Stale Granola: Laissez-forget it.

• Author: Rimensnyder, Sara
• Position: Citings - Brief Article - Company Profile

CORPORATIONS DON'T get much more civic street cred than the Whole Foods grocery chain. Even ultra-hip, ultra-socially aware rocker Ani DiFranco has been spotted wandering its aisles.

The company, founded two decades ago in Austin, Texas, now feeds punk rock gourmands and health-conscious yuppies nationwide. Whole Foods has helped to grow a mass market for organic food while making a bushel of money ($62.9 million in pro-forma income in 2001). Its management ethic also wins kudos: Executive salaries are capped, stores donate to local charities, and employees receive a decent wage (the bottom rate at one Los Angeles store is $9 an hour) and flexible benefits that, at least at some locations, can be extended to their partners, gay or straight.

Despite that track record, plans for a new Whole Foods store in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood recently fell through--apparently because the city was trying to prevent the exploitation of local workers. Just before the deal was to be finalized in...