Step 1 : Introduction to the question "What chain did John Mackey found in Austin, Texas in 1978 under the name SaferWay?"
In 1978, John Mackey borrowed $45,000 from family and friends to open a small vegetarian natural foods store called SaferWay in Austin, Texas (the name being a spoof of Safeway). Two years later, Mackey joined his rival Clarksville Natural Grocery to open the first Whole Foods Market, with a staff of only 19 employees. Over the course of the next 38 years, CEO and co-founder John Mackey would take it from a small natural foods store in the hippie haven of Austin, Texas, to an international behemoth. In 2017 Whole Foods was acquired by Amazon.com for $13.7 billion.