Whole Foods

Emily Schechter

October 28, 2005

Friday 3:00 - 5:50

The mission of Whole Foods Market is "to offer the highest quality, least processed, most flavorful and naturally preserved foods" (Nelson and Quick 352). The company uses rational decision making in merchandising and operations by employing a decentralized business structure. This means that ideas can be thoroughly processed and analyzed because decisions are made by people who will actually see the results of changes made. In addition, Whole Foods uses a regional organizational structure which allows the company to make decisions based on what works well in each of their eight regions. This idea exemplifies a logical decision making process because differences in geographic locations can be accounted for. The textbook also communicates the rationality in decision making at Whole Foods by saying that "even though merchandising and operational differences exist among regions, all of them adhere to the company's core values...