Whole Foods Market is an upscale grocery store of immense popularity based out of Austin, Texas. It is known for its high quality products as well as its concept of four tenets: higher purpose and core values, stakeholder integration, conscious leadership, and conscious culture and management. It is also a company known for its originality and unique take on its approach to caring for its employees as well as its customers. This combination of attributes has resulted in an organization which is highly profitable and considered a substantially beneficial company for which to work and in which to invest. The remarkable approach that Whole Foods Market utilizes in juxtaposition with their various competitors lies in the fact that they embrace the various locales and culture in which their locations exist. Each individual store’s policies are therefore instituted (and left up to) the team members, and the various stores, as well as store regions. All are functioning within their own degree of location-based autonomy. An extremely important belief of Whole Foods Market is the concept of “Higher Purpose,” meaning that instead of simply operating to make …show more content…
At that time it was not the industry giant that it is today, and the co-owner John Mackey was afraid that it would not survive. Instead, there was a great outreach of community support, and many patrons who loved the store literally came down from their own homes (which suffered water damage) and mopped and scrubbed the floors and the walls (for free). His customers told him how much his grocery meant to them, and Mackey was so touched, he realized how important his store was to his patrons, and vowed to re-open it. He then knew what an important difference his little store was making in peoples’ lives, and from there, Whole Foods Market became what it is