History of Managing Vendors, Contracts and Brand Development

Whole Body was the Whole Foods Market's Health, Beauty and Lifestyle department that I managed for 21 years in over 16 stores in 3 different regions and states. Moving from California to NYC in 2006 (and eventually to Virginia years later and now DC) across coasts I nurtured and grew some of the strongest and largest vendor relationships Whole Foods Market has with outside brands. Though my experience, background, and interest is/was specific to sustainable and natural product companies, this work exposed me to understanding bi-coastal supply chains, distribution, and housing of goods as these brands expanded.

Alongside managing top departments, I lead a specialized team that reported directly to the global purchaser for WFM. I was most utilized as the main contact for new vendor assessment where I consulted brands directly to assess their expansion of production assets. This included managing financial grant support in exchange for short-term exclusivity, supporting brand launch to the maintenance of sales data systems. I was additionally responsible for measuring, creation and pricing of custom fixtures, negotiation of pricing regarding taxation, margin, and shipping costs across states, in-store merchandising strategy (including visual merchandising, events, and education), and visual updates to label and packaging.