We are a specialty market. Our specialty is YOU.

It all started in 2004, when Bob Arndt and Melanie Harrice Arndt purchased Harvest Organic Bakery, Cafe & Market from Sofia and Forest Wakefield. Both were more than qualified to run a thriving local business.

Bob had logged than more 10 years working in the food industry in Arizona and Jackson Hole. He was an old pro at putting in 100-hour weeks working in sales and management, labored in restaurant kitchens, and was the financial manager for a produce company, among other things. Before that-right out of college-Bob started up and ran his own business with his brother Steve. In the early 90's, he earned a degree from the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York City, founded by Anne Marie Colbin, where he learned about the healing power of food.

Right out of college - where Melanie earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with an emphasis on Creative Writing and would have earned a minor in Psychology except she refused to experiment on lab animals - Melanie was hired to manage a sizeable high-end retail store in Westport, Connecticut, then moved on to run a thriving renowned boarding kennel that housed 130 animals. Public relations work and Grad School followed with a hard-earned Master's Degree in Journalism and a 4.0 average from the University of Arizona, one of the premier journalism schools in the country.

Melanie and Bob moved to Jackson Hole in 1996, following Melanie's parents Cy and Helena Harrice who placed down roots here in 1982. (Melanie and her family had been visiting the valley since she was 10 years old in the ancient era of the 1970s. At that time, the Turner's Triangle X Ranch was home in the summers.) What followed for Melanie was a three-and-a-half-year stint as a beat reporter covering local government for the Jackson Hole News and earning numerous regional and national awards for her reporting, then starting up her own successful full-time animal-care business, Melanie's Mutts, which was the first of its kind in the valley. Bob followed his passion and continued in the food industry, which led him to purchase Harvest Organic Bakery, Cafe & Market. For the two, the workload of running Harvest was no surprise. But the amount of fun they had, was an unexpected perk.

Two years later, Bob and Melanie purchased another local favorite, Jackson Food Town, and soon after, merged the two businesses, naming it Jackson Whole Grocer. Under the umbrella of the new store, the two gathered a number of local businesses-Choice Meats, Hole Fish and Holistic Habitat-transforming Jackson Whole Grocer into a one-stop thriving market where people could find the best of local offerings all under one roof.