History
Wild Oats was founded in 1987 with the purchase of Crystal Market in Boulder, Colorado. Crystal Market was renamed Wild Oats Vegetarian Market in 1992.
Wild Oats Markets acquired the 11-store Boulder-based Alfalfa's Markets chain in July 1996. Three Capers Community Market natural foods stores, located in British Columbia, were part of the Alfalfa's acquisition and have maintained the Capers name. In 1999, Wild Oats acquired several divisions, including 11 San Diego-based Henry's Marketplace stores (rebranded Henry's Farmers Market in 2004), the Nature's Northwest chain of stores in Portland, OR, and nine San Antonio-based Sun Harvest stores.
In 2001, Perry Odak became President and Chief Executive Officer of Wild Oats Markets, coming from Ben & Jerry’s. Odak resigned in October 2006 after he and the company were unable to reach an agreement for a new employment contract. Gregory Mays, Chairman of the Board, was named interim chief executive officer. Mays is a former chief financial officer of Ralphs Grocery Co.
Wild Oats announced that it would close all five of its Henry's Farmers Market stores in Arizona on 16 December 2006, and would instead focus on the Wild Oats banner in that market.
Read more about this topic: Wild Oats Markets
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“As History stands, it is a sort of Chinese Play, without end and without lesson.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)