When a new Whole Foods opened its doors on Camelback Road and 20th Street in September 2013, the Valley buzzed about it for weeks. Facebook posts and newspaper ink were dedicated to the occasion -- despite the fact that there were already a few locations in the Valley.
The excitement was a testament to consumers’ desire for organic products on the dinner table, a “fad” that has existed since co-ops of the late 1960s and became mainstream thanks to an $88 billion natural food retail industry. Author Joe Dobrow, a former executive at Whole Foods and Sprouts Farmers Market, explores this in, Natural Prophets: From Health Foods to Whole Foods — How the Pioneers of the Industry Changed the Way We Eat and Reshaped America.
Meet the author at 7 p.m. Friday, February 21, at Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 South McClintock Drive in Tempe. Copies of the hardcover are $27.99. Call 480-730-0205 or visit www.changinghands.com.
Fri., Feb. 21, 7 p.m., 2014
