The Real Reason Many Whole Foods Employees Are Quitting

Do you like shopping at Whole Foods? Many shoppers have a love-hate relationship with this upscale grocery store with more than 500 locations across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom (via Whole Foods). Many complain about the chain's notoriously high prices while also appreciating its commitment to stocking a wide variety of fresh, local, and organic ingredients (via Whole Foods). Since the store's expansion outside its birthplace of Austin, Texas, in 1984, Whole Foods has become a household name, known for its upscale offerings as well its fair share of scandals — such as $6 bottles of asparagus-infused water it once sold in Brentwood, California (via CBS News).

While Whole Foods has made some questionable choices over the past few decades, perhaps none has been as controversial as the one in 2017 to sell out to online mega retailer Amazon (via Slate). Some customers lamented the corporate changes, such as sometimes-empty shelves and a reduction in local, in-store events like storytime for children (via Forbes). Whole Foods workers haven't seemed too thrilled with the changes that have occurred since 2017, either.

Amazon's 2017 buyout of Whole Foods has affected the grocery chain in various ways — some of which are none too pleasing to some of the stores' longtime employees.

On the subreddit r/wholefoods, user u/goodgirlcheese authored a post titled, "Is anyone else broken up about how much Whole Foods has changed?" The user, who wrote that she has been a Whole Foods employee for 15 years, noted changes such as the diminishing coverage of employee health insurance as well as the removal of employee incentive programs.

"Over the past year I've slowly watched all our best people leave, and it's clear that the magic is gone. I'd sort of planned to be a lifer and watching this happen to us has been hard," she wrote.

To date, the thread has garnered nearly 100 comments, with fellow Whole Foods employees underscoring u/goodgirlcheese's points. "Yup. Wanted my own store once. Love, LOVE being a manager and the way we used to do leadership," user u/Barrrrrrnd wrote. "Now I just feel like I've given a decade to a company that doesn't really exist anymore in an industry I want out of."

The subreddit is full of threads of employees announcing their departure from the company or seeking advice on how to resign. For now, it seems, the grocery store chain's employees are none too happy.