Whole Foods 2010 Annual Report Download - page 16

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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, licensing for the sale of food, and in many stores, licensing for beer and wine or other 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 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 compliance with all
product labeling requirements material to the Company.
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,” “America’s Healthiest Grocery
Store,” “Capers Community Market,” “Bread & Circus,” “Fresh & Wild,” “Fresh Fields,” “Green Mission,” “Harry’s
Farmers Market,” “Health Starts Here,” “Ideal Market,” “Merchant of Vino,” “Mrs. Gooch’s,” “Vine Buys,” “Wellspring,”
“Whole Baby,” “The Whole Deal,” “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet,” “Whole Kids,” “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
branded products. In addition, the Company licenses certain trademarks, including “PLANT-STRONG,” a trademark owned
by Engine 2 for Life, LLC.
Available Information
Our corporate website at www.wholefoodsmarket.com averages over 80,000 visitors each day and 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. In addition, access to the
Company’s corporate governance policies and SEC filings, including annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on
Form 10-Q, interactive data, current reports on Form 8-K, Section 16 filings, and all amendments to those reports, are
available through our website free of charge. As with our stores, the focus of our website is customer service. We believe our
website provides us with an opportunity to further our relationships with customers, suppliers and investors; educate them on
a variety of issues; and improve our service levels.
We have included our website and blog addresses only as an inactive textual reference. The information contained on our
website is not incorporated by reference into this Report on Form 10-K.
Item 1A. Risk Factors.
We wish to caution you that there are risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different
from those indicated by forward-looking statements that we make from time to time in filings with the SEC, news releases,
reports, proxy statements, registration statements and other written communications, as well as oral forward-looking
statements made from time to time by representatives of the Company. These risks and uncertainties include the risk factors
described below. The cautionary statements below discuss important factors that could cause our business, financial
condition, operating results and cash flows to be materially adversely affected. The Company does not undertake any
obligation to update forward-looking statements.
Economic Conditions
The global economic crisis adversely impacted our business and financial results in fiscal year 2009. Our results of
operations may be materially impacted by changes in overall economic conditions that impact consumer confidence and
spending, including discretionary spending. There can be no assurance that various governmental activities to stabilize the
markets and stimulate the economy will restore consumer confidence or change spending habits. Future economic conditions
affecting disposable consumer income such as employment levels, business conditions, changes in housing market
conditions, the availability of credit, interest rates, tax rates, fuel and energy costs, the impact of natural disasters or acts of
terrorism, and other matters could reduce consumer spending or cause consumers to shift their spending to lower-priced
competitors.
Future Growth
Our continued growth depends on our ability to increase sales in our identical stores and our ability to open new stores. Our
results of operations may be materially impacted by fluctuations in our identical store sales. Our identical store sales growth