Working Culture

Everything we do at our stores is based on the fundamental importance of empowering our people and helping them to learn, grow, and flourish as part of the Team while fulfilling their essential role: to take good care of the customers. We believe our mission is to educate our customers on the benefit of a Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet lifestyle.

Collective Energy of the Team

We support Team Member happiness and excellence. Our success is dependent upon their collective energy and intelligence. We design and promote work environments where Team Members can flourish and reach their highest potential, and we encourage their participation and involvement at all levels of our business. Some of the ways we do this are:

• More than 80% of our Team Members choose a job at Whole Foods Market as their primary job.
• Self-directed teams that meet regularly to discuss issues, solve problems, and appreciate each other's contributions.
• Increased communication through Team Member forums and Awareness groups and open book, open door, and open people practices.
• Gainsharing and other Team Member incentive programs.
• Commitment to make our jobs more fun by combining work and play and through friendly competition to improve our stores.
• Continuous learning opportunities about company values, food, nutrition, and job skills.
• Believing that Team expertise is developed through creativity and self-responsibility.

"Us versus them" thinking has no place in our company. While cultivating unity of vision about the future of our organization, we also aim to build a strong sense of community and to recognize and value the rich diversity and individual differences among Team Members.

Our Team Members represent 50 different nations, of diverse backgrounds and perspectives, yet working together with mutual respect for those differences, to meet the need of our customers.