John+Mackey

__ Company Profile: __ John Mackey, the co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market, stated in an interview, "Whole Foods is his “child,” not just his creation. It has been an embodiment of his dreams and aberration, his discrepancies and trespasses."
 * __ CEO of Whole Foods; John Mackey __**

__ Education and Upbringing: __ John was born in Houston, Texas in 1953 he was a student of philosophy and religion at the University of Texas at Austin in the 1970s. While in college he worked at a vegetarian co-op. He eventually became a vegetarian and he now identifies himself as a vegan. He started off with his first store in the garage of his house in Austin Texas called Safer Way. He had dropped out of the university after working at the co-op. Around here, we often talk about our mission in terms of Whole Foods – Whole People – Whole Planet. Basically, we think these elements all play a huge role in our success. Whole Foods means it’s the highest quality food and the least processed, most flavorful and natural tasting foods. Whole people mean passionate workers that are also into eating healthy and into a healthy planet. Whole planet means helping take care of the world and they actively support organic farming and sustainable agriculture. They use recycled paper with a high percentage of post consumer waste. They also hold recycling drives for electronics. Whole Foods is a member of let’s move salad bars to school, an initiative to fund and grant 6000 salad bars in schools by 2013. There top three core values would include selling the highest quality natural and organic products available, satisfying their customers, and supporting team member happiness and excellence. Some quality standards evaluating each and every product they sell. Feature foods that are free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners, and hydrogenated fats. They are passionate about great tasting foods and sharing it with others. They only sell foods that are fresh, wholesome and safe to eat.

__ Starting a Business: __ The borrowed money and raised money to start the first vegetarian grocery store in all of Texas. He and his girlfriend ran the store. The two of them ran the first floor and the second floor which held a health food restaurant in which they later merged the two and named it Whole Foods. Back in 1980 Whole Foods started a store in Austin, Texas. Today they are the world’s leader in natural and organic foods. They are running more than 310 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. John MacKey states, "We seek out the finest natural and organic foods available, maintain the strictest quality standards in the industry, and have an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture."

__ Thoughts towards business: __ ”We had to... The wages were under competitive pressures, so there was all this competition on us that of course made operating the business successfully difficult. And it’s kind of like having to meet a payroll and having to meet the demands of our customers is a great destroyer of utopian fantasies and utopian ideologies. You’re in the real world and you have to meet the market test every day and every week.”

work cited [|http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/01/04/100104fa_fact_paumgarten#ixzz1bnsQmxHM] [] [] []