Spring also means the arrival of Easter and Passover, two holidays we get excited about at Whole Foods Market. We also start setting up our grilling and gardening displays for all of the early birds that want to get a jump on burgers and bulbs.

Some of my favorite things about spring in our store are the seasonal foods. Local produce becomes more abundant, seasonal items like Spring Onions make an appearance, and everything tastes a little fresher. Spring is also a great season to invest in some home-brightening flowers, and we always have great deals on bouquets.

But I have to admit, my favorite thing about this season is that sometimes, on my day off, it’s warm enough that I can wear flip flops. Here are some signs of Spring from around my store:

What are your favorite signs of Spring?

At our stores, protocol is different on a snow day, but the preparation starts the day before. As a store manager, I pay close attention to the weather all year round, but especially in the winter – lots of things need to be adjusted in the event of a storm. When we get word that snow is coming, we start by modifying our orders to make sure we have enough of everyone’s essential items, such as bottled water, milk, toilet paper and baby food.

Next, we take a look at our staffing. The day before the storm is typically quite busy, as customers understandably want to get their shopping in before the roads get icy. To keep up with demand, we call in extra Team Members to make sure everyone gets what they need. Depending on when the storm is going to hit, we also shift schedules around. We make sure Team Members who live close to the store are scheduled to work opening shifts if the store is going to hit overnight, and we make sure anyone with a particularly bad commute is scheduled to have the day off or to go home early. The safety of our Team Members is always our top priority.

Making sure the building is safe is also very important. Wet floor signs are put out to warn customers of any puddles that form from melting snow boots, our maintenance crew is doubled, and shovels and ice melt are always on hand for walkways. We also make sure to take care of our roofs — removing snow and icicles on a regular basis protects us from getting leaks. And, finally, talking to our landlords and keeping in touch with our snowplow companies helps us keep our parking lots clear for customers.

After the storm hit, things can be slow in the store as most people are happy to be holed up cooking the food they bought the day before. But as long as it is safe, Whole Foods Market is open for business, so we find different ways to pass our time.  On slow days we have time for extra cleaning in our departments, as well as time for extra training. Our Team Members are encouraged to take a seat at our break room computers to train on the many Whole Foods Market sponsored Podcasts available, and our In-Store Educators are available for “I Wonder” trainings — on the spot trainings about whatever a Team Member might be curious about. Wondering about the different varieties of honey we have available? Or why coffee tastes different when it comes from a different region? There’s an “I Wonder” for that!

Most of all, we always have time for fun on a slow snow day. For the brave Team Members who make it to the store, we usually provide a free lunch and hot chocolate throughout the day. Our Team Members are here to serve you, and it’s my job as a manager to keep them smiling.

Of course, leading up to that one particular Sunday is the playoff season, and at our stores we take full advantage of the fun. We encourage team members to honor their favorite teams by wearing team hats on game day, create tailgating themed displays, and hold themed events. For example, at my store we are holding a special tasting event in honor of Coach Appreciation Week – a nice complement to playoff season. Our team members will dress in sports themed attire and create a tasty sample worthy of any athlete – we’ve even invited some local coaches to come to the store to enjoy the event.

We’re also playing up our Touchdown favorites with some creative merchandising – wings anyone? Party platters and extreme value deals are in abundance, so everyone can put together a great Game Day feast.

One thing that can be tough for some folks during this part of football season is the food. We’ve all over-indulged — at least a little — during the holiday season, and might be trying to watch our calories a bit. In our stores, we’ve been focusing on our Health Starts Here program and looking to our healthy eating team members to help us lighten up traditional favorites. In my store, Turkey Chili, Salsa with Lentil Chips, and Nachos made with naturally-light Fromage Blanc are just a few of the healthier options available.  A new recipe this year is Tandoori Chicken Wings with Yogurt Sauce — still satisfying but a little lighter than a typical buffalo sauce and blue cheese combination.

Personally, I’m a Pittsburgh fan, so on that fateful Big Game Day, I’ll be rooting for the Black and Gold. Who will you be cheering for…and what will you be eating?

We are always thankful for you, our customers — your feedback, your support, and your help in making Whole Foods Market such an amazing place to shop. This year in particular we want to thank each customer for telling us what they like — and don’t like — enabling us to learn, grow and make each store and product exactly what you want it to be.

Today at the stores, when you are picking up your holiday treats, feel free to talk to our Team Members about what you are thankful for — or what you wish was a little different. Perhaps some of our Team Members will share what they are thankful for as well.

Have a happy, healthy, and delicious Thanksgiving everyone!

Every Friday afternoon, my Wayland, MA, store features a farmers’ market with local produce. Run by our Produce Assistant Team Leader John, customers can pick from amazing local corn, tomatoes and many other seasonal treats available that week. John shares his expertise with anyone who has a question, and trust me, he has the answers.  He works closely with our local farms — Davidian and Atlas — to bring in the best of the best. And here’s a special tip from our Produce Team Leader: “I can’t think of anything better or more consistent than white nectarines this summer. I have been eating them all season and I haven’t had a bad one in the bunch. Crisp and refreshing — really delicious!”

On Saturdays, we have weekly grilling events featuring items like our 10 for 10 hamburger patties, new seafood sausages, steamed clams and veggie burgers. Our customers come for the food and stay to chat with our Prepared Foods Team Leader Jimmy and Assistant Team Leader Jaimee. Jaimee is taking part in our Whole Planet Foundation Volunteer Program and traveling to Guatemala this fall, and she loves to tell our customers all about it.

Periodically during the summer we throw a block party, encouraging everyone to come out and spend some time in the sun, enjoy some food and stay awhile. Most recently we held a Customer Appreciation Day, during which we cooked up free sliders, set up a face painting booth and got out the sidewalk chalk for the kids to play with. We bring in local vendors to sample their products, and we crank up the tunes — it is a party after all.

Events like this allow us to really connect with our customers and chat about what they like to eat or cook in the summer. In turn, we get to show our nerdy foodie sides and to share our “inside information” on what we think is most delicious in the summer months. For example, our In-Store Educator Susan loves eating watermelon: “It reminds me of being a kid, it’s a little messy with all of its delicious juice and it’s just so refreshing.” And Donna, our Assistant Store Team Leader, says:  “Local bread and butter corn from Davidian Farms is my favorite thing to eat in the summer. I soak it quickly in water and put it on the grill still in the husk. When the husk gets brown and the corn turns dark yellow, you know it’s done.  Add a little butter and salt and eat up!”

For me, I’ve recently discovered butter beans and have started making a really simple summer salad: butter beans, fresh chopped basil, tomatoes and peppers mixed with just a touch of olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Marinated in the fridge for a few hours, this salad just pops with flavor (and you can eat a huge bowl without feeling guilty or worrying about looking good at the beach!).

While everyone reading this may not be in my neck of the woods, I know that the Whole Foods Market store in your area is cranking up the summer party too. Hope you take the time to enjoy it. Got a favorite summer food? I’d love to hear what it is!

At my store, the week’s activities are planned by store leadership as well as the store’s TIME group — Team Member Involvement Means Excellence. Team Members from all different departments meet and bounce ideas off of one another. What kinds of things would mean the most to their teammates? Free ice cream one day? The ability to pick the store’s radio station for their shift? A week of VIP parking in front of the store? After TIME gathers the ideas and suggestions of the store’s Team Members, it is up to Store Leadership to put these plans into action. Here’s how our week turned out this year.

Monday was Ice Cream Social Day! Team Members enjoyed the ice cream of their choice scooped and served by their Store Team Leader (that’s me) and Associate Store Team Leader Donna Turcotte. Those smiles on our faces are definitely genuine — there is nothing that makes us happier than appreciating our Team Members! We also handed out Team Member Appreciation Week T-shirts on Monday so that everyone could show their Whole Foods pride.

Tuesday was Trivia Day! We gathered interesting tidbits of information from all of our Team Members, such as:

“Which Wayland Team Member also works at Fenway Park?” (Kyle in Specialty)
“Which new sport is Ilda in Customer Service learning?” (Kickboxing)
“What department did Store Team Leader Kate start out in?” (Specialty)
“How many hours has Peter in Grocery worked for a natural foods market?” (50,000)

Our In-Store Education, Susan Phinney, asked the questions over the store loudspeaker, then walked around collecting guesses. Team Members with correct answers got a prize!

Wednesday brought our Team Member Appreciation Week Cook-out. Wayland lucked out with a beautiful sunny spring day for our Payroll Benefits Specialist turned Gourmet Burger chef, Leslie Herger, to man the grill. With a selection ranging from burgers with Halloumi, bacon and onions to Cheddar Cheese hotdogs, and from Roasted Pepper topped Veggie Burgers to Tofu-Pups, everyone at the store got a chance to relax in the sun with a delicious meal. Last year at the Prospect Street store we rented a dunk tank for the day and spent the afternoon placing friendly wagers on who could dunk who the fastest. Team Members loved the chance to dunk their Team Leaders!

Thursday was Movies and Popcorn day. We asked Team Members to bring in their favorite (store friendly) movies to play in the breakroom all day long. A steady supply of popcorn and drinks made sure that every Team Member had a relaxing break that day! We also brought back the trivia questions on Thursday — they were such a big hit on Tuesday everyone wanted another chance to learn about their fellow team members! At our Hingham store, Store Team Leader Matt Cook went the extra mile and set up a car wash for his Team Members! Take a look at Matt, his Seafood Team Leader Francis, and his Customer Service Team Member Sandra smiling as they spend a great spring day outside. You can bet that when they heard Matt was going to be washing cars, his Team Members lined up around the block!

On Friday and Saturday at Wayland we focused on raffles! Each department donated a gift basket of goodies, and we had plenty of other surprises on hand as well _— footballs, frisbees, beach towels, iTunes gift cards, Red Sox sweatshirts and more. At the beginning of each shift we handed out raffle tickets to each Team Member and every forty-five minutes we announced another winner over the loudspeaker! With such a large amount of prizes from both the raffles and trivia, we made sure everyone went home with a memento from the week. Take a look at Lexi showing off her new frisbee! We also supplied lunch and dinner for all of our Team Members on Friday and Saturday, just another thank you for all the amazing work they do each day.

On Sunday we capped off the week with a thank you cake and more of what turned out to be everyone’s favorite — Whole Foods Trivia! Mixing in questions about our company as well, (“How many days a week do we receive seafood deliveries? Six days a week!” “Why is our meat ‘uncured?’ Because we never add nitrates or nitrites to our products!”) we made the last day fun and educational.

Really, the best part of Team Member Appreciation Week was getting to say thank you to all of the people who fill every day with fun. Without our team members, we’d just be four walls and lots of lonely food. It’s the people who make our company come alive!

Passover, a Jewish holiday that will begin on March 29th, and Easter, a Christian holiday that falls on April 4th this year, are both celebrations with long standing food traditions. At our stores we do our best to supply our customers with everything they need to enjoy their festivities.

Passover
One of the main symbols of Passover is Matzo, a type of flatbread made solely from flour and water. These ingredients are continually worked from mixing through baking, so that the bread is never allowed to rise. This year at my store, my Grocery Team Leader and Associate Team Leader, Peter and Caio, took a few days to determine the best place to display our end cap of matzo, gefilte fish, macaroons, horseradish and any other items one could want to help prepare for their Seder dinner. You can see the result in the accompanying picture, it’s a veritable tower of treats.

Likewise, my Meat Team Leader Richie, and his Associate Brian, have worked hard rearranging their service case and side coolers to accommodate extra Kosher chickens and beef briskets, traditional Passover fare. As with every holiday, successful merchandising execution means preparation — knowing when to order holiday specific items, how much to order and where to display them. The merchandising part of the equation becomes especially important in our prepared foods service case, where Jimmy and Jaimee, our leadership team, must make sure that any foods that are prepared as kosher remain that way. For example, plenty of time is spent creating “plan-o-grams” (diagrams of our cases to plan where food will be placed) that ensure meat does not come in contact with dairy, and that our delicious blintzes, charoset and tzimmes have plenty of room to shine!

Easter
One of the hallmarks of Easter is Lent, the 40 days leading up to the holiday. During this period, many people choose not to eat meat on Fridays, which means our Seafood department has to increase their orders! Planning a few days in advance, Patrick and EJ, my Seafood Team Leader and Associate, will talk about what fish have been most popular lately, what recipes customers have been asking about from current food publications or the daily newspapers, and what special discounts we may be participating in. Weighing all of this information, they’ll place an order that will aim to have something for everyone in the case on Friday morning.

Back in Grocery, Peter and Caio poured through the order guide for our Easter candy selection several months ago and are just now getting in their boxes of chocolate bunnies and cream filled eggs. The candy goes up in just a few hours, a sea of pastel colors, and will have to be constantly refilled as customers treat themselves to an early Easter present with a piece or two of chocolate. Danny, our Bakery Team Leader, might try to sneak some of his Hot Cross Buns into the display.

Of course, Bill, our Dairy buyer, may be the busiest person of all during Easter. He’s in charge of making sure we have enough eggs for the tradition of dyeing and decorating (not to mention eating) hard boiled eggs before Easter. Bill knows that the happiness of many children depends on his supply of eggs, so each year he references the notes he took from holidays past, takes into account the trends and sales from the current year and places an educated order. Bill has been doing this job for over 20 years — he is an absolute expert in the art of ordering eggs.

What are some of your favorite spring holiday traditions? What kind of foods do you look for to celebrate with?

If there is one thing I love about winter, it’s snow, and this year there has been no shortage of the white stuff in the northeast. But it might surprise you to know one of the reasons why I love snow. It’s not because I’m a skier, or a champion snowman builder, or an ice fisherman. Nope, it’s because I like to bag groceries, and there is no more interesting time to do some bagging than right before a snow storm.

Think about it: when the possibility of being stuck in your house arises, how do you prepare? You run to the grocery store and fill up a few bags with your snow day essentials! Here at Whole Foods Market, we prepare for a snow storm by making sure we have everything you need, and by calling in extra help to get everyone in and out as quickly as possible! This winter we’ve had a few storms, which always makes for exciting and busy days. Here’s an example of the types of bags I see on the days before a big snow fall:

The Baby Bag: tons of baby food, milk and diapers, diapers, diapers!

The Single Guy Bag: toilet paper, frozen pizza and chocolate chip cookies.

The Family Bag: Water, macaroni and cheese, cans of soup, multi-vitamins, chocolate milk, cupcakes and stew meat.

The Unexplainable Bag: 20 heads of broccoli.

Personally, my own bag contains ice cream, pasta sauce, parmesan cheese, a loaf of bread and wine (where available).

Of course, the day right after a snow storm is typically slower, since the weather keeps a lot of people inside. But at Whole Foods Market we’re still open for business, and we find plenty of things to do with our day. One of my favorite things to see my Team Members doing on slower days (or any day) is taking advantage of the training programs that we provide. Each of the stores in the North Atlantic region has an In-Store Educator, whose job is to prepare classes and keep our Team Members up to date on everything from organic standards to new types of bread. My In-Store Educator, Susan Phinney, does a great job with our classes. They range from short “I Wonder” sessions that take only a few minutes, to longer sessions that include PowerPoint presentations or videos (featuring many Team Members from the region, including Michelle Hirsch, our region’s Associate Coordinator of Learning and Development).

One of these longer classes, the Customer Experience class, focuses on emphasizing the importance of customer service to our Team Members. Recently, members of this class participated in a “Foodie Fight” where they answered questions ranging from “What are the ingredients in a gremolata?” to “What are the most common foodborne illnesses and how do we avoid them?” The winner of the “Foodie Fight” gets to take on the winner from another store, and the top three winners will participate in the championship Foodie Fight for a pretty hefty grand prize.

Slow days are always a good time to get creative, like the day our prepared foods team put together a “Rasta Pasta” dish in honor of Bob Marley’s birthday, or the night before the Super Bowl when they staged a “Skins vs. Wings” grudge match in our service case! Come to think of it, with all this extra training and creativity, there’s never really a “slow” day at Whole Foods Market.

What do you put in your bag as snow day essentials? What do you do on the slow days after a snow storm? We’d love to hear your thoughts!

I love New Year’s resolutions, I really do. After months of holiday decadence, resolutions give me the chance to think about what I want to do better in the coming year. This January, Whole Foods has really helped me – and my team members – with our resolutions thanks to our new “this is my year to” campaign. We have all been sharing our resolutions by wearing buttons as well as tacking up notices on our store news board – check out the pictures! A sampling of resolutions I’ve seen:

This is my year to:

• Drink more water
• Volunteer
• Have more family dinners
• Switch from coffee to tea
• Get rich and move to Miami

While the resolutions have been diverse, a common theme in many has been to eat more healthfully. In fact, for my own resolution I decided to try a new diet myself: veganism. For those who may not know what that entails, vegans don’t eat animal products or anything made from animal products – that means no eggs, dairy, cheese, honey, etc.

I started my diet on January 1st with a big shopping spree: soy milk, veggie burgers, chickpeas, vegetable broth and a new cookbook: Vegonomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. I told all of my friends that I was embarking on this experiment to improve my health, to lose those five pounds of holiday turkey saddled around my middle and, most importantly, to really understand what it is like to be a vegan.

It is now almost a month into my journey, and I have learned a lot. First, it’s hard to be a vegan – it takes real commitment to check ingredient labels and make sure there is no hidden dairy or honey in your food. It also takes commitment to stick to your guns when your friends may or may not understand your new dietary choices. Going out to eat can be rough when you’re still getting used to your new lifestyle. Fortunately, I’ve also learned that there are some really delicious vegan foods out there, and I have been really enjoying rediscovering vegetables. My new favorite dinner is cannellini beans simmered with garlic, olive oil, sage and diced tomatoes on a bed of spinach. So flavorful and so simple! The bottom line is, this diet has made me think a lot more carefully about what I put in my body and has made me much more sympathetic to those who choose to follow an alternative diet, as well as a lot more educated about what my store offers for vegans.

More of our Team Members are also giving alternative diets a try. Here’s what Melissa Traverse, one of our Marketing Team Leaders, has to say:

At Whole Foods Market in Brighton, 13 of us are trying a raw foods diet for two weeks. Yes, that’s right, all raw food all the time! This means that our diet is comprised of veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, sprouted grains and not much else. Though we’re in the beginning stages, the changes in our moods, health and habits are drastic! I’m not going to lie – the transition is challenging for most of us, to say the least.

Matt Reid, our vegan Whole Body Associate Team Leader reports “I miss seitan, veggie burgers and even things like banana chips, which I noticed have sugar added to them. I’m not much of a sugar guy, but reading labels makes me realize that a lot of the things I eat have added sugar!” Dave Collins, 2nd Associate Store Team Leader, is faring better than some of us: “I’m surprisingly not as hungry as I thought I’d be,” and went on to list the tasty foods he’s been trying out. Roza Mija, our Payroll & Benefits Specialist, started the diet a couple of weeks early to get a head start and not only feels great, but looks AMAZING – the woman is glowing!

Check out our Brighton store blog for continued updates!

Have you made any changes to your diet this new year? We’d love to hear about them!

Every year at Christmas my mother cooks an amazing feast. The main course rotates and the side dishes get tweaks according to what is fashionable in food that year, but we always, always, always have cranberry sauce. Not fancy cranberry sauce, mind you. Cranberry sauce from a can, spruced up with a few fresh berries. It might be served alongside horseradish encrusted prime rib with roasted garlic mashed potatoes and chestnut stuffing with rye bread and sausage, but there it is: the traditional Demase family cranberry sauce. Last year I tried to dress up the presentation a bit, but my mom wasn’t too excited about it (see picture).

Every family or group gathering during the holidays has their traditions, and Whole Foods Market is proud to be a part of our customers’ yearly celebrations. We are so happy to be a part of your traditions, and we want to make sure everything we do is contributing to your best holiday yet. Our Team Members welcome your questions about our cheeses, meats, fresh produce and baked goods to ensure that you are getting exactly what you need to satisfy and delight your family and holiday guests.

My team has been reminiscing about their favorite Whole Foods’ holiday memories from years past:

From George: Shift Leader

When I was working in the seafood department, Christmas Eve was always a very busy day, and one of our fun traditions was that each team member would talk about what dishes would be cooked at their own personal holiday dinner. I would talk about how my family would make several seafood dishes: linguine with clam sauce, mussels, baked stuffed shrimp, and haddock with a topping of shrimp, scallops & breadcrumbs. Not to mention the final course of lobster and king crab legs! The fun of working the holidays was talking about how your family celebrated, and hearing from our customers who also tell you their traditions. It is great to hear how people from cultures different from your own celebrate with their dishes, and to feel the excitement of everyone’s anticipation of creating new memories of another holiday.

From Matt: Accounting Team Member

My favorite holiday memory comes from last year during the two days prior to Christmas. The store was a buzzing with holiday vibes, everyone was festive and cheerful. I was helping customers get their catering orders and locate products. My favorite moment is not so much one incident, but the holiday season as a whole. Customers got exactly what they wanted: friendly service with a smile, the fresh products they know and love, and to be taken care of on every level. This is unlike some other stores I had been in during the holidays, where all you get is a big ball of coal: impersonal services, people who don’t seem to be enjoying their jobs, and inferior product quality. Remember where the holly jolly folks are…HO HO Whole Foods!

For me, my favorite holiday memory from Whole Foods comes from my first Christmas season with the company. I was a Team Member in a brand new store, working in the cheese department. The crowds were enormous and as the week before Christmas moved along my arms began to ache from building cheese platters and preparing garlic and lemon olives for antipasto trays. My team was getting tired, and to keep their spirits up, I purchased an assortment of Santa hats for everyone – just a little holiday cheer. I didn’t even know if our Store Team Leader would let us wear them, but he did! The hats reminded us all of the fun of the holidays and gave us the boost we needed to keep going. Now, every year, I buy Santa hats for my whole team. It’s one of my new favorite holiday traditions.

What are your favorite holiday traditions and what role has Whole Foods Market played in them? We’d love to know.