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The year-old store at Whole Foods' home base in Austin—an 80,000-sq.-ft. flagship and the chief laboratory for new ideas—is designated a "happy" store. All 600 employees attend monthly meetings, and everyone has a say. "We talk a lot about choosing our attitudes and what we're going to bring to the table that day," says store team leader Seth Stutzman.
In fact, all Whole Foods stores strive to be happy stores. The backbone of the company is its highly enforced culture of empowerment. Instead of a hierarchy, employees form teams headed by a leader. Everyone's opinion counts. Hirings and firings are decided from the bottom up, and rule breaking is encouraged if excellence can result. "We're willing to give up some control or allow you to make mistakes," Gallo explains, "and through that, people become empowered, and they get really passionate."
The Montessori-style freedom works. For the past nine years, Whole Foods has been voted one of Forbes' top 100 companies to work for, this year placing 15th. And with its co-presidents, there's even a team at the top. Both men have natural-food backgrounds and have clocked about 15 years with the company. They consider their co-leadership—and mutual respect—an example to their 40,000 teammates. "He's a Buddha. He's incredibly wise and a brilliant retailer," the California-based Robb says about Gallo. "Walter's much more of a risk taker and always two or three steps ahead. And he's a brilliant store designer," the Boston-based Gallo says of Robb, who designed the Austin flagship, among other stores.
Another thing about the Austin flagship: it is a she, like a yacht or a sports car, not a he. "See how this is softer, more rounded, more curved, more welcoming?" asks Robb, pointing to the lines of casings and walls. "A store design is about creating an intimacy or a connection. This is a more feminine design. The colors are warmer, shapes softer. The world was overly masculine in the 20th century, and it needs to be more balanced in the 21st."
Not an item at Whole Foods escapes design. The produce department appears art directed. Vegetable displays are torn down and put back up nightly. Strawberries are stacked airily in their baskets to resemble Chinese lanterns, a technique pilfered from Asian fruit markets. Over in prepared foods, cut fruit and portobello-mushroom kebabs are designed by a woman who travels from store to store training team members to do the same. "Shopping is 60% impulse, so the more the food is presented in a beautiful and exciting way, that all becomes part of the experience," Robb explains.
Inspiration comes from surprising sources: amusement parks (there are benches for fatigued shoppers and touch screens for lost ones); New York City (a nut cart offers a plethora of fresh roasted nuts in exotic, non--New York flavors like chili lemon); even stores like Best Buy (which has lent technological inspiration). And "we're totally impressed with the Apple store," Gallo says.