Whole Foods 2007 Annual Report Download - page 21

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credibility, respect, fairness and pride/camaraderie. Ranking number five in 2007, our highest ever, we are one of only 18
companies to make the “100 Best” list for 10 consecutive years since its inception.
Competition
Food retailing is a large, intensely competitive industry. Our competition varies from region to region and includes but is not
limited to local, regional, national and international conventional and specialty supermarkets, other natural foods stores,
warehouse membership clubs, smaller specialty stores, 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 focus on customer service, and our competitive prices on comparable
products differentiates us in this segmented marketplace.
Natural and organic food is 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 conventional 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 the category leader for
natural and organic products, offering the largest selection 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 and improving with competition. 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, our innovation will accelerate over the next few years as we continue to redefine the marketplace and further
differentiate our stores, products, and customer experience from the competition.
We believe our strong comparable store sales growth, which historically has been significantly higher than the industry
average, is evidence of this gateway experience and of our ability to evolve faster than our competition.
Government and Public Affairs
Our stores are subject to various local, state, federal and international laws, regulations and administrative practices affecting
our business. We must comply with provisions regulating health and sanitation standards, food labeling, equal employment,
minimum wages and licensing for the sale of food and, in some stores, alcoholic beverages.
The manufacturing, processing, formulating, packaging, labeling and advertising of products are subject to regulation by
various federal agencies including the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the
Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”), the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) and the EPA. The
composition and labeling of nutritional supplements are most actively regulated by the FDA under the provisions of the
Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (“FFDC Act”). The FFDC Act has been revised in recent years with respect to dietary
supplements by the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act and by the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. We
believe we are in material compliance with product labeling requirements.
Trademarks
Trademarks owned by the Company or its subsidiaries include, but are not limited to: “Whole Foods Market,” “365
Everyday Value,” “365 Organic Everyday Value,” “AFA,” “Allegro Coffee Company,” “Wild Oats,” “Wild Oats
Marketplace,” “Capers Community Market,” “Bread & Circus,” “Fresh & Wild,” “Fresh Fields,” “Global Local,” “Green
Mission,” “Harry’s Farmers Market,” “Merchant of Vino,” “Mrs. Gooch’s,” “Vine Buys,” “Wellspring,” “Whole Baby,”
“Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet,” “Whole Kids Organic,” and “Whole Trade.” The Company or its subsidiaries
also holds registrations or applications, and maintains common law trademark rights for stylized logos and brand names for
products created by Allegro Coffee Company and many of its private label products.
wholefoodsmarket.com
Our corporate website at www.wholefoodsmarket.com provides detailed information about our Company, history, product
offerings and store locations, with hundreds of recipes and a library of information about environmental, legislative, health,
food safety and product quality issues. Our website also provides links to our two foundations – the Animal Compassion
Foundation and the Whole Planet Foundation. In addition, access to the Company’s SEC filings, including annual reports on
Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, Section 16 filings, and all amendments to those
reports, are available through our website free of charge, as soon as reasonably practicable after these reports are filed
electronically with the SEC. As with our stores, the focus of our website is customer service. We believe our website