when John Mackey and his then Girlfriend Renee Law-son opened their first vegetarian

food store in 1978, their ambition was to make a simple living, have fun, and help people live
healthy lives by eating better. A bearded, shaggy-heired collage dropout, mackey had just turned
twenty five years of age and thought profit was a “necessary evil”.
yet in old an Victorian home in austin, texas, he and his girlfriend began selling bulk food
and produce and slept on a futon in the third-floor office above the store. they called their little
grocery safer way, a cheeky play off the behemoth chain safeway. even though they didn’t take
any salary, the pair manage to lose half their capital in the first year - $23.000 out of $45.000. in
year two, they turned a $5.000 profit but realize the store was too small to compute over the long
houl. “ I wanted to do a bigger store and I pitched the original investors who had already lost half
their money ” recalls Mackey. “of course, they didn’t think It was a very good idea”.
they told mackey to say in his current location and prove that his concept could be
successful. “I learned enough by then to know we needed to be in a bigger location. they said “if
you can find somebody else to put in more money-another $25.000 to $50.000 – we’ll look at it.”
their basic strategy was to hope that I wouldn’t be able to find someone dumb enough to invest
an more in this thing.
his investors underestimated mackey’s persuasive abilities.