Biography|John Mackey — The First Whole Foods Opened in the 900 Block of Lamar

On 20 September 1980, four Austin shopkeepers opened a 10,500-square-foot natural-food supermarket in the 900 block of North Lamar Boulevard.

John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy brought SaferWay, the shop they had started in 1978.

Craig Weller and Mark Skiles brought Clarksville Natural Grocery.

The merged store was named Whole Foods Market.

It opened with a staff of 19.

SaferWay had refused meat, coffee, and refined sugar.

The new store sold meat, beer, and wine on purpose.

The founders wanted a larger Austin than the co-op crowd.

Within six months it was the highest-volume natural-food store in the United States.

The building sat near Tenth Street and Lamar.

It had been a nightclub.

It sat in a known floodplain.

Mackey went ahead anyway.

The original grocery is gone.

For years a Goodwill occupied the block.

That shop later closed too.

The company's later flagship rose a few blocks south, at 525 North Lamar Boulevard, with offices at 550 Bowie Street.

A visitor at Tenth and Lamar is standing on the site of the first bet, not inside the store that made the brand famous.

Company timelines still date the chain from this block and this day.

The date on the door was 20 September 1980.

Everything after that date is a chain.

The pin is the 900 block, not the later flagship.

Photo: Joe M500, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (John Mackey, 2009).