Whole Foods goes small

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

Ralph Caldwell and his daughter Deedee with a tank of their creamy brew
It's Phinney's job to tune in to both frequencies, the farmers and the corporate interests - for example, reminding Whole Foods' tech-savvy higher-ups that "not all farmers have e-mail addresses," while explaining to the farmers that they can't use plastic laundry tubs to haul their produce to Whole Foods' loading docks. ("That's okay for farmers' markets, but for us to accept your product you need to use clean, new, recyclable boxes," she informs them.)

The barrage of questions and tips Phinney puts to farmers gives new meaning to the idea of vendor care. "Call me if one of our produce buyers hasn't contacted you before you place your seed order next month," she cautions Colson as they lean against his barn and look across his dormant fields. "We should communicate about our standards for size and variety, so you don't roll up to the loading dock next summer with a load of veggies and then have us reject them." Rejection of deliveries is rare - less than 5 percent of volume - according to Whole Foods' staff, and usually for produce that's past its prime.

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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.