“We wanted to preserve as many jobs as possible, so when our sales continued to decline in August 2008, we did about a 5 percent reduction of our global staff. But in order not to cut any more jobs, we froze everybody's pay and put a hiring freeze on.”

American businessman and author

John Mackey is an American businessman and author. He is best known as the co-founder of Whole Foods Market and for leading the company as chief executive from its start in 1980 until his retirement in 2022. He later became the chief executive of Love.Life, which he also co-founded. His public profile is tied to business leadership, entrepreneurship, and the company he helped build into a major name in food retail.