busting by using threats of reprisals if employees join a union, but Mackey insist their managers have no alternative other than allowing employees to unionize if they