Say "Whole Foods" and some envision a gastronomic nirvana, overflowing with a healthy bounty worth a premium price. Others shun the store as an overpriced monument to yuppie indulgence.
For those in the love-it camp, like Shea Stevens, these are anxious times. A $13.7 billion proposed takeover by Amazon.com Inc. has Stevens, a 25-year-old Irving, Texas, resident, wondering how the chain's foodie credentials will survive. After beginning as a small specialty store in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods is now poised to play a central role in Amazon's head-to-head competition with discount giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
"I just don't want Whole Foods to change how it is fundamentally," Stevens said.