Whole Foods 2009 Annual Report Download - page 21

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networking sites. In June 2009, Whole Foods Market ranked #7 on MSN Money’s third annual Customer Service Hall of
Fame list, a survey of 145 companies based on consumers’ customer service experience.
Competition
Food retailing is a large, intensely competitive industry. Our competition varies across the company and includes but is not
limited to local, regional, national and international conventional and specialty supermarkets, natural foods stores, warehouse
membership clubs, smaller specialty stores, farmers’ markets, and restaurants, each of which competes with us on the basis
of product selection, quality, customer service, price or a combination of these factors. We believe our commitment to
natural and organic products, high quality standards; our emphasis on perishable product sales; our focus on customer
service; and our competitive prices on comparable products differentiate us in this marketplace. We also believe our
strongest competitive advantage is our culture and empowered team members.
While growth has slowed from historical levels, natural and organic food is still one of the fastest growing segments of food
retailing today. Most supermarkets offer at least a limited selection of these products, while some have chosen to expand
their selection more aggressively. We believe it works to our benefit for other supermarkets to offer natural and organic
products for two reasons: first, it helps fulfill our Company mission to improve the health, well-being and healing of both
people and the planet, and second, it helps create new customers for us by creating a gateway experience. As more people are
exposed to the benefits of natural and organic products, we believe they are more likely to become Whole Foods Market
customers since we are a category leader for natural and organic products, offering one of the largest selections and most
informed customer service at competitive prices.
Competition makes us a better retailer. We are constantly evolving, innovating and maturing, and we have a long track
record of responding to competition and improving from it. We believe we are better positioned from a value and price
perspective today than we ever have been. Our buy-side initiatives are continuing to deliver opportunities that will allow us
to be more price competitive, and we are leveraging our global buying power to the benefit of our customers. On the sell
side, we remain focused on innovation that redefines the marketplace and further differentiates our stores, products, and
customer experience from the competition.
The Whole Deal
Whole Foods Market has always provided customers with a great value on the products we offer: high-quality perishables
and products from sources consumers trust, thanks to our rigorous Quality Standards and focus on natural and organic foods.
Our national “The Whole Deal” campaign launched in fiscal year 2008 emphasizes the value side of our story even more.
The Whole Deal is about giving customers the whole story to help them stretch their grocery and household dollars further
without sacrificing the benefits of natural and organic foods. The program includes The Whole Deal in-store value guide
available in our stores, which contains coupons, budget-conscious recipes, money saving tips and more; in-store Value Tours
led by our “Value Gurus” to help shoppers find the best deals in every department; and Sure Deal specials, which are special
deals on high-quality products our customers want, not discounts on overstocked or discontinued items.
While on a local level we watch our pricing against our major competitors in every market, we also benchmark our pricing
versus key national and strong regional competitors in 11 metro areas on a comprehensive market basket representing
perishable, branded and exclusive items across the store. By investing intelligently in pricing on the key items that our
customers demand most, we believe our value efforts continue to gain traction. Customer demand for our The Whole Deal in-
store value guide has grown from an initial 800,000 copies quarterly to 1.3 million copies bimonthly. In addition, we have
nearly 500,000 The Whole Deal e-newsletter subscribers.
Team Members
As of September 27, 2009, we had approximately 52,500 team members, including approximately 43,000 full-time, 7,500
part-time and 2,000 temporary team members.
One of our core values is supporting team member happiness and excellence, and we believe our innovative and egalitarian
work environment with team members involved at all levels of our business is a major reason for our success. We believe
happy team members create happy customers, and happy customers create happy investors. Team members who have a voice
in shaping the direction of our Company and their future are empowered to make Whole Foods Market not only a great place
to shop but a great place to build a career. All of our full-time and part-time team members are eligible to receive stock
options through annual leadership grants or through service hour grants once they have accumulated 6,000 service hours
(approximately three years of employment). Approximately 94% of the stock options granted under the Company’s stock
option plan since its inception in 1992 have been granted to team members who are not executive officers.
Our salary and benefits programs reflect our philosophy of egalitarianism. The primary objective is to attract and retain
qualified, energetic team members who are enthusiastic about our Company mission and culture. A further objective is to