Markets on the East Coast and in the Midwest, Florida Bread of Life stores, Detroit-area Merchant of Vino stores, and Nature’s Heartland of Boston. The company's 100th store was opened in Torrance, California, in 1999.

The Whole Foods headquarters in Austin, Texas, is located above its flagship store.The company started its third decade with additional acquisitions of Food for Thought in Northern California and Harry’s Farmers Market stores in Atlanta. In 2001, Whole Foods moved into Manhattan, generating interest from the media and financial industries. The year 2002 saw Whole Foods expand outside the United States when a store was opened in Toronto, Canada. Continuing its expansion, Select Fish of Seattle was acquired in 2003. In 2005, Whole Foods opened its 80,000-square-foot flagship store in downtown Austin. The company's headquarters moved into the offices above the store.citations neededWhole Foods' expansion has increased the need for products and processing plants. To help fuel this demand, the company added its 365 Everyday Value product line and purchased Allegro Coffee Company in 1997. Additionally, a seafood processing plant was opened in Atlanta in 2003, the same year Whole Foods became United States' first national "certified organic" grocer.

As of August 2007, Whole Foods Market plans four stores in the state of Hawaii. On O?ahu, two of these are in development in Honolulu, at Kahala Mall in Kahala and at Ward Village in Kaka?ako.Barack Obama referenced the price of arugula at Whole Foods in a speech in Iowa in Summer 2007, fueling charges of elitism towards the Presidential candidate. United Kingdom:In 2004, Whole Foods entered the United Kingdom with the acquisition of seven Fresh & Wild stores. In June 2007, it opened its first full-size store, a total of 80,000 sq. ft. on three levels, on the site of the old Barker’s department store in Kensington High Street, West London. According to company executives, as many as forty stores may eventually be opened throughout the United Kingdom. Acquisition of Wild Oats Markets, Inc.:On February 21, 2007, Whole Foods Market, Inc. and Wild Oats Markets Inc. announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which Whole Foods Market, Inc. would acquire Wild Oats Markets Inc.

’s outstanding common stock in a cash tender offer of $18.50 per share, or approximately $565 million based on fully diluted shares. Under the agreement, Whole Foods Market, Inc. would also assume Wild Oats Markets Inc.'s existing net debt totaling approximately $106 million as reported on September 30, 2006.On June 27, 2007, the Federal Trade Commission issued an administrative complaint challenging Whole Foods Market, Inc.’s acquisition of Wild Oats Markets Inc. According to the complaint, the FTC believed that the proposed transaction would violate federal antitrust laws by eliminating the substantial competition between the two uniquely close competitors in the operation of premium natural and organic supermarkets nationwide. The FTC contended that if the transaction were to proceed Whole Foods would have the ability to raise prices and reduce quality and services. Both Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats stated their intention to vigorously oppose the FTC’s complaint and a court hearing on the issue was scheduled for July 31 and August 1, 2007.
 

Whole Foods Market

Whole Foods Market (NASDAQ: WFMI) is an Austin, Texas-based foods grocer. As of September 2007, the company operates over 27 locations in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.Whole Foods Market is a food retailer of "natural" and organic products including produce, seafood, grocery, meat and poultry, bakery, prepared foods and catering, beer, wine, cheese, whole body, floral, pet products, and household products. The company also sells a selection of conventional national brands. The company is consistently ranked among the most socially responsible businesses and recently placed second on the US Environmental Protection Agency's list of Top 25 Green Power Partners. History: Early years:In 1978, twenty-five-year-old college dropout John Mackey and Rene Lawson, his twenty-one-year-old girlfriend, borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open the doors of a small natural foods store called SaferWay in Austin, Texas (the name being a spoof of Safeway, which operated stores under its own name in Austin at that time).

When the couple was evicted from their apartment for storing food products in it, they decided to simply live at the store. Because it was zoned only for commercial use, there was no shower stall. Instead, they bathed in their Hobart dishwasher, which had an attached water hose.Two years later, John Mackey 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 12,500 square feet and with a staff of 19, the 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 assisted in order to help the store recover, and it re-opened only 28 days after the flood. Expansion: A popular Whole Foods is located in Union Square in New York CityBeginning in 1984, Whole Foods began its expansion out of Austin, first to Houston and Dallas and then into New Orleans with the purchase of Whole Foods Company in 1988. In 1989, the company expanded to the West Coast with a store in Palo Alto, California. While opening new stores, the company fueled rapid growth by acquiring other natural foods chains throughout the 1990s: Wellspring Grocery of North Carolina, Bread & Circus of Massachusetts and Rhode Island (banner retired in 2003), Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Foods Markets of Los Angeles, Bread of Life of Northern California, Fresh Fields