Background
Whole Foods was founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas by John Mackey, Rene Lawson Hardy, Craig Weller, and Mark Skiles with a staff of nineteen people. Currently run by John Mackey and Walter Robb, the company has grown to 402 stores, more than 87,000 employees, and has become the eighth largest food and drug store in the United States.[1] Whole Foods made $14.2 billion in 2014 and was ranked 218 on the fortune 500 list. The company carries over 2,600 natural and organic products and their own 365 Everyday Value and Whole Catch Brands.[2]
Whole Foods’ Responsibility to Shareholders
As one of the leaders in the food industry, Whole Foods has a strong policy to help their shareholders benefit from their earnings. They have a responsibility to produce profits and have fulfilled the expectations of their shareholders, despite a slight dip in the past two years.[3]
Whole Foods’ Responsibility to Consumers
Providing Quality Food
Providing quality produce has been the main goal of Whole Foods since the beginning. However, providing quality products at lower prices has never been their priority. Whole Foods has created many standards for organic and natural products that all of their food must meet in order to be sold in the store. Not all of the rules are cut and dry though, as Whole Foods sources food from China and other countries where many products are labeled organic without a third party verification system.[4] Additionally, Whole Foods doesn’t require their suppliers of fish to use turtle-safe nets.[5] There have also been instances where Whole Foods has not followed their own value of transparency, neglecting to label GMOs and toxic chemicals used on their products. In 2008, five people were hospitalized after eating beef that was contaminated with toxic chemicals that gave them E. Coli due to Whole Foods not recalling the beef after they discovered the problem.[6]
Although Whole Foods has its flaws, it has led the industry to new heights: promoting organic and natural foods, and strongly supporting the Fair Trade Movement, therefore increasing quality of produce through environmentally friendly practices and higher wages for farmers, forcing competitors to do the same.[7] Consequently, Whole Foods has developed a reputation for producing the best organic food, dramatically increasing its consumer base and allowing it to maintain higher prices.
Providing for Customers
Whole Foods works to create a pleasant experience within the store while teaching its customers more about organic and natural products. This comes from designing stores to be welcoming and hiring staff that can work collaboratively, successfully interact with customers, and know about each product or those in their specific area of expertise. This relies heavily on each store manager’s ability to evaluate potential candidates and then their work ethic after being hired. Whole Foods has been successful in creating a knowledgeable worker base.[8]
Whole Foods’ Responsibility to its Workers
While supposedly all of the farms where Whole Foods gets its food fit into the company’s requirement of producing organic food and treating workers fairly and paying at least minimum wage, this can mean very different things in different countries. Although workers at Whole Foods receive minimum wage or above, Whole Foods has a reputation for paying minimum wage while creating poor working conditions. Whole Foods is strictly anti-union and has shot down many attempts by workers to join together to improve working conditions. In 2006, when a group of truck drivers for Whole Foods decided to unionize, two of them were fired and the union was separated.[9] Whole Foods does however claim to support worker individuality and allows workers to wear piercings and show tattoos.
Supporting its Suppliers
Whole Foods seeks to support and create long lasting win-win relationships with its suppliers, which include both local and foreign farmers. The relationships are based on trust, transparency, creativity, and education. Each farm must meet a certain standard set by the store and of course the various laws set by its government. Whole Foods however does source food from places where high US agricultural standards do not apply.[10] Given the trusting nature of many of CSR agreements that involve self-reporting by farms and companies, it is easy for farmers and companies internationally to exclude some information in their reports. Whole Foods has not made a large effort to enforce standards with some of their suppliers in China for example, and when a particular slaughterhouse failed to pass one of Whole Food’s own tests, the comapny maintained a relationship with the slaughterhouse and it remained operational.[11]
Whole Foods has also failed to support many different movements by their suppliers, including a grape boycott by the United Farm Worker coalition. When representatives from the UFW tried to pass out fliers in Whole Foods, Whole Foods called the police and had them arrested. After being embarrassed publicly, this particular branch swore to join the grape boycott, but then moved their storefront location and later refused to join, claiming that the agreement only applied to the old location.[12]
Whole Foods’ Responsibility to its Community
Each store is tasked with the responsibility of donating 5% of their net sales to a charity in their local community.[13] Globally, Whole Foods has three different foundations: Whole Planet, Whole Kids, and Whole Cities. Whole Planet works towards the goal of creating stronger economies in third world countries and alleviating poverty; Whole Kids helps kids, teachers, and parents in school; and Whole Cities seeks to create healthy eating opportunities in underserved communities.[14]
Whole Kids is separated into four different categories: Healthy Fun for Families, the School Garden Grant Program, the School Salad Bar Program, and the Healthy Teachers program. Healthy Fun for Families provides free food and after school activities for families and teachers to help increase health awareness. The School Garden Grant Program helps create school gardens and has created 2,100 gardens in the US and Canada since 2011. The salad bar program creates salad bars in schools across the US (3,450 salad bars created) to give children a healthy option for lunch. The Healthy Teachers Program works to teach teachers about their health and to help them provide a good example for their students.[15]
Education is key to Whole Foods’ responsibility to their stakeholders and shareholders. They work to promote healthy eating and lives through many of the local and global programs (Whole Kids) and in their daily workspaces. In addition, their website contains many healthy recipes and other information on how to have a healthy lifestyle.[16]
One gap in Whole Foods’ image of offering healthy and responsibly-sourced food however is its high prices and the fact that only a select group of people can afford expensive produce.
Whole Foods’ Responsibility to the Environment
As a organic and natural food store, Whole Foods works with the most environmentally friendly farms and suppliers as possible.[17] By producing organic and natural foods they reduce the amount of toxic chemicals used by farmers and suppliers worldwide. Whole Foods also supports the reduction of waste of non-renewable products and recycling centers near store locations by participating in recycling projects in local communities. They are in the process of creating a new program called Gimme 5 Recycling, which would allow customers to bring in their own recycling to drop off at the stores. They also work to use less packaging and conserve water and electricity.[18]
Citations
1."Fast Facts," Whole Foods Market, accessed December 9, 2014, http://media.wholefoodsmarket.com/fast-facts/.
2. Ibid
3. "Whole Foods Market Inc.," CNN Money, accessed December 9, 2014, http://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=WFM.
4. Michael Bluejay, "Whole Foods Market: What's Wrong with Whole Foods?," Michael Bluejay (blog), accessed December 2, 2014, http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods.html.
5. Ibid
6. "Whole Foods E. coli cases Traced to Nebraska Beef Ltd., Meat?," Marler Blog, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.marlerblog.com/legal-cases/whole-foods-e-coli-cases-traced-to-nebraska-beef-ltd-meat/#.VIYye0tFMqc.
7. Sharon Smith, "What smells at Whole Foods?," Socialist Worker, last modified May 7, 2009, accessed December 9, 2014, http://socialistworker.org/2009/05/07/smells-at-whole-foods.
8. "WHY WE’RE A GREAT PLACE TO WORK," Whole Foods Market, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/careers/why-were-great-place-work.
9. Josh Harkinson, "Are Starbucks and Whole Foods Union Busters?," Mother Jones, last modified April 6, 2009, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/04/are-starbucks-and-whole-foods-union-busting.
10. Bluejay, "Whole Foods Market: What's," Michael Bluejay (blog).
11. Ibid
12. "Critical articles about Whole Foods Market," Michael Bluejay, accessed December 9, 2014, http://michaelbluejay.com/misc/wholefoods-articles.html#ufwarticle.
13. Whole Foods Market, accessed December 2, 2014, http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/values-matter.
14. Ibid
15. "WHOLE KIDS FOUNDATION," Whole Foods Market, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/caring-communities/whole-kids-foundation.
16. "WE PROMOTE THE HEALTH OF OUR STAKEHOLDERS THROUGH HEALTHY EATING EDUCATION," Whole Foods Market, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values/we-promote-health-our-stakeholders-through-healthy-eating-education.
17. "WE PRACTICE AND ADVANCE ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP," Whole Foods Market, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/mission-values/core-values/we-practice-and-advance-environmental-stewardship.
18. Paige Brady, "Gimme 5 Recycling," Whole Foods Market, last modified January 20, 2009, accessed December 9, 2014, http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blog/whole-story/gimme-5-recycling.
Funny video put together by Whole Foods to demonstrate their ability to go above and beyond.
An Introduction to Whole Foods and their attitude towards CSR by the CEO himself, John Mackey.
Video describing Whole Food's goals for the use of GMOs
One of the many educational videos on Whole Foods' website