Whole Foods goes small

The king of organic retailing sets out to find - and nourish - small farmers, bakers and other artisans.

Susan Phinney
Yet becoming a supplier for a big, finicky chain such as Whole Foods is a risk too. Small-business owners may need to ramp up production to meet growing demand. Where will the funding come from? What does it mean exactly to meet Whole Foods' exacting standards on issues ranging from packaging to organic ingredients to even the size of vegetables? Without adequate planning, possibilities can become problems.

Which is why Whole Foods invented the small farmer's friend. Phinney says her job is to safeguard the souls on both sides of the transaction. "My paycheck may come from a big corporation, but I don't see myself as working for a big business. Everyone in the mix is passionate about quality and food: the farmers, the shoppers, my co-workers - all of us are committed to having people eat what's fresh, what's local, what's seasonal," she gushes.

The push to get closer with farmers is the result of a corporate directive that each Whole Foods Market aim for a product mix that is 10 to 15 percent local - that is, coming from within a 25-mile radius of each store. David Doctorow, Whole Foods' regional vice president for the North Atlantic region, created the forager position and chose Phinney for it. Says he: "Not only do we believe that supporting local growers is a key component of our mission, we know it's good business too. Having an inventory mix of unique local products makes shopping at Whole Foods special for the customer and separates us from the supermarket chains that sell the same inventory coast to coast."

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.