The 6 States Without A Single Whole Foods Location

Depending on where you live, Whole Foods Market can feel as ubiquitous as other supermarkets. The chain, beloved for its organic produce, hot bar, and pre-made meals, has more than 500 stores across the country. California has more Whole Foods stores than any state, while New York City houses more Whole Foods locations than any other U.S. city. However, it's still possible to live in an area with no Whole Foods presence at all.

There are currently six U.S. states that don't have a Whole Foods store: Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and West Virginia. The brand's international footprint is relatively small, too. As of 2026, Whole Foods is only in three countries: Canada, England, and the United States.

Despite the brand's absence in these six states, residents generally wouldn't mind a Whole Foods Market opening nearby. In 2012, there was a small online petition to bring one to Huntington, West Virginia. A 2022 Reddit thread shows Alaska inhabitants' desire for Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and Aldi stores in their state. Social threads have also been dedicated to wanting Whole Foods in Delaware, West Virginia, and Vermont – though Redditors cited Vermont locals' general resistance to big-box stores, even those that are health-focused, as a reason Whole Foods never set up shop there.

Whole Foods Market opened in Austin, Texas, in 1980. By the end of the decade, the chain had expanded past state lines to New Orleans, Louisiana, and Palo Alto, California. Throughout the '90s, it slowly acquired several natural food stores, solidifying its reaches in the East Coast and the Midwest, with markets in Florida, North Carolina, New England, and metro Detroit. After Amazon acquired Whole Foods Market in 2017, plans for more stores were underway. Amazon specifically targeted new territories, like Montana and Wyoming. By 2019, some states wondered if they'd be included in the expansion. 

Alas, the pandemic hit the grocery chain hard, despite an uptick in online orders, resulting in fewer sales and plummeting foot traffic. Whether that impacted tentative store openings is unknown, but six U.S. states still don't have one. That said, the grocer has broken ground in new states in recent years (a Whole Foods opened in Wyoming in 2021), so maybe there's hope for the outliers. Currently, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, and Montana are the five U.S. states with only one Whole Foods location — all of these single-state stores opened between 2007 and 2023. Nevada and Arkansas are moving up the ranks too, with new brick-and-mortar stores openings taking them to five and three total locations, respectively.