Indeed, at a time when wealthier people are moving back to cities, and lower-income residents are getting displaced, debates about Whole Foods seem to double as debates over the very character of cities and their residents. Whole Foods rejects the idea that it targets neighborhoods primed for high-end development. “People use us a gauge of the state of the community, and we don’t think that’s fair,” Sinatra said. But even John Mackey, the Whole Foods C.E.O., has acknowledged his company’s knack for identifying neighborhoods on the cusp of gentrification.

Whole Foods, and Gentrification, Grows in Brooklyn : The New Yorker Monday, December 23, 2013 @ 9:04pm