If marijuana is legalized you can expect Whole Foods Market to start selling cannabis products, the company’s CEO said on Thursday.
During a conversation hosted by The Texas Tribune, an audience member asked John Mackey whether his company would consider selling “alternative proteins” such as insects. Mackey said yes, and then, unprompted, he brought up marijuana.
“If cannabis is ever passed in Texas, chances are good that grocery stores will be selling that too,” he said. “You just never know what happens over time with markets. They change and evolve.”
“Let’s see what happens with the market and the government regulations over time,” he said.
It’s not much of a surprise that Mackey is open-minded about putting cannabis products on Whole Foods shelves. In 2013, he voiced support for marijuana legalization in an interview with Mother Jones.
It would also seem to make good business sense generally for Whole Foods to plan an entry into the cannabis business. Perhaps that’s why the company, which was acquired by Amazon in 2017, recently enlisted a “seasoned trend-spotter” to make predictions about the hottest items for 2019, and hemp products made the top-10 list.
Chances are ‘good’ that Whole Foods will sell marijuana products, CEO says
