Whole Foods Boycott Picks Up Steam

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.

http://allspinzone.com/wp/2009/08/14/whole-foods-boycott-picks-up-steam/

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.

I really like and use 365. And now I can't. I could with great glee throttle that idiot man.

And the 365 fish oil caps cannot be compared to in price. On top of all that, I have to pay $2 more for Rice Syrup at Shaw's.


Damn John Mackey.

www.vitaglo.com

I place an order with them every month. They have organic brown rice syrup for $4.79 for a 16 oz. jar. It is good stuff too (made by NOW foods). Yum. :)

You are awesome!!!!!!

it isn't difficult to reach the $50.00 either. They have a great assortment of stuff. I love the organic hot cocoa mix they sell too! :)

It is great - it is delivered to your door, tax free. ;) Glad to be of service! :)

We've been trying to find a mail order company.

If I place an order, everything arrives within a week usually and I am on the west coast. I'm sure you'll be pleased. Do a search on what you are looking for. I find the prices at Vitaglo to be very competitive and overall excellent quality.

That Dr. Bonner's soap is almost $6.00 a bar plus tax where I live. Vitaglo has it for about $2.50 a bar. All of those NOW products seem overall excellent quality best I can tell and it saves me a bundle!

No more trips to Whole Foods! Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

I buy everything through the mail and these are two places for supplements and such. They have been very reliable. Many other sources of food products are available. ((((Time to start co-ops))))

http://www.luckyvitamin.com/
http://www.thecatalog.com/

Swanson's has flat rate shipping $4.99 and several times a year emails discount codes that give 5% or 10% off the entire order. Not as huge a selection as Iherb but they keep adding more plus that 10% really helps!

http://www.swansonvitamins.com

http://www.iherb.com

thanks!!!

A lot of the stuff at WF was expensive, but 365 products were reasonably priced ... and good! Also going to miss Golden Kiwis, which I can't seem to find anywhere but WF. :-(

you can find your vitamins at vitacost.com. They have such good prices on name brands. Shipping is only $5 per order. I order a big box every 6 months.

They also carry all the lotions, shampoos, supplements etc that whole foods carries.

I have used them for years. It is the only place that I can easily find some of the stuff I use.

C'mon, Whole Foods. Go full Fox News.

Serve the 'real 'mericans.'

If freepers started shopping there it would send the brand into a death spiral. People shop there partially b/c of who shops there. If BUBBA comes in with his Carharts and muddy boots it's going to drive away the people in the skinny jeans. Just sayin. The last thign WHOLE FOODS wants is the freeper MORANS in thier stores.

difference with Freepers? He needed to just keep his mouth shut.

They'll remain loyal to Wal-Mart Supercenters.

By the way, not only are WF customers progressives, but so are WF employees. The WF in my hometown has plenty of hippies working at the store.

No Trader Joe's. Closest one is 600 miles away. We take an empty cooler when we go to Santa Fe just to hold the stuff we get at TJ.

drive four hours there, load up the car, and then eat well for a few weeks.

sometimes my friends fed-ex me TJ's treats:-)

We were glad to welcome her to TJ's.
So what is your favorite TJ Treat?
Mine is Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds
Trader Joe's Roswel. Where I now work. Hubby and I came to Georgia from California to help open TJ's in Atlanta, he (duer lame54 )filmed all the Grand Openings in Georgia.

http://video.google.com/videosearch?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=trader%20Joes's%20atlatnta&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wv#

we moved to GA from LA....We don't have a TJ's here! I have to drive for hours to get to the ATL or Charlotte store.

I just had surgery, so my friend shipped me the pretzels covered in chocolate and peanut butter:-) That's a favorite. I also love the chocolate bars with raisins and nuts. The JoJos. Yummm....

How cool that you guys are part of the stores opening here!! when I first moved here, I took a petition around to get TJs to open one here. Hasn't happened yet!

TJ's does not do anything on credit, as soon as we are in the black for awhile they will open more stores.
If you would like to give pm me a mailing address I will send you a care package to help your recovery be a little sweeter.
My hubby (lame54) helped open the Charlotte store. If you watched the vid you see we do it all. We start with bare walls, plumbing and refrigeration. We put all the shelves together before we stock them, do all the art work and even go out into the community to meet and greet.
Thanks it was the many petitions that made Atlanta the company's chose for the first stores in the south. Hubby just made management (full timer in TJ speak) this year, that's why we made the move from CA. I'm a part timer but as all TJ employee's I have full benefits. We took big pay cuts five years ago to work for TJ;s (worked for Safeway/Vons) and left after our Strike in Ca. Didn't want to work for a Company who had the same mentality as Wal-mart. Happily we are both earning what we used to, so it was worth it.
patty

I had to drive to Atlanta from Orlando last year and brought coolers so I could shop at TJ's before I returned home. Sometimes friends and family mail me snacks from TJs, but we really, really need our own here in Florida!

but it has been delayed till next year. We have to get a warehouse in the south so our ship time will not be so long. Go to Trader Joe's dot com and send them an e-mail. they will answer you.

I'm going to their website and beg them for a store outside the perimeter. I would shop there everyday!

This side of the perimeter has been growing leaps and bounds over the last few years, yet nothing but more Super Wal-Marts come our way. Every quarter for the last 5 years I've dutifully written to Costco to beg them for a store out this way. I can almost recite from memory the form letter I get back each time. x(

Tell corporate to open a store within reasonable reach of the Triad area of NC. The Cary/Raleigh store is over an hour;and anything in Charlotte is over two hours. I swear they'd get business here. We have a ton of Wallyworlds, Harry Peters (Harris Teeter) and one Earth Fare. Could really, really use a Trader Joe's. Surely a three-city area could support one demographically?

I've already sent an email ages ago at the site; I will do so again.

I do hear that both of those stores are doing really well, so there is hope.

in Eastgate Shopping Center, just off 15-501.

That should be a little closer to you. It's also the one I shop at.

:hi:

What a great chain. I've been a fan since I first encountered the stores in CA on a business trip twenty years ago.

Both hubby and I worked for Safeway/Vons in Mammoth lakes, Ca. After the strike we just couldn't work for a Company that treated it's employees the same as Wally World. We knew we would have to take huge paycuts but it was worth it.
It took hubby three months of going into the Languna Nigle store in So Ca before he was hired. I was still in Mammoth, they liked him so much that they hired me six months later.

;-)

Seriously. Don't you think a couple of Fort Worth stores would be a good idea. PM me. I can explain why the market is perfect. Of course so can all of the other cities that want a TJ, but I'm telling you... perfect place for a new store.... market is ripe, niche open. PM me.

I'm just a worker bee. But I do suggest that you go to Trader Joe's dot com and let them know. The south has been difficult laws are very different than California.

I don't understand why TJ's refuses to expand.

That's actually a good thing. Other grocery stores are cutting back because of the economy, we on the other hand have seen our pay and benefits go up.
What store do you shop at in Atlanta?
I work at Roswell and hubby at Marietta. Stop in and see us the next time you are here.

I like that they are keeping the debt to a minumum or non-existent.

Only way to go in my book.

;-)

the employees can create a new employee owned store that is even better than Whole Foods. ..."Better Whole Foods?"

we don't have any down here, just WF.

Been using their 365 shampoo for years. Will be changing to a new brand.

This guy successfully screwed his entire business demographic with this. Definitely questioning his ability to judge anything politically.

Breaking the Organic Monopoly and the “Natural” Foods Myth

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27537

Whole Foods Market and United Natural Foods, Inc.: Undermining Our Organic Future

After four decades of hard work, the organic community has built up a $25 billion “certified organic” food and farming sector. This consumer-driven movement, under steady attack by the biotech and Big Food lobby, with little or no help from government, has managed to create a healthy and sustainable alternative to America’s disastrous, chemical and energy-intensive system of industrial agriculture.


However, the annual $50 billion natural food and products industry is threatening to undermine the organic movement by flooding the marketplace with conventional products greenwashed with “natural” labeling. "Natural," in the overwhelming majority of cases, translates to "conventional-with-a-green-veneer." Natural products are routinely produced using pesticides, chemical fertilizer, hormones, genetic engineering, and sewage sludge. "Natural","all-natural," and "sustainable," products in most cases are neither backed up by rules and regulations, nor a Third Party certifier. These are label claims that are neither policed nor monitored. For an evaluation of eco-labels see the Consumers Union Eco-Label website.


For example:

* Tests Show Widespread Presence of GMOs in So-Called "Natural" Foods

* So-called "Natural" non-organic soy milk products, including leading brands such as "Silk,"are made with conventional soy lecithin, utilizing the hazardous chemical, Hexane, as an extraction agent.

* Dozens of "natural" and "made with organic" personal care and household cleaning products contain known carcinogens, such as 1,4 Dioxane. Just about the only personal care products you can trust are those bearing the “USDA Organic” label.

* 90% or more of the vitamins and supplements now on the market labeled as "Whole Foods," "natural" or "food based" are spiked with synthetic chemicals.

Despite the massive popularity and demand for certified organic products, retailers like Whole Foods Market, and wholesalers like United Natural Foods Inc., continue to push "natural" products at a premium price, while, in effect slowing down the growth of organics with their near market monopoly. In fact, the majority of products sold and distributed by Whole Foods Market and UNFI are not certified organic, but rather so-called "natural.” Meanwhile, independent and cooperative grocers often offer more certified organic products at competitive prices.


Just another reason to stay away!

I strongly disagree with John Mackey's article in the WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

But if we believe in free speech, why would we decide where to buy based on the political opinions of the CEO?

What matters to me is not Mackey's political opinions, but how he treats his employees, his suppliers and his customers.

I would be concerned if Whole Foods was donating large amounts of money to Republican candidates. Is this the case?

Surely we should boycott the corporations who fund right-wing candidates (Philip Morris, Exxon ...)

By boycotting Whole Foods, you are harming all the people who work for this company.

(This is just me thinking out loud here)

Mackey can say absolutely anything he wants, that doesn't mean what he says doesn't have consequences.

Of course Mackey can say what he wants. As CEO of Whole Foods he has a bigger platform and megaphone than most of us. Try getting your article on health care reform in the WSJ.

Mackey is the one harming his employees, suppliers and customers by using his position to advocate public policy that would harm them all. If it doesn't bug you, keep shopping there. Whole Foods is not exactly Exxon-Mobil just because Mackey is a smug Libertarian. There are other reasons to be pissed at Mackey's leadership of the company. This is just the last straw for many of us.

Whole Foods is overall a good up-scale grocer, but it would be still without Mackey as the CEO. The boycott is not to kill the Corporation, but point out that Mackey is a liability and the harm he can do can vastly exceed any "good" their corporate policies provide.

I am long, long, long since quite tired of folks who try to "catch" me in some sort of imagined hypocrisy based on the notion that because I'm a liberal I cannot express a dislike for anything, that liberalism means "anything goes."

:bounce:

ones who really are the ones that shop at his stores. Maybe stores will see that liberals can step up when we need to.

...I wonder how many RW'ers are crowding into Whole Foods for chakra stones, reiki kits, and copies of "Out!" magazine. Those stores are a hippy-dippy oasis. Dude must be clueless.

I have it in Quicken

There are 4 things I buy at Whole Foods, that I can't get elsewhere

I'm going to see if I can order them online...

That's why we called it "Whole Paycheck"...

Haven't "shopped" there for years though...too overpriced...and we hated their anti-union bias...

to get stuff for breakfast and to eat lunch. I also enjoyed the really great folks who work there.

But not anymore.

Mackey can kiss my liberal Ass.

:grr: :grr:

Trader Joe's is in Chapel Hill and about 2 mile further away than WF, but I will shop there from now on.

us in the dust. Who can blame them? They are just following the money and it is easy money. They are called "whole paycheck" for a reason.

Fk em. This isn't some bullshit thing. This is life and death. Everyone who isn't a millionaire still deserves to not be treated like raw meat in the "free" market.

Insurance companies trade human flesh and capitalize on the weak. Their practices are unsustainable and they are damaging the planet.

Our health care process is bloated with unhealthy additives and fillers. Outside, the health care box is nice and shiny. Inside, it is pure cancer.

to her dismay she did not go. Yes, she is boycotting and it is not easy since she will only buy organic. What an arrogant jerk the man must be. The more the word gets out the worse it will be. Progressives and liberals are strong on their beliefs and this boycott may get Mackey fired.

CSAs

And local food Co-Ops...

Look around a little for alternatives...

several years ago.

The few I talked to hadn't heard yet about the controversy, but had noted that people come from Whole Foods here in Portland quite a bit over time.

But they DID remember the earlier boycott of Whole Foods by people here in Portland giving them a LOT of customers when Whole Foods tried the lawsuit thing on them to get their sales numbers to try and prove that Whole Foods "wasn't a monopoly", whether or not the act of doing that would perhaps in fact give them more ammunition to become a monopoly.

My earlier thread discussed this earlier "bad behavior" by Whole Foods, as well as noting some suspect Stock Market message board behavior by the CEO as well.

I suspect that once the word gets out more on what the CEO said, there will be more and more people heading to places like TJ's and New Seasons!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=6303740