Whole Foods is a national chain grocery store founded and incorporated in Texas in 1980. In July 2007 it turned out that the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, had been using sock puppet accounts on financial message accounts for eight years to promote the company stock and his haircut. The Berkeley location opened in 1989, was the second in the Bay Area after Palo Alto, and the site is owned by the corporation. In December of 2008 a woman fought off a carjacking in the parking lot here. In February 2009, they announced the lease for Ashby Flowers would not be renewed in July because they wanted to put in a coffee shop or juice bar instead; there was some protest. See also the Whole Foods page on SF wiki.

Some articles about Whole Foods: The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped - NY Times Whole Foods vs Whole Earth - John Tierney NY Times Wall Street Journal full access to subscribers only Whole Foods John Mackey (businessman)