Whole Foods CEO John Mackey: Marketing Genius or Out-of-Touch Schmuck?
This story, as they say, has legs.
Katherine Goldstein, Green editor at Huffington Post, has a poll up connected to this post about the backlash against Whole Foods that I wrote about earlier today. Her poll shows that 55% are "outraged" and won't ever shop at Whole Foods again. Obviously its not a scientific poll but with over 600 comments currently up on Katherine's post, the progressive community is not letting this issue die down so easily.
Nor should they. I think it's far past time that liberals confront what my good friend and fellow blogger, Lee Zukor (he of Simple, Good and Tasty fame), the "Whole Foods Illusion." So what is the Whole Foods Illusion? Well, as Lee said in his comment to my earlier post, the idea "that we can shop the same way we always do in a big supermarket, pay a bit more, and feel good about ourselves." Lee is exactly right. If you care about the environment, if you care about small local farmers, if you care about the food you eat and your consumption habits, then Whole Foods gives you the illusion that you are doing good. But you really aren't, not for the most part. Most of Whole Foods produce is not local, they have a shoddy environmental record, and even the term organic means much less than it used to, partly due to Whole Foods' influence.
True advocates in the local sustainable world have known about Whole Foods' shame for a while now. It's telling that it took a very public spat that wasn't even about food (ZOMG!), to disconnect upscale liberal shoppers from what was, for them, a cathedral of sorts. Whole Foods, as Radley Balko said in his wonderful post on the subject, "is everything leftists talk about when they talk about "corporate responsibility."" It sure was.
That's not all.
I think this story is, to use a current buzzword, a "teachable moment." Later in the day, the same brilliant and gifted Lee Zukor proffered another gem when he asked me if John Mackey knew what would happen when he posted his controversial op-ed. If he did know, and presumably the CEO of a very successful company such as his would know a lot about his customers, and deliberately decided to rock the boat anyway, might it be a way to bring more conservative-minded shoppers into his store? I have no way of knowing, but if this was the intention, his tactics are brilliant for two reasons.
Boycotts Don't Work. Simple as that.
And don't take my word for it, take Megan McArdle's, hands down one of the best bloggers on the interwebs, and a major influence. Megan writes:
Not that I'm exactly sweating for the fortunes of Whole Foods. Quick: name the last time a consumer boycott achieved a result of any significance. (Getting American Airlines to stop using animals in its ads doesn't count.) I have to go all the way back to the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Here's why boycotts don't work: the vast majority of customers don't care. And yes, that includes the vast majority of Whole Foods customers, a surprising number of whom drive SUVs and even--I swear!--occasionally vote Republican. Now consider the demographic that cares enough about health care to actually boycott a company over it. Most of them are a) wonks or b) political activists. The latter group is disproportionately young and does not spend a great deal of money on groceries. The former group is tiny.
You may get a large number of people who say they'll boycott Whole Foods. But then when they're out of extra-virgin olive oil and the Safeway doesn't have organic, and the nearest Trader Joe's is a twenty-five minute drive away through traffic--they'll shop at Whole Foods. Three weeks later, they'll have managed to forget that they ever intended to stop shopping at Whole Foods. The stores are successful because they dominate their market niche, putting together a collection of things in one store that you would ordinarily have to go to several stores for. Shopping in multiple places is a big pain in the butt.
Conservatives are now free to walk around the aisles!
Something that I have been working long and hard on is about to happen, and that is that conservative shoppers will now feel more enfranchised to shop at Whole Foods. When it comes to the culture war, which like it or not conservatives still think and care about, they'll know that John Mackey stood up for what he believed in, even in the face of a customer base that was likely to get very, very angry at him for doing so. Conservative shoppers will respect that. And they'll put aside their long established suspicion of the company now that they've seen Mackey's stripes. This is a huge moment, and one that all local foods advocates should seize upon.
Because the reality is this: the progressive boycott of Whole Foods will fail, and an entire segment of the country that never ever would have come to terms with organic produce and products, will now be engaging with them head on. This is a huge victory. I fully expect to see Whole Foods' revenue bounce from this. Let's not let this opportunity be wasted.
Follow Zachary Adam Cohen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ZacharyCohen
Dave Murphy: So You Want Health Care Reform? Boycotting Whole Foods Won't Help
A boycott of Whole Foods won't make a difference on health care, and it might actually hurt something progressives care about -- organic and natural farmers.
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I know that by doing so, Mackey might—keyword, might—win over some flat-earther conservatives to the side of sustainable practices. But why should we be so quick to embrace this change when it comes at the price of spiteful rhetoric?
It's like the current paradigm shift in Japanese politics. It's not that the Japanese were so willing to embrace a more progressive ideology. It's that they voted in the opposition out of spite. It's a no-win situation for both sides.
And much in the way that driving for twenty-five minutes to the Trader Joe's for extra-virgin olive oil is a pain in the butt, so too will it be for new conservative converts to go on pretending they care about sustainable issues for more than a couple of weeks.
The boycott may not work for some, but it works for me. I was already only an occasional shopper because I was already aware of Mackey's corrosive influence on the organic/"natural" food business. And, yes, my not shopping at Wallmart over the last decade hasn't hurt their bottom line. We'll see if Mackey's conservative gambit nets him enough conservative shoppers to offset the ill will he has sewn with what could have been a natural base.
Marketing can only help you promote good products. You cannot be termed as a marketing genius if your services/products are not up to the mark.
I may only be one of a few, but our family definitely stopped shopping at Whole Foods after his comments and will continue our own little boycott. I'm done shopping at what, our younger citizens with families call "Whole Paycheck."
Word hasn't gotten to New York City. Twenty eight registers and a half hour check out line is the norm. I would put more weight in their sales figures than an unscientific poll or a count of comments to a blog post.
I am finding great vegetables at the local farmers market and at prices lower than Whole Foods and lower than the Von's here in town.
I don't think that I've ever been in a Whole Foods store ever once.
I was a very long time Austin resident, way back. Back to the original Whole Foods store.
Sooner or later, Whole Foods is going to have to fire all of the Yuppies who infected it. Maybe, the board will rehire the Hippies who started the business and, then, Whole Foods will ROCK.
The founders were blatantly political, unabashedly liberal and pro-worker's rights. It was a very nice place to shop and a lot of fun. The local movie theater company, Presidio Theatres, was much the same sort of thing. Between the two, they definitely Kept Austin Weird.
The boycott is failing because it is a really really stupid idea.
Maybe when you get your autocraticrightwingdictatorship you can pass a law that forces the public to shop only at nice Republican businesses.
No,
Core values is what is expressed on the WFM website and it is understandable that many who had supported WFM with the assumptions of shared values felt betrayed by the CEO's editorial.
well see.. GOP is pumping the stock, lets wait for the next quarterly report and see...
E mail Whole Foods at wholefoods.com.
John Mackey's e mail address is: wholefoods.comolefoods.com
corporate headquarters:Â 512 477 5566.
Fax 512 482 7000.
OK scrubbers, lets try this again..
Megan McArdle, I was wondering where I had heard the name before...she was the one who did a hatchet job on Matt Taibbi after the publication of Matt's piece on Goldman Sach's, the really good one with the giant vampire squid! Didn't matter, Matt's piece went viral for excellent reasons.
http://meganmcardle.theatlantic.com/archives/2009/07/matt_taibbi_gets_his_sarah_pal.php
Whole Foods is not a bad company , but it is not what they pretend to be. They are a big box store in disguise. Any informed shopper can find what they need elsewhere at a lower cost. Many times the exact same product. I know seeing I once worked there. I met and worked with many fine people, though I found it to be quite cult like.
I hold no grudge against WF however seeing that Mr.Mackey decided to use his WF podium to spout his conservative nonsense, I have decided to shop elsewhere.
We all have choices in life. He chose to speak out using WF as his platform. I choose not to support his platform. Democracy at it's finest.
Based on the economics, changing demographics and future energy demands, WF in its present form is unsustainable. As the world moves towards sustainability, changing consumer habits and higher energy costs, WF's metric about abundance is their biggest challenge. Local and small will rule the future.
I have to wonder if Mackey also uses WF operating budget to fund the anti-Obama anti-health care lobbyists. We know where he stands and we know he goes out of his way to try to shut down health care reform. Why would he be different than the Oil and tobacco CEOs when it comes to using his company and money to ursurp the democratic process?
I am no longer spending money at WF in Winter Park Florida.
interesting comment. I think we should look further.
Conservatives don't believe in organic food. They think that food sprayed with deadly pesticides is A-O-K.
So they won't be taking more than one trip to Whole Foods once they see the prices.
It was his ego. Not marketing genius.
Republicans and scientists and everyone else that bathes everyday.
rich people don't like lousy food. They want the best. It doesn't matter if it's a dem or repub, all that matters is their income.
I agree. Republicans shop where the bargains are. There are no bargains at WholeFoods. They may make a trip out of novelty, but they'll run screaming into the night when they see a pound of apples "on sale" for $5.
is the point of your post an attempt to demoralize people who vote with their $$? let me tell you, buddy, i quit shopping at whole foods as soon as i learned about their anti-union business practices. months ago. in utah. and guess how much trouble i had, IN UTAH, finding somewhere new to buy my "organic olive oil"? exactly none.
Why are employees of Whole Foods so happy and motivated? They work circles around union grocery store workers.
He doesn't think re-making the whole health system is a good idea...and some people disagree with that, fine.
But , his ideas for reducing the cost of the current system seem very sound. In fact, they are more concrete than the current house bills.
True, a government program could force the cost of insurance down below what private insurers could do. But no where, yet, has the minimal plan been defined.
What would the minimal plan cover? What would be the co-pays, the caps...etc? Without knowing that , no one can tell you what it will cost.
Seeing how far Obama caved on pharma, the minimum requirements will state that you MUST be able to see a doctor at least once in your life, and your premiums can't be higher than $2000.00/ month.
I think this argument needs to be extended to the next logical conclusion-- this will ultimately allow Republicans in the next presidential election to complain about the price of arugula (a true injustice to the common man) and Democrats will be furiously digging up video clips of Fox News mocking Obama for eating fancy pants lettuce instead of talking about important things.
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