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Whole Foods Market, the national natural food supermarket chain that represents itself as supporting local communities, found itself under attack Wednesday when a large group of East Bay residents gathered outside its Emeryville headquarters vociferously protesting the company’s decision not to renew the lease of Ashby Flowers, a family-owned business that rents a small building in the corner of the parking lot at the company’s 3000 Telegraph Ave. location in Berkeley. In an interview with the Planet at his company’s regional headquarters Wednesday, Whole Foods Regional President David Lannon said that the company was not renewing the lease since it...

<p>A VICTORY FOR DEMOCRAT, BARACK OBAMA, and a Democratic-controlled congress could potentially benefit the supermarkets in our coverage universe, with Kroger (ticker: KR) standing to benefit the most. Impact on drugstores is less clear, although we see CVS Caremark (CVS) as a winner over Walgreen (WAG). Whole Foods Market (WFMI), on the other hand, could face additional wealth-destruction headwinds.</p>

You buy organic because it's better for you and the environment because the produce is grown without pesticides or other potentially-harmful chemicals. But what if those organic vegetables came from China? Would you serve them to your family? It turns out you may already have. I found packages of frozen organic veggies from China at many local grocery stores, including PCC Natural Markets and Whole Foods. Whole Foods, the country's leader in organics, sells a variety of frozen organic produce from China - peas, spinach, asparagus - under its "365 House" brand. People who buy organic expect something special, but...

Looking out his office window Tuesday, Mike Dailey spotted something hanging in a tree. It was a plastic shopping bag. "Maybe that's part of the problem," said Dailey, an engineer with the city of Madison and adviser to the city's Commission on the Environment. "They're out there blowing all over the place." Difficult for some cities to recycle and a trash collection nightmare, plastic bags have made it on the environmental hit list of some cities, and now retailers. Whole Foods on Tuesday announced that it would end use of plastic in all of its stores. Stores will deplete inventory...

Antitrust experts call the agency's effort a long shot. By Lori Hawkins AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, October 25, 2007 The Federal Trade Commission is making a last-ditch effort to unwind Whole Foods Market's purchase of its biggest rival, even though the deal is done. Despite losing a battle in a federal district court to block the deal in August, the FTC has not given up the fight. On Monday, the agency responded to a Whole Foods motion to formally dismiss the case with another filing. It said the appeal is still relevant and asked an appeals court in Washington to set...

SAN FRANCISCO, July 15 — On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog — or the chief executive of a Fortune 500 company. Or so thought John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods Market, who used a fictional identity on the Yahoo message boards for nearly eight years to assail competition and promote his supermarket chain’s stock, according to documents released last week by the Federal Trade Commission. In one Internet posting sure to enter the annals of chief-executive vanity, Mr. Mackey wrote as Rahodeb, “I like Mackey’s haircut. I think he looks cute!” ---- Successful executives like Mr....

In January 2005, someone using the name "Rahodeb" went online to a Yahoo stock-market forum and posted this opinion: No company would want to buy Wild Oats Markets Inc., a natural-foods grocer, at its price then of about $8 a share. "Would Whole Foods buy OATS?" Rahodeb asked, using Wild Oats' stock symbol. "Almost surely not at current prices. What would they gain? OATS locations are too small." Rahodeb speculated that Wild Oats eventually would be sold after sliding into bankruptcy or when its stock fell below $5. A month later, Rahodeb wrote that Wild Oats management "clearly doesn't know...

....In June, the Austin, Texas-based natural foods grocery chain said it would stop selling live lobsters and crabs — in the name of crustacean compassion. But it’s making an exception in Maine, a state synonymous with lobster

As Wal-Mart and other supermarket chains follow the high-end grocer's lead and promote local produce, farmers are becoming the new American idols After being pushed out of the spotlight for years, the local farmer is emerging as a new celebrity. From the foothills of Maine, through North Carolina in the South, the plains of Idaho, and the lush green valleys of California, a movement to celebrate the local farmer is sweeping the country. At the forefront of the movement has been supermarket Whole Foods (WFMI), which for years has put up photos of local farmers in its stores promoting their...

This is a great lesson in economics. I'm posting 2 things here. The first is from the Whole Foods website describing their "core values." It says they will always maintain these core values, regardless of the time, the situation, the person, or the size of the company. The second is from a news article explaining that Whole Foods is violating its core values, in order to try to boost the value of its stock. . http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/corevalues.html Whole Foods Market Our Core Values The following list of core values reflects what is truly important to us as an organization. These are...

LOWELL – For those who think that apple juice is a kid’s drink, think again. Apples and apple juice may be among the best foods that baby boomers and senior citizens could add to their diet, according to new research that demonstrates how apple products can help boost brain function similar to medication.  Animal research from the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) indicates that apple juice consumption may actually increase the production in the brain of the essential neurotransmitter acetylcholine, resulting in improved memory.Neurotransmitters such as acetylcholine are chemicals released from nerve cells that transmit messages to other nerve cells. ...

Customers craving fresh crustaceans will have to look beyond Whole Foods Market Inc. after the natural-foods grocery chain decided Thursday to stop selling live lobsters and crabs on the grounds that it's inhumane. The Austin-based grocer, which has stores in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, spent seven months studying the sale of live lobsters from ship to supermarket aisle, trying to determine whether the creatures suffer along the way. In some stores, they experimented with "lobster condos," filling tanks with stacks of large pipes the critters can crawl inside. And they moved the tanks behind seafood counters and away from...

No wonder people think this town is goofy. The Whole Foods Market chain headquartered here in Austin is thinking about stopping the sale of live lobsters because it could be cruel to the lobsters. "We're reviewing the entire process literally from boat to plate to see if we can make some significant improvement in that whole supply process," Whole Foods spokeswoman Kate Lowery said. One way Whole Foods could make some significant improvement would be to release all the lobsters into Town Lake. That way I could collect them and eat them. Still, on Thursday the Whole Foods leadership will...

I've been there, so the things that John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, says in the June 2006 issue of Liberty magazine essentially ring true. Whole Foods is big now, one of the nation's fastest growing mass retailers, with sales last year exceeding $5 billion and a gross profit of more than $1.6 billion -- not a bad return in the grocery business. It didn't start that way. Coming out of the counterculture movement of the 1960s and 1970s, Mackey, a vegetarian, a former long-haired and bearded commune resident, a student of ecology, yoga, and eastern philosophy, writes that...

CHICAGO - Buying organic milk these days - or organic apples, eggs, or beef - no longer has to mean an extra trip to a Whole Foods supermarket or the local co-op. Organic products now line the shelves at Safeway and Costco. And Wal-Mart - already the nation's largest organic-milk seller - says it wants to sell more organic food. Large companies including Kraft, General Mills, and Kellogg own sizable organic- and natural-food brands. Now, they are developing organic versions of their own products, too. Still, while some organic-food fans welcome its broadening appeal and availability, others worry that the...

This should be a list of who is planning to close their business on Monday, May 1 in response of the Great American Boycott. We should compile it and boycott them ourselves if possible! Remember to go shopping or work overtime on May 1!

It's hard to find fault with Whole Foods, the haute-crunchy supermarket chain that has made a fortune by transforming grocery shopping into a bright and shiny, progressive experience. Indeed, the road to wild profits and cultural cachet has been surprisingly smooth for the supermarket chain. It gets mostly sympathetic coverage in the local and national media and red-carpet treatment from the communities it enters. But does Whole Foods have an Achilles' heel? And more important, does the organic movement itself, whose coattails Whole Foods has ridden to such success, have dark secrets of its own? Granted, there's plenty that's praiseworthy...

Attorney general shuts down Whole Foods holiday opening November 19, 2005 BOSTON --An attempt by the Whole Foods supermarket chain to defy the state's centuries-old "blue laws" and open on Thanksgiving has been shut down by the state attorney general, who told the upscale chain to stay closed for the holiday or risk criminal charges. The office of Attorney General Thomas Reilly issued a legal opinion after officials at a Whole Foods competitor, Shaw's Supermarkets, wrote him a letter asking him to block the opening, The Boston Globe reported. David Lannon, president of Whole Foods Market's North Atlantic Region, said...

LOVE WHOLE FOODS. I love the Austin-based boutique supermarket chain so much I find ways to go there almost every day. Sometimes I go for the Siciliano sandwich (rare roast beef, caramelized onions, Gorgonzola spread on a toasted French roll); sometimes I go for the trail mix and dried fruit bins (yogurt-covered raisins and pineapple rings). Other times I go to buy an $18 Pinot Noir on sale, so I can race home to tell my wife it was marked down to $11.99. They've got a lot of those deals. The produce is fresh and, by demand, "organic," one of...