Aug15 |
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I’m not going to boycott Whole FoodsFor five years in high school and college, I worked at a tiny grocery store owned by a Mennonite Sunday school teacher named Ray Franz. Ray was — is — a good, gentle, man, with a deep bass voice and ready chuckle. Despite a passion for serving the small community where we lived, he also (I learned) had an aversion to politics: He had served on the city council a couple of decades before and found that making hard decisions had been bad for business. And that was that. I thought of Ray this week after John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, angered his customers by writing a Wall Street Journal op-ed opposing Democrat’s health care reform proposals and offering market- and behavior-based alternatives instead. The result? Many of my fellow liberals now want to boycott Whole Foods. I won’t be joining them. We don’t buy a ton of Whole Foods — Trader Joe’s is closer and cheaper — but we do buy some. For one thing, I’m not inclined to punish somebody for thinking differently than I do, unless those thoughts are particularly odious. I won’t be eating a cheesesteak at Geno’s anytime soon, for example, but that’s the exception. Second: For the last couple of weeks we’ve been screaming about the anti-health reform advocates who have been screaming at the town halls. So an opponent of reform comes along and offers a thoughtful-but-still-contrary opinion — and we’re going to punish him for that? If that’s what we’re going to do, why shouldn’t people like Mackey scream and throw tantrums? There’ll be no percentage for our opponents to engage the debate in a rational way. So a boycott is kind of counterproductive. That said, I don’t think Mackey was a terribly smart businessman in all of this. I think it’s important to recognize that Whole Foods does more than sell food. It’s sells an idea of food — you too can be a foodie and environmentally sustainable — that is, frankly, more associated with the left than the right. To the extent that I’ve ever seen “Whole Foods” and “arugula” mentioned by the right, it’s usually been in disdainful tones reserved for the “latte-sipping liberals.” John Mackey has every right to his opinion — but purely as a business matter what he did was bad brand management. |
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Uncategorized, arugula, boycott, health care, health reform, john mackey, liberals, wall street journal, whole foods
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PhillyNow | PW Style | Make Major Moves | The Trouble with Spikol
Thanks for the thoughtful response, Joel. Mackey posted this on his Whole Foods weblog:
http://www2.wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jmackey/2009/08/14/health-care-reform-full-article/
It includes the full (unedited) text he submitted to the WSJ and a short introduction. Nothing substantially different, but it sheds just a touch more light on his perspective.
1. What John fails to mention about the WFM health plan that he talks of so highly is that the company just held a benefits vote, and the returns make the Iran election look too legit too quit. John and the rest of the suits apparently have real hard-ons for no longer covering 100% of the premiums for most employees. Those with less than approx. 5 years of service will soon be stuck paying the premium out of every paycheck, while simultaneously dealing with an EVEN HIGHER deductible.
Now, about that deductible. I would love to fucking know what that mustachioed prick thinks “unnecessary spending” is when it comes to health care. I only recently visited a doctor that I should have and needed to see well over a year ago (it was what you might call “necessary”)because I needed to time to save enough money to meet the ridiculous out of pocket expense. Congrats, John, you created an incentive for me to “spend the $2,500 more carefully,” and caused me a year of suffering and putting off other, often “necessary,” purchases.
2. You latte-sipping, arugala-munching liberal douche bags: as much as I hate having to deal with you every day in the store, please don’t fucking boycott. You and I both know that it’s not going to hurt Mackey, and that any financial effect that the company feels from this is going to manifest itself in a) higher prices for those customers left behind, b) wage freezes and/or benefits reductions for the little guys like me, down in the trenches having to put up with our new wing-nut neo-con customer base (welcome to Whole Foods guys, I’m a homosexual and an athiest and I can’t wait to give you my gay germs)and already unable afford health care under our current system.
I won’t shop at Whole Foods again until Mackey is gone and until Whole Foods supports single payer. Mackey’s effort to take healthcare away from people (the real agenda of his Op-Ed) is reprehensible. I’m tired of abusive behavior from CEOs, and I am determined to fight back every time I can.
a local WFM employee Says: “…You latte-sipping, arugala-munching liberal douche bags: as much as I hate having to deal with you every day in the store…”
Wow, you’ve certainly convinced THIS liberal douchebag to shop at Hole Foods! Not only does my money go to a wingnut CEO, but now I know it also goes to employees who hate my guts! Win-win all the way around!
Fuck you pal. Have fun with the wingnuts, till they figure out you hate them too. Then have fun getting another job.
Hah. Damn people. Dude at number two was making a funny. Have a sense of humor already.
The whole misogynist routine was perfected by Dr. House, but its still damn funny anytime.