At Christmas, I went with my boyfriend to “meet the parents” and as we were driving along the highway he pointed to his hometown’s Whole Foods Market and said, jokingly, “There’s Whole Foods, I bet you’d love to go there since you get to see it every day!” He was trying to be funny, but I confessed that I actually love to visit our stores in other towns because each and every one I’ve visited is different. With the varied selection of prepared foods, regional specialties in our grocery departments and locally grown produce, each of our stores truly caters to the local flavor of the community.

But the community feeling is not limited to the products we sell. I hear from customers every day about how our Team Members make them feel like part of the family. One customer I spoke with was so used to the Team Members in her store knowing her personally, she was heartbroken that one of our Team Members didn’t know her name! She explained that the store was her spiritual family. While sweetly off-kilter, that call reminded me that our stores truly do make an impact in people’s lives.

For example, after Thanksgiving I heard from Kelly, a customer in Massachusetts. Kelly’s brother-in-law was in the hospital with terminal cancer and Kelly wanted to do something nice for her sister and brother-in-law since this was likely to be the last Thanksgiving meal they would share together. Kelly did not place her order before the deadline, but she explained the situation and the team in her local store fulfilled her late order. They even went the extra mile to roast and add extra turkey wings — her brother-in-law’s favorite. Her voice quavered as she told me how much she wanted to make this Thanksgiving special for her sister and brother-in-law and how she was so appreciative that our Team Members helped make that possible.

Stories like Kelly’s are not unique. We also heard from a customer here in Austin named Jim who was delighted and surprised when he ordered Thanksgiving dinner from our Austin store for himself and his wife. His wife was recovering from surgery on Thanksgiving Day, and our store’s Team Members offered to deliver the meal to them at the hospital. He said the delivery offer was an unexpected and appreciated personal touch.

We even had some customers who love Whole Foods Market so much they included our Better Bags in their wedding décor! Many months ago I took a call from a customer in Philadelphia who was desperately searching for our limited edition Sheryl Crow bags because her son and future daughter-in-law wanted to use them as centerpieces in their green wedding. These bags were no longer available in our stores, but, luckily, I was able to track down a small stash of them in our global office. I was delighted a few weeks ago when she emailed me photos of the centerpieces. They are lovely and it’s so cool to see how the talented work of our Team Members, who helped with the design concept for the bags, inspired floral arrangements for a wedding.

We have wonderful Team Members who go out of their way to satisfy and delight our shoppers every day and the stories our customers share with us are truly a reminder that whether you work here or shop here, we are all part of one big happy family. Do you have a great story to share with us? If so, please tell us in the comments section. We’d love to hear it!

My job is all about talking to our customers and helping them get answers to their questions or concerns. I love my job, but I don’t think it’s a secret to anyone that customer service is a stressful line of work! When customers call me, they may have already talked to their local store and/or their nearest regional office and they haven’t yet been able to get a resolution to their concern. So, as a rule, the people I talk to can be pretty mad at times. So, I relish the customers who take the time to call us with their compliments.

Of course, it’s always nice to talk to someone who is kind, but these calls are especially nice because most of the customers who call to compliment us tell me about how awesome our Team Members are. Of course, I know how great they are but there’s something special about hearing our customers share their perspective about how our Team Members have gone far beyond the call of duty to help them in some way. One caller I talked to the other day really pulled at my heartstrings more than most and made me feel warm and fuzzy about what great people we have working for us. She said I could share the story in this blog post, so here goes.

I am a huge animal lover and would, without hesitation, describe myself as a “crazy cat lady.” I got a call from a customer of our Veterans store in Metairie, Louisiana named Gin. Gin has been rescuing kitties in her neighborhood, as many are still displaced because of Hurricane Katrina. A few weeks ago, she found a ten-day-old orphaned kitten that she named Tini because of her tiny size. Because Tini was so young and had not been weaned, it was a struggle to keep her hydrated and alive. When Tini hit a very low point one day, Gin’s vet advised she feed her pumpkin and electrolyte water immediately.

Gin called a few other grocery stores looking for someone who would gather the items for her, charge her credit card, and meet her outside because she had Tini in the car and did not want to leave her. After three stores refused, Gin called our Veterans Whole Foods Market store. Gin said our Shift Manager on duty got her the items, charged her card over the phone, and was outside waiting when she pulled up with Tini in the car. Gin was able to feed her right there in the car in our parking lot.

A few days after finding Tini, Gin also found one of Tini’s brothers. Both kittens are about five weeks old now and are still getting their strength up, but will hopefully be thriving soon. Gin told me that everything else she had tried up to that point to keep Tini hydrated had not worked, and if our store had not come through for her, she doesn’t think Tini would have lived.

After we talked Gin emailed me some photos of Tini and her brother, For me, the picture of brother and sister snuggling speaks for itself. I feel so good knowing our Veterans team helped give these sweet siblings a second chance. Truly, our Team Members are really, really awesome.

I work on the team in our Global Headquarters that answers customer emails, calls, and letters sent to our office. As I’m sure you can imagine my job can get hectic at times. However, I recently received this letter from one of our customers. When I opened the letter it brought a moment of pause to my day. I found customer Janyne’s story so touching. Her letter is a beautiful reminder that the little things we do, even if they seem little to us, can make a big difference to others, and if we treat people with compassion and love it will not go unappreciated. I thought the kindness shown by the Team Members in our Raintree store to Janyne’s family was worth sharing. After opening the letter I shared it with many of my fellow Team Members in the office, and now I’d like to share it with you – a little message of love and caring on Valentine’s Day.

To whom it may concern:

This letter is being written to acknowledge and thank the employees of the Whole Foods Market in Scottsdale, Arizona. Last fall I traveled to Scottsdale to help care for my 94 year old mother, Myrtle Jenkins, who had been placed under in-home hospice care. While there, I accompanied my father to the Whole Foods Market where he and my mother had shopped for the past five years. I assumed that my elderly parents were well recognized in the store, since few who reach that age are out doing their own shopping, let alone driving themselves to the store! When we began checking out, the cashier asked me about my mother and he was visibly shaken at learning she was nearing death. I was certainly taken back by this show of concern from a store employee!

A week or so later, my father once again returned to the store and as he was checking out, realized that a bouquet of flowers had been placed in his cart. When he told the cashier that the flowers had been mistakenly placed there, he was told that they were for my mother-from the store employees. Though we were extremely grateful for the kindness, we did not think that my mother would even be aware of the flowers, as she had very minimal sight at that point. To our surprise, she became quite animated and asked to touch them, then requested they be placed where she could see them-even asking about them during the days that followed.

It is a tribute to your employees, and I believe corporate vision, that this kindness was shown to my mother and our family. Thank you! My mother died November 4th, and my father has since then relocated to Roseville, California where my brother who lives close by has been sure to help him locate the nearest Whole Foods Market. I am sure the employees there are starting to recognize Kenneth Jenkins, the elderly, bent figure with the ready smile.

Again, thank you for the kindness shown to my family.

Sincerely,
Janyne McConnaughey, Ph.D.

FOOD, Inc. takes a peek into the supply chain of much of the food we eat and talks about the consequences of the way food is currently grown, raised and processed. Consequences like deadly new strains of E.coli, epidemic obesity, type II diabetes, pollution from pesticides and feedlots, and the effect this system has on people in the industry. Although this subject matter sounds both complicated and mind-numbing, FOOD, Inc. presents the information in an engaging and interesting way. I know that many of our shoppers are aware of the issues and concerns of the current industrial agriculture system and that they shop with us because we offer an alternative. I thought I would share some of the things in the film that I found compelling, and how we do things differently at Whole Foods Market.

For me, one of the most jarring aspects of FOOD, Inc. was the perspective on how the patenting of Genetically Modified (GMO) seed has changed farmers and those in the agriculture business. The film looks at how Monsanto’s GMO crops have affected people like seed cleaner Moe Parr, who was sued by Monsanto for something as seemingly innocuous as saving seeds. Seed cleaners go to farms at the end of every planting season and clean seeds so they can be saved and planted the following season. This seems innocent enough, but since Monsanto owns the patent to their seeds, it is illegal to save them and farmers must buy new seed from Monsanto to plant the following season. Even if a farmer did not plant a Monsanto crop, farmers are held liable if cross-pollination occurs and patented seed or plants are found in the farmer’s possession. Parr was sued by Monsanto and fought them in court until he could no longer pay his legal fees.

Whole Foods Market has long been concerned with the effects of GMOs, and we have partnered with the Non-GMO Project, a non-profit organization created by leaders in the organic and natural products industry to develop an industry-wide non-GMO product standard that will allow us and other manufacturers to verify that products are non-GMO. We also formulate our Exclusive Brands products to avoid GMO ingredients and we champion organic products, which by law cannot include GMO ingredients.

FOOD, Inc. also looks at the cheapness of processed foods and how that is affecting the health of our country. The film follows one family through the drive thru and to the grocery store, where they opt not to buy broccoli because it is cheaper to buy a large bottle of soda. The family talks about the hundreds of dollars they spend on the father’s medication for diabetes and other health issues, and they see the correlation between nutrition and health, but they feel they can feed their kids more food for less money by buying dollar menu hamburgers and soda, and so they don’t see a way out. Trust me, this had me feeling sad and scratching my head. At Whole Foods Market we’re committed to the idea that you don’t have to spend a lot to eat well. Our stores offer value tours to teach customers how to shop on a budget, and our Whole Deal program offers money-conscious recipes, coupons and the items we feel are Sure Deals – the best deals in the store.

The film also addresses meat production, and our shoppers always tell us that one of the most important issues to them is the way our meats are raised. At Whole Foods Market we are passionate about animal welfare, and we have worked hard to develop rigorous standards for our meats that have taken into account the comfort, physical safety and health of the animals. The poultry and meat we sell are raised without being administered antibiotics or added growth hormones. Through on-farm visits, we collect and verify information from all of our producers about raising and handling practices, feed, facility design, environmental conditions, employee training, medical practices and animal welfare at the farm, in transportation, and throughout processing. We offer both grain-fed meats and grass-fed alternatives.

At Whole Foods Market, we are all about choices. FOOD, Inc. lifts the veil on a number of issues in the food industry, and whether you resolve to eat locally, organically, non-GMO or just healthier, we are proud to offer quality food choices that you can trust, as my Team Leader Margaret always says, “whatever your food trip!”

Once you see Food, Inc. let us know what questions it brings up for you. Enter a comment below and we’ll work on addressing them in future posts.