Whole Foods has had quite the ride.
CEO and co-founder John Mackey took it from a small natural foods store in the hippie haven of Austin, Texas to an international behemoth. It was only 10,500 square feet with 19 employees.
But the idea of natural food stores was only beginning, and as one of the first in the country, the seed that Mackey planted blossomed.
Through acquisitions of natural food stores around the country, though, the chain became larger and larger and had ambitious growth plans, but was also humbled a few times in its history.
Before being purchased by Amazon for $13.7 billion, Whole Foods weathered financial downturns and FTC probes as it grew into the US' largest natural grocery chain.
Now that it's owned by Amazon, a new chapter is about to begin. Plenty has been said about what might change for the chain now, but it's also important to see what has changed for the chain in the past.
We've put together a timeline with some of the most important moments in Whole Foods' history.
In 1978, John Mackey opened Safer Way Natural Foods in Austin, Texas.
By 1980, he merged with another local natural food store, Clarksville Natural Grocery, to open the first Whole Foods Market on September 20th. This original store was destroyed in a flood in 1981, but the community rallied around it and it was only out of business for 28 days.
Much of Whole Foods' growth was through mergers and acquisitions. It frequently moved into new markets through buying a local chain and converting it to a Whole Foods. By 1984, Whole Foods expanded to nearby Houston and 600 employees, and in 1988 bought the Whole Food Company in New Orleans for its first expansion outside of Texas.
See the rest of the story at INSIDER