Whole Foods Market 

3502 Mt Diablo Boulevard, Lafayette, California 94549, United States

Whole Foods Market Inc. is an American multinational chain of supermarkets headquartered in Austin , Texas, which exclusively sells products free of hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A USDA Certified Organic grocer in the United States, the chain is popularly known for its organic selection. Whole Foods has 500 stores in North America and seven stores in the United Kingdom as of 4 March 2019. On 23 August 2017, it was reported that a merger between Amazon and the Whole Foods Market had been approved by the Federal Trade Commission; the agreement was concluded on 28 August 2017.

In 1978, John Mackey and Renee Lawson borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open a small vegetarian natural food store called SaferWay in Austin , Texas (the name being Safeway spoof). When the two were expelled for storing food products in their apartment, they decided to live in the store. Because it was zoned for commercial use, there was no shower stall, so they were bathing with a water hose attached to their dishwasher.

Mackey and Lawson collaborated two years later with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to combine SaferWay with the Natural Supermarket of Clarksville, thereby opening the original Whole Foods Market, which includes meat products. At 10,500 square feet (980 m2) and with 19 employees, the store was large compared to the standard health food store of the time.

The most destructive flood in 70 years ravaged Austin on the following Memorial Day on 25 May 1981. The entire stock of Foods has been destroyed, and most equipment has been damaged. The loss was around $400,000, so no insurance was available in the Whole Food Market. The damage was fixed and remedied by consumers, neighbors and employees. Creditors, suppliers and creditors helped rebound, and 28 days later the store reopens.

Whole Foods Market only offers items that follow "real," self-create quality requirements, which the store describes as: minimally processed foodstuffs free of hydrogenated fats as well as artificial flavors , colors, sweeteners, preservatives etc. In fact, the Whole Food Market has stated the plan to sell meat or milk from or from cloned animals, also in the United States. They have been declared safe to eat by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

It also offers some USDA-certified organic foods and products which are ecologically and environmentally sound. Depending on the successful campaign by animal rights organizations, the stores do not ship foie gras or eggs from hens confined to cages of storage. Information on the company requirements for the selling of food, supplements and personal care items are given by the entire Food Industry Website.

Body care items sold on the Whole Foods Market will be advertised as organic by June 2011 since they contain ingredients that are illegal in organic foods and not approved by USDA. 'Organic shampoos and lotions manufactured by Avalon, Nature's Gate, Jason Natural Cosmetics, Kiss My Face, and other brands are products made from petroleum-oriented and other synthetic or chemical materials, forbidden in organically-produced products,' said Urvashi Rangan, Consumer Reports Environmental Scientist. Since cosmetics do not come within the scope of federal standards regulating organic food labels.

Since June 2011, the items of personal care sold in the Whole Foods market had to comply with the USDA Guidelines for the National Bio Food Program. The labeling of "organic" products had to contain approved biological components of 95 percent or more.