For John Mackey , popping into a Whole Foods while he’s traveling elicits a twinge of nostalgia. “It’s a little bit weird,” says the founder and former CEO of the empire, who stepped down in 2022 after 44 years at the helm. “I don’t feel relief,” he says.
“I don’t think I really feel sad, either.” Instead, explains Mackey, who recently stopped into Fortune ’s New York office to discuss his new memoir, The Whole Story: Adventures in Love, Life, and Capitalism , “It’s like a child. When the child is grown up, I still love my child.
But the child has its own life, its own destiny. And I’m really proud of how it’s grown up and how it’s how it’s leading its life.” In his book, Mackey, 70, details the birth and early life of the company, from its humble hippie beginnings in an three-story Victorian house in Austin, Tex.
, to its phenomenal growth into a chain of 540 stores across the U.S., U.
K., and Canada, purchased by Amazon for $13.7 billion in 2017.
“This was my last gift to Whole Foods Market,” the Houston native says of his tome. “The idea being that this is our story, and not just this big corporation—that it didn’t start that way. It has a history and a personality.
” Writing it provided personal closure for Mackey. “I got to relive a huge chunk of my life,” he says, adding that he also decided to write the book because he wanted “to inspire people.” As for what inspired the entrepreneur, the list is long—and psychedel.