Whole Foods CEO John Mackey shot his company in the face the other day with an anti-health care op-ed screed in the Wall Street Journal. He’s managed to piss off his company’s core demographic: liberals and progressives, and in the process, enabled a boycott that could actually work."Shot his company in the face"? "Piss off"? Even if you don't have moderate opinions, shouldn't your "voice" — your rhetorical style — at least be moderate if you're going to call yourself The Moderate Voice. Or was it always sarcasm? You shot your blog in the face. I can say that, because I've never leveraged my reputation with a claim that I'm putting my opinions — which actually are moderate — in a moderate voice — which I think is something to do to the extent that you choose, not to claim to do. But damn, if you're going to claim to do it, you'd better do it. You're pissing me off.
While I don’t normally support boycotts (for the most part, I don’t think they’re terribly well organized or impactful), this one is different, and I do believe it can be very effective.(Hot link added by me.)
Here’s why: Whole Foods has always marketed itself to a fairly educated and financially secure customer base. This is why they can successfully sell healthy (and primarily organic) foods, at a higher cost. The company has also fostered the image that it has an altruistic streak in supporting progressive causes.What? Did you even read the op-ed you are shitting on? Since when is supporting ill-formed, sprawling legislative reform the be-all and end-all of wholesomeness?
With a single op-ed in an uber conservative national newspaper, this wholesome image has been blown to bits. In the course of writing 1,165 words, CEO Mackey has caused more potential damage to the Whole Foods corporate image than an e-coli outbreak in the meat room.
In calling for support of the boycott of Whole Foods, I’m making an educated guess that their average customer is very politically progressive in nature. And that is why, if liberals and progressives quit shopping at Whole Foods, the impact would be quickly apparent to the company’s Board of Directors. By quickly, I mean by this coming Monday morning when the weekend receipts are tallied.What delusion! I'll bet the liberals and progressives keep going to Whole Foods, which is about a high-quality selection of goods sold in a pleasant, slightly posh environment. I don't think people are going there to make a political statement, and I don't think people will boycott it to make a political statement — or at least not to make a statement about their support for health care reform, which, you may note, people are not fired up about. People are fired up against the legislation, and Whole Foods may gain some new customers, but we longtime Whole Foods shoppers go there for personal benefit and indulgence (which may include a smidgen of feeling good about greenness and "fair trade").
On a lighter note, take a few minutes and read the Whole Foods website forums on this topic. The forums have been invaded by freepers and redstaters, with predictably resultant hilarity. If one was to believe the freepers, Whole Foods is going to have an entirely new demographic shopping in their stores. The only problem is: last I checked, Whole Foods doesn’t stock Coke, Cheetos, Armor hotdogs, or 365-brand Instant Grits.There's your comedy in a "moderate voice." And of course, Whole Foods does sell cola, cheese puffs, hotdogs, and grits.
UPDATE: We just went to Whole Foods to get our favorite bread — "Seeduction" — and picked up a few other things — for $80+. Not making a political statement. Just doing what we would have done anyway. And, of course, the place was packed as usual — here in lefty Madison. It occurred to me that the boycott will not only fail, it will backfire. Whole Foods shoppers won't give up their pleasure easily. If they are pushed to boycott, they will want to read the Mackey op-ed, and if they do that, they will see it is a brilliant and specific analysis that is stunningly better thought-out than what we are hearing from Obama and the Democrats. Moreover, once they do that, they should be outraged — or at least annoyed — by those who called for a boycott, who sought to enforce such strict obedience to the particular of legislation that the Democrats in Congress have been trying to ram through. Maybe some of the people who want to support Obama and the Democrats will stop and think for themselves about what health care reform should be.
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«सर्वात जुने ‹थोडे जुने 235 पैकी 201 – 235sheesh ms. Althouse, you must not read T"M"V too often, they slant well past center-left. They were in the bag for Obama, they have always been anti-Iraq liberation, they are shills for Socialized HC, they trumpet GOP scandals and ignore Dem transgressions. They are about as moderate as the NYT. I've always thought they consider themselves moderate because their entire worldview is leftist, and in the group they inhabit they are moderate lefties. But they are leftists, make no mistake.
Joe Gandelman is the worst offender. And media-types love to quote TMV to prove how even so-called moderate blogs support Obama (or in the past disagreed with Bush).
The whole "boycott someone because you disagree with their politics" thing is stupid. I guess every conservative should boycott all network tv, 99% of hollywood movies, every newspaper, almost every popular musician and songwriter, etc.
What is their point? To change the guy's mind? Or do they feel his opinion and writing is so well-reasoned and effective they he is convincing people, and they need to punish him for that? Why not just rebut him? Instead they seek to punish him and so silence him?
Really seems idiotic, the whole thing.
Meade : Pushing the nation closer to insolvency and redistributing wealth were not the changes they were hoping for when they voted for a candidate we all knew all along was short on qualifications such as experience and competence.
People had all sorts of ideas about Obama; he was going to do "things" that were going to get us out of all sorts of messes. That's why people were so mad when Rush was talking about wanting Obama to fail. Rush was thinking about what he knew Obama was going to do; the people who were angry were thinking about what they hoped he would do.
But now, Obama has failed. Even if he succeeds in the Rush sense, he has failed in the sense of all those angry people's hopes.
"Thick, thinned with thick pats of butter covering the surface of the serving"
Now you're talking, my friend.
"repho" - repossess and refinance in one easy step.
Speaking of instant grits, , I just bought a tiny box of those for the first time in my life as an experiment.
Okay, now take off the training wheels. Get some real grits, not instant, not quick, and cook them according to the box directions. It takes maybe 15 minutes.
- eat with real butter, salt and black pepper
- or with sugar and cream
- or add butter, salt, grated cheddar cheese, a bit of garlic, and white pepper
If anyone says anything about it, them'em it's polenta.
Which I bet this idiot wouldn't sneer at even though it's the same damn thing,
The "progressives" are NOT going to boycott Whole Foods. Because if they did, they'd have to shop at stores full of blacks and Hispanics.
Let me explain in words that a wingnut free marketeer like John Mackey can understand: John, it's my money. I get to spend it, or not spend it, wherever and however I choose. It is entirely my decision, and you have utterly no say in the matter.
This is perfectly fine. Just be sure to apply this to healthcare and energy policy while your being such a free market booster there.
@Sgt Ted: The leftie you quoted is more of a right winger than he knows. Substitute "Barack Obama" for "John Mackey" and "Barack" for "John" and presto! He's an anti-tax right winger!
Whole Foods is a bit of a ways away from where I normally shop. However, I am going to try to drop in every now and then on errand day and pick up a few wholesome treats like tabouli and hummus... I never went out of my way before, but I will now.
I don't get liberals. Mackey has never hid his libertarian ideas. His current health care benefit for his company has been in place for years and this was not the first time it has been written about in the WSJ. He also hates unions, is a vegetarian (but still sells bacon :)
I'm surprised Mackey didn't take his usual approach of expressing his opinion by posing as someone other than himself while commenting on message boards.In the past, he's left comments like this on Yahoo Finance message boards while posting as "rahodeb":
While I'm not a 'Mackey groupie,'" he wrote in 2000, "I do admire what the man has accomplished."
Maybe if he had left a comment as "rahodeb" in which he said that this John Mackey fellow sure has designed a swell health plan for Whole Foods, his views would have been better received.
- eat with real butter, salt and black pepper...
Or with sausage gravy, wherever Bob Evans has an outpost
I see docweasel's problem, by the way. Moderates look liberal to conservatives, but conservative to liberals. Your evaluation depends on where you yourself sit on the political spectrum.
I second what Michael Hasenstab said: I've yet to see anyone address the substance of Mackey's op-ed and refute any of his points. He wrote a serious, mature critique and offered specific alternatives. His critics have yet to do the same. Instead, they whine, mewl, and puke because he isn't following the Party line, and they threaten to punish not only Mackey, but Whole Food's employees, suppliers, growers, etc. Very revealing....
So...all this talk of grits made me make them for breakfast this morning.
I add some cheese, like romano or parmesan, to the grits, roasted garlic (which I make weekly and keep in the fridge) lots and lots of butter on top. Salt and pepper.
Grits are really just polenta.
Now I have to make some scrapple....
:-D
Corrected my spelling and verification word is
scrofn = eeeeww hope it isn't contagious
Well since this thread has been gritjacked (kind of my fault), I'll point out that my wife doesn't usually care for grits, but when I put fresh rosemary in them she finds them more appealing. The possibilities are endless.
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/issuesum.php?lname=Food+Industry&year=2008
take a look at where the money is being pumped into the political machine. No doubt, most D's and R's will not be willing to accept that both of their parties are taking bribes from these companies for protection from legislation that might in some way, hurt them, financially. Even though it's killing our people through obesity and it's related illnesses. Like smoking, and tobacco, this country will always have it's head in the sand where their parties are concerned instead of looking at the actual health issues arising from government mafia protected financiers who are poisoning our bodies with their junk food toppling off of shelves in every store and every venue, advertising in every hideous way to our children, and brainwashing us even between healthy looking cooking shows via Food Network. Poor Mark Summers. Give him a tube of vaseline. He'll do anything for a buck. His special features look awesome though, don't they? Go ahead, buy some more High fructose corn syrup. lets see where you end up with your health care! Have you thought about who your providers will be? NO?? You better! They, too, will be unavailable and diseased from obesity from the garbage food in our nations food stores. You won't find too many healthy thin RN's around these days, will you? health care? from who? You better look at HEALTH before you start thinking about CARE. Obesity and it's related disease processes have doubled in this country, 4 out of 5 of our kids is overweight. Stop blaming the parents. It's the government, both parties, protecting a JUNK FOOD MAFIA.
Obesity and it's related disease processes have doubled in this country, 4 out of 5 of our kids is overweight. Stop blaming the parents. It's the government, both parties, protecting a JUNK FOOD MAFIA.
Utter nonsense. People are capable of reading labels, understanding nutrition and making good choices for themselves and their children. It's not the government's fault some adults and some kids are obese. How on earth could you believe that? Do you not have free will to say 'no' to food that will make you obese?
Good Lord, woman, take some responsibility.
The op-ed by Mackey was actually very interesting. That the left would be apoplectic is pretty expected, though. Their cherished sacrament of shopping for their holy and righteous foodstuffs at Whole Foods has just been desecrated by Mackey's blasphemy against The One (argula be upon him). Of course they didn't read the article; they are true believers who are justified by faith alone. Mackey's heresy is sufficient and they have issued their fatwa.
The op-ed by Mackey was actually very interesting. That the left would be apoplectic is pretty expected, though. Their cherished sacrament of shopping for their holy and righteous foodstuffs at Whole Foods has just been desecrated by Mackey's blasphemy against The One (argula be upon him). Of course they didn't read the article; they are true believers who are justified by faith alone. Mackey's heresy is sufficient and they have issued their fatwa.
Oops - sorry for the double post. Google/Blogger commenting drives me nuts.
And "argula" should be "arugula".
Obesity and it's related disease processes have doubled in this country, 4 out of 5 of our kids is overweight. Stop blaming the parents. It's the government, both parties, protecting a JUNK FOOD MAFIA.
Oh for crying out loud. People , adults and children, get fat because they eat too much and don't exercise. It has nothing to do with the government.
It has to do with free will.
It IS the parent's fault. Who buys the food anyway for the family? The kids? The government doesn't put junk food into their pantrys and their homes. If parents can't tell their kids NO on the sugar and empty calorie foods then it is no one's fault than their own. Not some giant government conspiracy.
People need to use some willpower and take responsibility for their own selves.
wv = homie lol
DBQ:
People need to use some willpower and take responsibility for their own selves.
Actually reading Gary Taube's book, it might not be a willpower issue at all. Some people have serious hormonal imbalances which cause them to gain fat despite eating normal amount of calories. No doubt a big part of that is most people consume carbs as the biggest % of their diet.
garage mahal said...
"Hahaha. Then why did they write an apology letter to it's customers?"
Because some progressives are too intolerant of disagreement to let it go without one. Being a business, they don’t want to loose them so they’ll say what they need to. I hope your proud…..
And "argula" should be "arugula".
An argula is a small disagreement, perhaps among farmers.
You claim that Whole Foods shoppers do not go there to make a political statement. In this, you are wrong. Whole Foods has always marketed itself as part of the organic anti-corporate movement, and while not all customers might shop there for political reasons, it is a major factor in deciding to spend $5 for a box of cereal vs. $3 at a chain supermarket. Mackey has eliminated that reason for shopping at Whole Foods because now those motivated by political reasons to shop there will be motivated for exactly those reasons to shop somewhere else. Perhaps not you, but you should not underestimate the political nature of Whole Foods's rise to market dominance. I don't think Mackey, today, is underestimating the factor either and is probably quaking a bit. In addition, his shareholders are probably currently questioning his leadership like never before. Those are just the facts and are independent about what my own personal views on the matter are. Mackey's op-ed was incredibly ill-conceived, very poorly titled -- it made him seem as if he was taking a stand on Obama, rather than on health care -- and used his stature as the leader of a business to make it seem as if he represented Whole Foods and its clientele in general. FAIL.
F&S,
That would've been so much more persuasive if, you know, the various reports of "no impact" weren't already coming in from stores.
Polimom said..."Ann -- did you just skip right over the multiple designations of "guest voice"? TMV runs them fairly often...."
Hey, you wrote that and didn't identify yourself as a TMV author?! Absurd!
One would think that it might occur to these elitist blogtwits that blue collar unions and African-American voters might find this put-down insulting.
"The only problem is: last I checked, Whole Foods doesn’t stock Coke, Cheetos, Armor hotdogs, or 365-brand Instant Grits."
As might Bobby Flay.
An argula is a small disagreement, perhaps among farmers.
Yes, and an agriarguarugulamaranthabrouhaha is a hubbub over what kind of salad green is stuck on the tip of the nose of the Conversationalist-In-Chief -- that very smart articulate op-eder who thinks he knows everything.
But what this puffed up naked health care specialist doesn't know is that he has this little, teeny, tiny piece of green stuff right here, hanging off the tip of his nose.
It just hangs there! It won't fall off! Like if he turns his head, it won't fall off. If he stands up, it won't fall off, if he stretches it won't come off, and when he picks little pieces of his argyle sweater out of his bellybutton it won't fall off.
That little green speck just won't fall off. So I yell at him, I say, "Hey, Chief! Flick that green thing off your nose! What are you trying to do, make me sick?"
For Whole Foods customers, what's the choice? Kroger? Publix? I should think not. They wouldn't be caught dead rubbing elbows with the hoi polli.
So, a tiny storm in a teacup.
More like the Mad, Irate Voice.
Let's hope these geniuses don't boycott Trader Joe's next. That place is crowded enough as it is.
The attack of Whole Foods - one of the liberal bastion of guilt-free conspicuous consumption - and I am a liberal, albeit one with an eye for the amusing hypocrisies of the righteous among us, validates a prediction I made when Democrats completed their stunning victories that culminated with the election of President Obama. That with the decreasing number of GOP enemies, the "progressives" would eventually have to turn on each other. The basis of attack would be ideological purity, and any criticism of the leader would be apostasy. The fly in the ointment as it were: Asking liberals to boycott Whole Foods is about as useful as asking us to boycott Starbucks. And I like my triple shot latte.
I specifically remember, back in 2004, when Bush 43 made a campaign stop at a Home Depot in suburban Baltimore, and almost immediately I received numerous e-mails from local lefties trying to organize a country-wide boycott of the Home Depot chain for participating in such a travesty.
For the next year or more, I was careful to reply to all of these "boycott organizers" and, each fiscal quarter, forward the news to them of Home Depot's continued upwards profits, outpacing its major competitors by a substantial margin.
And for someone who asked way back near the beginning of the comments, yes, Whole Foods DOES sell bacon--though as I recall the house brand is dry-cured, nitrate-free stuff.
In spite of its persistent do-goodie image, Whole Foods got where they are by offering the alternatives of both the cliched food co-op--bulk foods, organic tomatoes, free-trade coffee, etc.--AND more mainstream alternatives such as regular ground beef, bacon, Scottish smoked salmon, instant mac-&-cheese, etc. There's simply no way for any real company to be purist enough for the most die-hard food activists and still be profitable. Plus, there's enough demand at such places that if you want, for example, particularly good quality (but pricey) veggie burgers/tofu/cheese/beer/etc., the option is provided at Whole Foods rather than being stuck with the one or two cheap brands that Safeway/Piggly Wiggly/Giant/Target/Wal-Mart may carry, and the volume is high enough to both sustain the choice and price. Do I feel bad paying the $1.99 for tofu at Whole Foods that the local grocery store charges $3.49 for? What do you think?
The Wall Street Journal's BEST of the WEB approvingly refers to this Althouse post. The blogress Althouse's fame continues to spread far and wide.
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