What) In 1978, twenty-five year old college dropout John Mackey and twenty-one year old Rene Hardy, borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open the doors of a small natural foods store called SaferWay (the name being a spoof of Safeway, which operated stores under their own name in Austin at that time). When the couple got booted out of their apartment for storing food products there, they decided to simply live at the store. Since it was zoned commercial, there was no shower stall. Instead, they bathed in the Hobart dishwasher, which had an attached water hose.

    Two years later, John and Rene partnered with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles to merge SaferWay with their Clarksville Natural Grocery, resulting in the opening of the original Whole Foods Market. At 10,500 square feet and a staff of 19, this store was quite large in comparison to the standard health food store of the time. Less than a year later, on Memorial Day in 1981, the worst flood in 70 years devastated the city of Austin. Caught in the flood waters, the store's inventory was wiped out and most of the equipment was damaged. The losses were approximately $400,000 and Whole Foods Market had no insurance. Customers and neighbors voluntarily joined the staff to repair and clean up the damage. Creditors, vendors and investors all provided breathing room for the store to get back on its feet and it re-opened only 28 days after the flood. 

    Beginning in 1984, Whole Foods Market began its expansion out of Austin, first to Houston and Dallas and then into New Orleans. Today, they are the world’s leader in natural and organic foods, with more than 310 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. (1)

    Where) Corporate Headquarters store - 525 North Lamar Boulevard    1-512-542-2200    Open Daily - 8am to 11pm

    Why) We have stopped in for a meal at a number of different Whole Foods locations and Pam is consistently impressed by the quality of their food and the selection of their "buffet". She is on record as saying that she would be happy to eat here every day if that was possible. Because of this I thought we should stop in at the place where the chain started so we could fill their suggestion box with “Come to Regina” cards.

As usual, I forgot to take a picture of the outside but this time my excuse is that we parked beneath the building. (2)

I did take one picture of a food display that impressed me but this is not it. (3) You see, once I started looking for pictures of the store ...

... on the internet, I ended up finding some other great images that seemed appropriate to include here. (4)

This is my image of the mushroom section. Although seeing mushrooms that retail for $40/pound was strange I was more fascinated by ...

... this ordinary looking bottle of water that Pam bought. When viewed from the exact right angle it appears to have no labels at all.

Pam also purchased this water bottle as a gift for her Vancouver sister. Alexis is lucky enough to have a Whole Foods in her neighborhood.

This image of a 90 foot long by 17 foot high living moss and flower wall was taken at the newest Whole Foods
in Austin (11920 Domain Drive). (5) I wonder if I will ever get a chance to see it in person?