Whole Foods Market
also referred to as: whole foods
29 statements across 3 episodes · 9 bullish · 6 bearish · 3 people on the record · first statement Apr 18, 2023 by Ravi Gupta · said 82 times in 9 episodes since 2018 · across every show →
Mentions by year
brought up most by John Mackey (61), Shane Parrish (15), Ravi Gupta (3), Tyler Cowen (1), Ron Shaich (1), Reed Hastings (1)
tap a year for its mentions
2026 1 mention in 1 episode
2025 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode
2024 72 mentions in 2 episodes 36 per episode
2023 3 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
Everything said about Whole Foods Market, oldest first
Apr 18, 2023
Gupta: Whole Foods represented 43% of Instacart's volume when Amazon acquired it
“When Amazon bought whole foods, that was a terrible moment for us at the time. We our blood competitor, who's known for annihilating everyone in their way buys our biggest partner who owns, who has responsible for 43% of our volume.”
Oct 29, 2024
Mackey: Never make poor business decisions just to hit an outdated plan
“But the tool shouldn't become the master. Some businesses become slaves to their business plan, and it's like, we're behind the plan now, so what are we going to do differently to get us back on plan? It's like, well, don't do something stupid to try to get yo…”
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Mackey: The best capital is self-generated profit to retain business control
“The best capital you'll ever have is the capital you make yourself, and if you don't want to lose control of your business, then make sure you're very profitable, don't scale too quickly, grow your business thoughtfully and painfully patiently, keep your costs…”
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Mackey: Amazon invested hundreds of millions in delivery during COVID-19
“Amazon was able to step up and invest literally hundreds of millions of dollars in delivery in order to enable Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh to be able to deliver when the demand went from virtually zero to a huge percentage of your business.”
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Oct 29, 2024 negative
Mackey: Whole Foods held under 1% of grocery share during FTC case
“We got less than one percent of the grocery business, and they sort of made up this category that we were the, we had a monopoly of premium natural and organic food supermarkets, but my point is, of course, we weren't a monopoly of anything”
Oct 29, 2024 negative
Oct 29, 2024
Oct 29, 2024 neutral
Mackey: Idealism without catering to customer demand leads to business failure
“If you just want to have your ideals, you can have them, but you may not have a business. So you have to engage with the market. You can try to influence the market. You can try to educate the market. But at the end of the day, they vote every day with their p…”
Oct 29, 2024 negative
Oct 29, 2024 negative
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Mackey: Whole Foods had highest sales per square foot among public food retailers
“We had, at the time, the activist investors invested in Whole Foods. We had the highest sales per square foot of any public food retailer. We'd had the same store sales growth of eight percent over a thirty-plus year period.”
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Oct 29, 2024 neutral
Oct 29, 2024 neutral
Mackey: Whole Foods' Optimal Annual Growth Rate Was 15% to 25%
“So there is an optimum level of growth, and it's not too little that you'll lose people, and not so high that your culture gets diluted down and changes negatively. So at Whole Foods, that sweet spot for us was between about 15 and 25%.”
Oct 29, 2024 neutral
Mackey: Warren Buffett declined buying Whole Foods due to Dairy Queen ownership
“Warren Buffett's like the best example, and we actually contacted Warren and asked him if he'd be interested, and he has a good sense of humor, and he said that ah, you know, I own Dairy Queen. I don't think Holfe is a good brand fit for me. And so, nothing ca…”
Oct 29, 2024 negative
VCs are 'hitchhikers with credit cards' focused purely on exits
“I call the VCs I call them hitchhikers with credit cards, and, but what I mean by that is that they're getting into your car, And as long as you take them where they want to get to, which is an exit which either has to be a sale or an IPO... They're not there …”
Oct 29, 2024
Amazon acquisition talks involved a secret location and security searches
“When we were going up there to talk about maybe Amazon buying Whole Foods you know, we were meeting at Jeff's Boathouse, which was next to his mansion on Lake Washington, and, but when we, they wouldn't tell us who the meeting place was until we landed, and th…”
Oct 29, 2024 neutral
Oct 29, 2024
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Oct 29, 2024 bullish
Oct 29, 2024
Oct 29, 2024 negative
Mackey: Professional managers view roles at Whole Foods as stepping stones
“In my experience, they're very, they're not usually mission driven. They've gotten their MBA from Harvard or Wharton or Stanford. They're very intelligent. They work hard, but working at Whole Foods or Amazon, it's just a, it's just part of their career path. …”
Oct 29, 2024 positive
Mackey: Professional managers optimize for career risk while entrepreneurs optimize for experimentation
“That's the job of the entrepreneur is to see things the professionals would not see, or the professionals are making a more calculated decision on is this good for my career or not? Or if this succeeds, will it really help my career? But if it fails, will I en…”
Oct 29, 2024 neutral
Mackey: Whole Foods bulk food sales dropped from over 20% to under 1%
“Our very first store was over 20% of our sales were in the bulk foods department, and we didn't have any candy back then. So it was just whole grains, whole, whole grain flour, beans, nuts, seeds, things like that, whole foods. And today it's under one percent…”
Oct 29, 2024
Mackey: Whole Foods acquired all peer entrepreneurs in the Natural Foods Network
“And eventually Whole Foods ended up, all those entrepreneurs all ultimately sold out to us. So Natural Foods Network ended up being this great vehicle of relationship building that allowed those entrepreneurs to all cash out and make, become millionaires and m…”
Dec 16, 2025
John Mackey: Controlling Investors Are Bad Money That Compromise Founder Vision
“Bad money is worse than no money. Do you remember when I interviewed Whole Foods founder John Mackey? He called bad money hitchhikers. Bad money will pay for the gas. As long as you do what they want and go where they want to go, and slowly you lose yourself a…”