This Whole Foods in Bellingham is not far from my condo in Providence and I was in the area…read morevisiting friends. The store itself feels a bit smaller than other ones I've been to, but the cleanliness and the staff are top notch.
I was looking for some beverages and they had a good selection of seltzer water, sodas and teas. I have always trusted their 365 private label brand, they do a great job on matching or exceeding the quality of national labels, great job, Whole Foods.
The story of this chain goes like this, in 1978, twenty-five-year-old college dropout John Mackey and twenty-one-year-old Renee Lawson (Hardy), borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open the doors of a small natural foods store called SaferWay in Austin, Texas. When the couple got booted out of their apartment for storing food products there, they decided to simply live at the store. Since it was zoned commercial, there was no shower stall. Instead, they bathed in the Hobart dishwasher, which had an attached water hose.
Two years later, John and Renee partnered with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to merge SaferWay with their Clarksville Natural Grocery, resulting in the opening of the original Whole Foods Market on September 20, 1980. At 10,500 square feet and a staff of 19, this store was quite large in comparison to the standard health food store of the time.
Less than a year later, on Memorial Day in 1981, the worst flood in 70 years devastated the city of Austin. Caught in the flood waters, the store's inventory was wiped out and most of the equipment was damaged. The losses were approximately $400,000 and Whole Foods Market had no insurance. Customers and neighbors voluntarily joined the staff to repair and clean up the damage. Creditors, vendors and investors all provided breathing room for the store to get back on its feet and it re-opened only 28 days after the flood.
Beginning in 1984, Whole Foods Market began its expansion out of Austin, first to Houston and Dallas and then into New Orleans with the purchase of Whole Food Company in 1988. In 1989, they expanded to the West Coast with a store in Palo Alto, California. While continuing to open new stores from the ground up, the company fueled rapid growth by acquiring other natural foods chains.
Amazon bought Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion on August 24, 2017. It was a much-talked about match that shook the world of retail. The deal saw an online powerhouse acquire a beloved organic grocer. It also marked a massive foray into the realm of brick-and-mortar grocery for Amazon.
So far, the venture seems to have been a good thing for both. Amazon Prime customers get weekly specials at Whole Foods and the grocery chain gets the stable financial backing of a mega technology giant.