Scope and Contents

The collection consists of the internal records of the Fresh Fields natural foods supermarket in its first years, before and after the time in which it merged with Whole Foods Market. It includes alphabetized subject files on such topics as advertising strategy, budgeting, promotions, branding, pricing, presentation, launches of new stores, credit card usage, rewards programs, etc.: correspondence; advertisements; memoranda; reports, including annual reports; statistics; financial documents; store magazines; internal company newsletters; press kits and press releases; studies and surveys; and miscellany.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into one series.

Biographical / Historical

Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas, in 1980, as an early experiment in natural foods grocery stores. During the 1990s, it bought or merged with several other natural foods stores. Fresh Fields launched its first store in May of 1991 in Rockville, Maryland. It did well and expanded rapidly with additional stores opening in 1992 and 1993 eventually expanding to 22 stores nationwide by 1996. That year, it was purchased by Whole Foods Market for $135 million in stock with most of the existing Fresh Fields stores eventually being converted to Whole Foods Markets.