Whole Foods Market (Nasdaq:WFMI) today announced sales and earnings for the fiscal quarter ended July 2, 2000. Core retail sales during this 12-week period were a record $443 million, an increase of 23% over sales of $361 million for the same period of the prior fiscal year. This brings year-to-date core retail sales for the 40-week period to $1.4 billion, an increase of 23% over sales of $1.1 billion in the prior year. Comparable store sales increased 8.1% for the quarter and 8.6% year-to-date. Sales in identical stores (excludes 3 relocated and 1 remodeled store) increased 6.5% for the quarter and 7.2% year-to-date. The four relocated and remodeled stores saw an average 83% increase in square footage. As the Company continues to relocate smaller stores to larger boxes with better parking and visibility, it expects to continue to see a similar variance between comparable and identical sales increases.