Biggest Whole Foods Store Opens in London

On 6th June 2007, a queue of more than 200 people was waiting patiently in front of the door of the new megastore in Kensington in London. The tension was high, just like the expectations that people have of the arrival of Whole Foods in Europe that has been flagged up over the last three years. In 2006, the turnover of the whole food giant from the USA was 5.6 billion US dollars with, however, only $1 billion coming from organics. If you deduct  non-food from the total turnover, the proportion of organics in the turnover of food is roughly 25 %. Nevertheless, the media and people in general see the store as an ‘organic supermarket’. This new store creates a convincing impression with its very impressive presentation of food products.

Picture: In front of the new Whole Foods store, employees from the nearby competitor Marks & Spencers take pleasure in drawing attention to their own supermarket

Around 50 employees applauded enthusiastically when, at about 10 o’clock, a large white loaf was cut in the entrance hall to declare the store open (see picture). Waiting outside were customers, some journalists and a host of business people who obviously wanted to see just what the new competitor was like. And they were not disappointed: mountains of cheeses, fruit and vegetables and other goods piled high could not have been more impressive. Everywhere you went, there were samples to taste - most in the cheese department that measures about 80 m². As the visitors came streaming in, five friendly sales staff offered them cheese samples on little trays.

Everything is on a gigantic scale: the fresh meat counter alone measures about 25 m, and next to it packaged meat occupies about the same amount of space. The wine department is so big you could almost get lost in it. However, the first impression is deceptive when it comes to the variety of the stock. In many cases, five or six of the same product are placed next to each other. In some departments you can hardly find any organic products; in others it approaches 50 % - as in the case of chocolate bars. At first, the visitors stood and stared, but then the rush to the tills started. Although there are as many as 29 tills, queues  lined up between tapes like at an airport.

With its 7,400 m², the Whole Foods store in London is the biggest  belonging to the company that runs about 200 large-scale stores in the USA and Canada. In the former Barker’s department store, the company has bought  the basement, the ground floor and the first floor. The cheese department, wines, bakery goods, fresh salad counters and  flowers department are on the ground floor. In the basement you find fruit and vegetables, juices, loose products  that customers help themselves to like grains, dried fruits and  nuts, a coffee roaster, frozen products, chocolate, meat and sausage products, and a fish counter measuring about 12 m. Eco-friendly clothes, body care, cosmetics and chemist’s goods are also housed in the basement. The main part of the first floor is occupied by an extensive restaurant with various areas such as a lounge, a juice bar, a café, a sushi bar and a beer bar. On this level there is also a gift department and a section for Fairtrade articles. Guests can have their meal selection put together at the various counters (some semi-circular) and then they find a place to sit  (over 350 seats). Tables and chairs are practical but rather give the impression of a canteen. On the very first evening the restaurant area was heaving.

The new store in Kensington has around 500 employees. Many of the departmental managers come from the USA and have years of experience working for the company. The store is teeming with staff, and there is always someone on hand if you have an enquiry. To keep control of both customers and staff, dozens of surveillance cameras, sometimes only two or three metres apart, hang from the ceilings. Nevertheless, the company can boast, in the information displayed at every turn, that it is one of the 100 most popular employers in the USA.

From the mass of information posted on walls and from publications we learn that the products come from organic agriculture, craft production, are grown in the region, or are Fairtrade articles. But if customers pursue the matter, some hair-raising contradictions come to light, an example being the cheese counter.

The word ‘organic’ is displayed on the walls to indicate the philosophy of quality, but if you ask the sales assistant how many of the cheeses are organic, the reply is ‘just a few’. If you go further and ask which ones these are, he points out a cheese on which, however, there is no indication that it is organic.  “In each case, we can provide you with the information,” he says helpfully and explains that the priority is taste, and many organic cheeses are made in factories and therefore do not have much taste. Just as bewildering is the information given at the juice bar where a sign states categorically ’Juices Organic’. The first sales assistant consulted says that only a few of the ingredients come from organic production. Then, shortly afterwards, another customer asks one of the sales staff the same question  and receives the answer: “It all comes from organic production.” The freshly pressed carrot juice turns out to be pre-prepared. It is brown instead of orange and was obviously pressed hours before. (The author’s conclusion:  talking just a few times to sales staff was enough to refute what the Whole Foods company is always telling us. Not only are they using the word ‘organic’ for promotion purposes, even though there is nothing or not much organic in the product, but they also claim that their staff are well trained and can give precise product information.)

At the invitation of the farm animal protection organisation ‘Compassion in World Farming’, Whole Foods Managing Director John Mackey (see photo) gave a talk on the evening before the store opened in which he set out the principles applied by America’s market leader. He explained how it had all begun in 1980 when, with $45,000 capital, he and his girlfriend had opened a 1000 m² store. He went into the details of industrial food production and concluded that it was necessary to develop ethical principals in trade. This was why Fairtrade, regional and craft production and also organic production were the aims of the Whole Foods Company. On the subject of animal protection,  the Whole Foods boss, who comes across as a friendly and modest man, is certain that there will be a lot of progress in the years and decades ahead, even leading to the abolition of industrial animal keeping.

Mr Mackey explained the direction the company had taken, citing the example of a $30 million venture capital fund that had been built up to promote authentic traditional production. Fairtrade was supported via the Whole Food Planet Foundation (www.wholefoodplanetfoundation.org). The company set up the Animal Compassion Foundation to promote animal protection in farming. Referring to the rapid growth of  his giant company in the USA, he said that profit was not a bad thing at all and he was an advocate of ‘conscious capitalism’. In the discussion that followed his address, the word  ‘milestone’ was used to describe the opening of the first Whole Foods store in London. Mr Mackey’s talk was certainly well attended - the 400 tickets had been snapped well in advance.