Saturday, August 15, 2009

boycott whole foods

This is why the Whole Foods boycott is interesting: Whole Foods' customers are educated people with time and money on their hands. That's why they shop at the stores to begin with; they make choices. They are more likely to bother with finding alternatives than someone who is pressed for time and money.

I'm invested in health care reform. The words "pre-existing condition" carry more weight when they apply to you, I can assure you that.

I will not spend my money at a store whose CEO is out to make it harder for the bill to pass. In his Wall Street Journal piece he says,

While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?

I happen to think that food and shelter are rights too, in a decent society. But, then again, I don't make my money selling one or the other.

6 comments:

Ingegerd said...

I just want to come home so I can start never shopping there again - it´s hard to boycott from the north of Sweden.

I´m amazed at the whole thing - does the man know his customers? Someone should have introduced the concept of customer profiling before he blurted out his political agenda?

Lotta K said...

I wonder what the discussions sounded like, "oh, they love us so much I can say what ever I want?"

I read somewhere that Mackey sold $1.4 millions' worth of shares in the company like last week.

Umepojk i Mason, Ohio said...

Not that I agree with Mr. Mackey (nor do I shop at WF too often), but if I would boycott every company that is led by a CEO with similar beliefs, I would be naked and starving. Capitalism is acting like it's on steroids, and now has no other goal than the short-term enrichment of the very few at the top of each company. I pray (although I don't know to whom) that Obama stays strong and keeps the public option in his healthcare proposal.

Lotta K said...

Lennart, I used to shop almost exclusively at Whole Foods. There is one close to where I live, and I love(d) that I could get a range of things that I like or need (organic food, non-toxic cleaning products, non-soy vitamins and supplements) all in one place. I've spent A LOT of my money there. Now I just don;t want to give it to them anymore. It might not be completely rational, but health care reform is personal to me; I am a freelancer, and I've been really sick. Mackay's op ed piece was appalling.

Umepojk i Mason, Ohio said...

I agree that some of his suggestions and views are appalling. I shop at Kroger's, and I'm pretty sure their CEO thinks the same way, as does a large portion of the American people. This is THE ONE issue in US that I just can't understand. Unfortunately, I'm getting more and more worried that Obama won't get a meaningful bill through congress.

Lotta K said...

Yeah, but I think the difference is that Whole Foods has capitalized on the image brought to them by their progressive. liberal, customer base. If I turn to Safeway with my money at least I am not feeding a lie. (And then, of course, I have to spend a certain amount of time tracking down stuff Safeway doesn't carry. So far that includes Trader Joe's, and delivery of a box of organic fruit and veggies from local farms.)