Whole Foods Backlash: Bloggers Outraged Over CEO's Anti-'ObamaCare' Column

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's recent Wall Street Journal op-ed on health care which argues against President Obama's health reform proposals has caused a firestorm throughout progressive communities and on HuffPost.

Mackey wrote:

"The last thing our country needs is a massive new health care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health care system."

He instead suggested healthy food -- preferably purchased from Whole Foods -- as an answer to our health care woes:

"Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat."

HuffPost News Editor Lila Shapiro points out:

For those of you who are tempted to follow Mackey's advice (and can afford it!) be warned: not all of the foods found at Whole Foods will actually make you healthy. As Mackey himself admitted [recently], "Basically, we used to think it was enough just to sell healthy food, but we know it is not enough. We sell all kinds of candy. We sell a bunch of junk."

HuffPost bloggers have taken some strong stances on the issue.

Ben Wyskida has decided he's done with shopping at Whole Foods, not only over the health care op-ed, but because he disagrees with many public stances Mackey has taken, like his opposition the the Employee Free Choice Act:

To me, it's pretty basic: Mackey is working to oppose things I believe in, so I should stop giving him money. That's not easy: I spend a lot of money on food. I also spend a lot of money at Whole Foods.

Wyskida's blog received enthusiastic support on Facebook, with the vast majority of commenters declaring they'd boycott, and one reader stating she'd even sold her stock over the issue.

Also on HuffPost, Ethan Nichtern declared that he's no longer shopping there:

I am not going to support [Mackey's] cognitive dissonance.... with any more of my hard-earned local-organic-neo-hippie-spinach money.

Waylon Lewis says he will not boycott Whole Foods for some of the following reasons.

Whole Foods is a vast organization, with thousands of staff, many if not most of whom disagree with John's idealistic, superior Libertarian views. We live in a democracy, with a lowercase "D." We don't have to hate those we disagree with--we just have to beat them at the polls, and in the halls of Congress.

John doesn't own Whole Foods. It's public.

Quick Poll

Will you boycott Whole Foods Over the CEO's political views?

I'm outraged and I'm not shopping there again.

I disagree with his views but I don't think it's worthy of a boycott.

Hey, it's a free country, he can say what he wants. I'm not make my shopping choices based on this.

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[Scriobhaim]

12:43 PM on 08/28/2009

The sad, the pitiable, the appalling thing is, most of the people who have "voted" that they're "outraged" (always a cool thing to be and gets you a round of applause on Oprah) at Mackey's article... haven't read it. If they had, they would know that 1) Katherine Goldstein is an unadulterated liar and 2) that Mackey hardly wrote anything to be "outraged" at.
Goldstein intentionally (read: lyingly) writes this article to make it sound like Mackey REALLY wrote, "Hey, folks, you don't need insurance! Just buy Whole Foods!" And he didn't. So, if I haven't made the point clear enough for those who are still dizzy with gratuitious outrage: that means Goldstein lied.
Mackey laid out a number of very reasonable objections and serious alternatives for seeing that everyone might gain health insurance coverage. And, by the way, he broached the topic of prevention, too (I thought liberals were FOR that?).
Yeah, I guess the man needs to be lynched for speaking his mind. This is Obama's Brave New World, I suppose. Oh, and boycott Whole Foods so that none of his employees have jobs, or health care, too. Brilliant.

[Alex Cerrilla]

12:26 PM on 08/31/2009

C'mon, it's not like it's not like it was that daunting a task to read the damn thing.

How can you not find his implication objectionable that just because healthcare wasn't in the original draft of the constitution that it therefore isn't a right? Last time I checked, the original draft also claimed that black people were 3/5 of a person.

The coup de grâce was when he follows that chestnut up with the same right-wing diatribe that "government bureaucrats" in more socialized countries regulate what treatments you do and don't receive.

[mados123]

05:05 AM on 08/27/2009

Good points made but the reality is that not everyone can afford "whole foods", not everyone works for a company like wf and not everyone has health care. While eating healthier is good advice, efforts to manage health care costs for less fortunate people should, at minimum, be honestly debated. Not used as a marketing opportunity for someone who is more fortunate and looking for free promotion.

[pmbrown]

08:19 PM on 08/26/2009

No, John Mackey just wants us all to work at Whole Foods. I want to work at Whole Foods for the excellent benefits.

[RCWW]

12:24 PM on 08/26/2009

I would love to have been able to participate in the poll, but the correct option was not allowed. You should have offered the option " I strongly agree with Mackey and will now start shopping at Whole Foods, even though I will have to travel many miles to find one,"

[JulieDole]

11:31 AM on 08/25/2009

Has anyone else noticed that Mackey's Op-Ed was just a stealth ad for Whole Foods? ome on, the CEO of Whole Foods essentially said, "buy more of the kind of stuff we sell." I mean, I eat plenty healthy, always have, always will, and I do my exercise, blah blah blah... but I currently don't have health insurance, since I'm freelance, and my coverage often ends between jobs.

It's a cynical sham to suggest eating well negates the need for comprehensive health care, pure and simple. We absolutely need a public option to the current economic rationing of health care, same as the US Post Office gives us an option vs. UPS and Fed Ex. It's the Post Office that affordably delivers your basic mail every day, not the other two. Try to mail a letter by Fed Ex - it's not 44 cents, is it?

Oh - and even though I can walk to WF, I typically go to Trader Joe's, just because they sell most of the same items (or similar items) more cheaply.

[nomadic]

07:56 AM on 08/25/2009

While I disagree with Mackey's cynical outlook and agree with him that people should eat healthier he seems to have missed the boat as to why nation healthcare reform is so important- even healthy people get sick. Some healthy people are having a hard time staying employed along with the less than healthy. They all have a problem getting insurance. The insurance companies have conspired to keep things as bad as they are.
He seems to have missed the lacking ethics of profiting off of sick (and healthy) people. By the same token some people could educate themselves, and why build roads and why have a military or government of any kind? Human beings existed long before civilization and the amenities arrived.
As a society some people are being held unfairly out in the cold. Like the other amenities we've grown accustomed to health care is fundamental because a lot of people get sick in society, even the healthy vegans.

[burndiscoinferno]

01:13 AM on 08/25/2009

Return the Sausage!

[patsydecline]

07:10 PM on 08/21/2009

the pink,

what happened to yoga on your list ...
certainly anyone who does yoga couldn't be bad...
this list included yoga when it was posted on the boycott whole foods page on facebook...
but in both places you forgot to include how mr mackey posted under another name
100's (i believe) of negative comments about wild oats(his competition) on a finacial chat site...
and eventually took the company over...

[patsydecline]

07:35 PM on 08/21/2009

oh the pink,
and something more for your list--( i just read this today)
did you forgot about the money mr mackey gave to tom delay...
certainly that speaks to his moral compass...
as much as yoga does...

[fordhamflash]

07:00 PM on 08/21/2009

That is the stupidest poll I've ever seen. Choices are (a) Really disagree; (b) disagree; or (c) sort of disagree. What the heck is that? How about an "option" where the person responding to the poll might render an opinion favorably? Hmmm?

[venusvictrix]

01:26 AM on 08/27/2009

It could be stupid, or it could be brilliant. Depends on what its to be used for.

Obviously it is not designed to produce any valid scientific analysis.

Maybe HP is getting paid to help promote the ObamaPlan, and they've cleverly disguised their "message" as a "poll".

That's clever.

[thepink]

02:52 PM on 08/21/2009

Do you all know WHO you are boycotting exactly?

* Mackey lectures at Universities about the horrors of factory farming
* He makes $1 a year and donates his stock portfolio to charity.
* He set up a $100,00 fund to help his employees with personal problems.
* He’s a vegetarian and his company will not buy from producers that treat their animals unethically.
* He flies commercial, rents the smallest cars, and stays in the cheapest hotel rooms - not because he’s cheap, but because he has no need for largesse
* He gives over $1 million a year to animal welfare groups, education, relief work, and spiritual movements.
* Employees have full say in who they work with - a new employee must receive a 2/3 vote in order to make it past probation.
* Employees also vote on all company-wide initiatives
* There’s a salary book in every store - “no secrets” management believes everyone should know how much everyone else is making
* Executive salaries are capped at 14 times the lowest workers salary - If they want more money, everyone else has to get more money first
* Non-executive employees hold 94% of company stock options
* Pay is linked to team performance
* At least 5% of annual profits go to local charities
* Full-timers get 100% of their health care costs paid for - under plans the employees have selected

So he had a differnt opinion. so what?

[Philament]

04:15 PM on 08/21/2009

Great comment. Yeah, I hope whatever backlash there is it passes soon because I'd like people employed at Whole Foods not to be affected by angry feelings about the company founder. Though I strongly disagree with Mackey here, I've long been impressed with the way he set up the company. And 1 $ / year - that's really impressive.

As for me, I stopped shopping there long ago. We have Trader Joe's and PCC Natural Markets around here - less expensive versions of the Whole Foods empire.

[patsydecline]

07:16 PM on 08/21/2009

yes i do know who i'm boycotting...
and i belive many others do as well or are at least getting wise to the smoke and mirrors...
but sad yoga was taken off the list...

[rhett1824]

01:41 PM on 08/21/2009

Hmmm, a guy who knows something about running a successful business voices an mostly rational opinion based on lifestyle choices and the affects on healthcare and an understanding of deficit spending. Did I totally miss the bus on this one?

[simplyaskin]

01:33 PM on 08/21/2009

What's wrong with what he said?

[ginop]

12:06 PM on 08/21/2009

Here's the problem from a marketing perspective. The vast majority of WF customers lean liberal or progressive. Thus, when the CEO says something that appears to run contrary to that political leaning, it creates dissonance and possible mistrust because the WF brand is perceived to be in line with those beliefs. We often buy products and frequent certain stores because we believe they are a reflection of our values and, perhaps most importantly, we are even willing to pay more for that very reason (which explains why people pay more for a Prius). Whole Foods now has an image problem with some, perhaps many, of its base customers. Will some people continue to shop at WF? Sure -- because it's convenient or because they like their products. But others, now burned by this values disconnect, will not. The question moving forward is -- will enough of the company's base target market now choose to shop elsewhere or is this just a small ripple in a very big grocery pond? We shall see. One thing, though, is different. Bad news travels like lightning these days with blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, etc. That should make any company CEO take notice and think twice about his or her comments, regardless of their political leanings.

[goodspkr]

10:34 AM on 08/21/2009

Wow! I guess there isn't a lot of room for disagreements in the left side of the aisle.

Of course I've seen the posting about voting out the blue dogs and replacing them with "real" democrats. The problem is with 40% of the country being conservative and only 21% being liberal, you lose your majority if you do it.

And what happens if your boycott works and Whole Foods goes out of business. What have you gained?

[thepoliticalcat]

08:25 PM on 08/26/2009

That's inaccurate. The actual numbers tell a different story. Now that we have Google, yaknow, it's a little difficult to distort the truth.

[average Joe]

10:30 AM on 08/21/2009

I spend hundreds of dollars every month at Whole foods. I will join the boycott and will not shop at Whole Foods.