In 2017, the global net income of Whole Foods Market amounted to 245 million U.S. dollars. In 2016, the company registered a gain in its global net income of 507 million U.S. dollars.

Whole Foods Market had nearly 500 locations worldwide in 2017, nearly doubling the store count over the previous ten years. As the number of locations increased, so did the size of the supermarkets, from an average size of 36,000 square feet in 2008 to 40,000 in 2017.

Humble beginnings

The company, now known as a health food giant, had humble beginnings. Whole Foods Market was preceded by a vegetarian grocery store founded by John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy in Austin, Texas in 1978. The couple went on to partner with another local natural grocery store owned by Craig Weller and Mark Skiles and in 1980 the first Whole Foods Market was opened.

Recent struggles and Amazon acquisition

After years of success, Whole Foods’ profits began to dip as competitors took a greater and greater share of the organic and natural food market. Net income decreased by 12 percent from the 2014 high of 579 million U.S. dollars to 507 million in 2016. Amazon, the e-commerce giant, acquired Whole Foods in 2017 for nearly 14 billion dollars. The acquisition was Amazon’s most expensive to date.

The purpose of this project was to measure and estimate the distribution of income in both rural and urban areas of the People's Republic of China. The principal investigators based their definition of income on cash payments and on a broad range of additional components: payments in kind valued at market prices, agricultural output produced for self-consumption valued at market prices, the value of ration coupons and other direct subsidies, and the imputed value of housing. The rural component of this collection consists of two data files, one in which the individual is the unit of analysis and a second in which the household is the unit of analysis. Individual rural respondents reported on their employment status, level of education, Communist Party membership, type of employer (e.g., public, private, or foreign), type of economic sector in which employed, occupation, whether they held a second job, retirement status, monthly pension, monthly wage, and other sources of income. Demographic variables include relationship to householder, gender, age, and student status. Rural households reported extensively on the character of the household and residence. Information was elicited on type of terrain surrounding the house, geographic position, type of house, and availability of electricity. Also reported were sources of household income (e.g., farming, industry, government, rents, and interest), taxes paid, value of farm, total amount and type of cultivated land, financial assets and debts, quantity and value of various crops (e.g., grains, cotton, flax, sugar, tobacco, fruits and vegetables, tea, seeds, nuts, lumber, livestock and poultry, eggs, fish and shrimp, wool, honey, and silkworm cocoons), amount of grain purchased or provided by a collective, use of chemical fertilizers, gasoline, and oil, quantity and value of agricultural machinery, and all household expenditures (e.g., food, fuel, medicine, education, transportation, and electricity). The urban component of this collection also consists of two data files, one in which the individual is the unit of analysis and a second in which the household is the unit of analysis. Individual urban respondents reported on their economic status within the household, Communist Party membership, sex, age, nature of employment, and relationship to the household head. Information was collected on all types and sources of income from each member of the household whether working, nonworking, or retired, all revenue received by owners of private or individual enterprises, and all in-kind payments (e.g., food and durable and non-durable goods). Urban households reported total income (including salaries, interest on savings and bonds, dividends, rent, leases, alimony, gifts, and boarding fees), all types and values of food rations received, and total debt. Information was also gathered on household accommodations and living conditions, including number of rooms, total living area in square meters, availability and cost of running water, sanitary facilities, heating and air-conditioning equipment, kitchen availability, location of residence, ownership of home, and availability of electricity and telephone. Households reported on all of their expenditures including amounts spent on food items such as wheat, rice, edible oils, pork, beef and mutton, poultry, fish and seafood, sugar, and vegetables by means of both coupons in state-owned stores and at free market prices. Information was also collected on rents paid by the households, fuel available, type of transportation used, and availability and use of medical and child care. The Chinese Household Income Project collected data in 1988, 1995, 2002, and 2007. ICPSR holds data from the first three collections, and information about these can be found on the series description page. Data collected in 2007 are available through the China Institute for Income Distribution.

OBJECTIVE:To identify household food availability according to socioeconomic and demographic factors.METHODS:A cross-sectional, population-based study was carried out in the city of Pelotas, Southern Brazil to determine household food availability in the 30 days that preceded the interview. Availability was considered high when food was "always" or "usually" available at home. The independent variables were: age and education level of the household head, number of household members, presence of children or adolescents, National Wealth Score, and family income.RESULTS:Data were collected from 1,555 households. A high availability of fruits and vegetables (80%) was more prevalent than that of soft drinks, processed meats, and sweets (40%). Whole grains and frozen foods were never available in half of the households. High-sugar and high-fat foods were positively related and fruits and whole grains were negatively related to the presence of children or adolescents in the household. National Wealth Score, family income, and age and education level of the household head were associated with household food availability.CONCLUSION:Socioeconomic factors and demographic characteristics were associated with household food availability. High household availability of fruits and vegetables, together with sweets, processed meats, and soft drinks suggests the complex eating practices of a household, impairing classifying the environment as obesogenic.

For the first time in almost a decade, online retail platform Amazon reported a net loss of 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. After that, in the fiscal year ending December 31st 2024, the net income amounted to 59.2 billion U.S. dollars. Amazon Web Services Amazon does not rely on retailing alone to generate profits. Its cloud business, AWS, is the one segment raking in steady profits with a 24.6 billion U.S. dollar operating income in the most recently reported year. The annual revenue of the business segment came to 90.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. As of the fourth quarter 2023, Amazon Web Services accounted for 31 percent of the global cloud infrastructure service market. Amazon’s other businessesDue to the company’s financial resources, Amazon has the capability to invest in new products and markets, such as online and offline grocery sales. In June 2017, Amazon purchased grocery retailer Whole Foods Market for 13.7 billion U.S. dollars, the company’s most expensive acquisition by far. This acquisition was primarily a move to expand the company's online grocery business, one of the fastest growing online shopping trends in the United States.

Global fast food burger chain McDonald's reported an operating income of approximately 11.71 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. This shows a slight increase over the previous year's total of 11.65 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2022/23 the lowest income decile households in the United Kingdom spent approximately 13.2 percent of their weekly household expenditure on food and drink, with a further 30.6 percent going to housing costs. By comparison, households in the top income decile spent a combined total of 22.7 percent on food, drink and housing costs.

In the year ending March 30, 2024, the British retailer Marks & Spencer generated a total global revenue of approximately 13 billion British pounds in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally. This was an increase of over one billion pounds from the previous year. M&S stores for all needs Marks and Spencer has been established in the UK since 1884. The retailer offers a wide range of products to its customers, from food items to general merchandise, such as clothing, beauty and personal care products and home accessories. There are currently over 1,000 Marks & Spencer stores located in the UK, and more than 400 operating internationally. These stores include the core department stores, which offer a selection of the company's general merchandise and food products, its supermarkets (branded as M&S Foodhalls), home stores, outlet stores, and convenience stores (branded as M&S Simply Food). A mark of quality Marks and Spencer is renowned for its higher quality products, especially the grocery division and its food items. British consumers also value M&S as a department home goods store, as it was voted one of the most popular department and home stores in the United Kingdom in a 2023 survey, four percentage points ahead of one of its main competitors, John Lewis.