1.Whole Foods' first store opened in 1980 in Austin with 19 employees, some of whom are still with the company!
2.Some of the founders lived in SaferWay, the food store that eventually became Whole Foods. There were no showers, so they bathed using the hose attached to the dishwasher.
3.A year after the first Whole Foods opened, one of the worst floods in Austin's history hit the city, wiping out most of the store's inventory and equipment.
4.Whole Foods' first West Coast store was unsurprisingly in Palo Alto, Calif. The company expanded into Manhattan in 2001 and the United Kingdom in 2004.
8.The company has been on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies To Work For" for 17 straight years, ever since the magazine started the rankings.
9.The company has an "open policy" when it comes to salary. ANY employee can look up ANY other employee's salary, up to and including the CEO level. The practice is meant to encourage both discussion and competition within the company.
14.At Whole Foods' Westport, Conn., store, two team members are named "King and Queen of Customer Service" for the month. Each member is given two minutes to sprint around the store, collecting as many groceries as possible.