Whole Foods Market has squandered all of its competitive advantages over the years through a combination of arrogant and incompetent senior leadership, hubris, lack of integrity, greed, and perhaps a dash of sheer stupidity as well. It was once a company you could be proud to be part of. Now, however, if you've been laid off, fired, or voluntarily left, count yourself lucky not to be associated with a company that has been caught red-handed deliberately overcharging customers, and whose CEO, John (Wacky) Mackey is closely allied with a suspected sexual predator/pedophile (Marc Gafni --see http://www.alternet.org/belief/sex-scandal-following-whole-foods-guru).
The 365 Store concept is way too little and far too late. It's patronizing and condescending to its target demographic, the Millenials, and insulting to all the Boomers and Xers it apparently deems irrelevant, but WFM honchos are far too arrogant (and old) to understand that. The fact that former UK regional President, Jeff Turnass, whose only "achievement" in the UK was driving it into the ground which resulted in massive layoffs at the regional office, is now presiding over the 365 stores does not bode well either. His job should have been the first to go in the UK due to his failure as president but instead they promote him. If his performance in the UK is any indicator, then 365 is doomed.
So what are the suits thinking (assuming they are thinking at all)? Well, that's anyone's guess but here's my take (please note, I don't have any insider information, these are just my opinions based on well-known facts and information that's available from reliable sources):
First off, they are hoping that the new 365 Stores will be so profitable that they save the entire company---kind of like hoping that attaching a few floaties to the Titanic will keep it from sinking! Secondly, I think they're hoping for a buyout for the WF stores so they can just be free to play with their new 365 toy---noteworthy in this regard is that Krogers bought Fresh Market recently---they don't want to buy WFM, they want to kill it off in my opinion----What company in their right mind would want to buy WFM?---it's a failing business model---kind of like buying Blockbuster Video circa 2000 or Borders Books. Thirdly, if 365 fails and no one offers to buy the WF stores, and profitability keeps declining, then bankruptcy is a real possibility. In such an instance you can be sure they won't tell any of the lower level (including regional office) employees anything until the last second, but those at the top will sail off with their golden parachutes----probably after pumping up the stock if possible so they can sell out at a higher price and after spouting off about what a great future the company has---(remember what happened at Enron?). I sincerely hope it doesn't get to that third scenario, but you can't afford to be naive.
My advice, for whatever it's worth to you, is to get out now while you can still do it on your own terms---start building your network and looking for new opportunities and if you've ever thought of starting your own business or going back to school, now might be a good time for that. Remember, in the early stages, people actually refused to get in lifeboats on the Titanic because they didn't believe it was actually sinking, but just a few hours later it plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic.
For the sake of everyone who is currently relying on WFM for an income or who has invested years of their life and hard work to the company, I truly hope WFM can survive, but I wouldn't count on it.
I wish all of you the best of luck in your future endeavors.