Down with crab cakes! Ban Whole Foods! Mark Morford

Down with crab cakes! Ban Whole Foods!
On the ludicrous outcry against a brilliant, oddball CEO and his unfortunate opinion
By Mark Morford

So it is that the latest absurd micro-furor comes down the pipeline of misplaced lefty outrage, a rather bizarre eruption of wrath aimed at poor little John Mackey, humble and wacky CEO of saintly Whole Foods, who suddenly finds himself waylaid by a torrent of criticism over his rather unfortunate personal opinion regarding national health care, and how basically he doesn't think most people actually deserve it and everyone should just shut up and buy more $10 crab cakes, $14 salads and $8 bottles of fine artesian water flown in from Sweden.

OK, that's not exactly accurate. But it doesn't really matter, because the outcry against Mackey's health care position is, in itself, rather ridiculous, in large part due to its wild hypocrisy, given how Whole Foods ain't exactly a tiny hemp-n'-beans farmer's market by the side of the road and anyone who can afford to shop there is, it's safe to assume, largely immune to the health care woes of the 47 million uninsured Americans who are currently loading up their carts with orange soda, Coors Light and liquid cheese over at Safeway and FoodCo and Walmart.

Translation: Wealthy bohos complaining that their beloved organic supermarket's top (libertarian) exec doesn't agree with Obama on a particular issue? Isn't that like bitching that your private jet doesn't use grass-fed leather in the lounge cushions? Disingenuous? Maybe a little?

Make no mistake: I get it. Mackey is the figurehead, the primary rep of his company, his brand, that overall feel-good, Earth-lovin', we-are-the-world vibe that Whole Foods is fond of shouting from its rooftops. You want to think the guy who leads such a supposedly yummy, ethical place would at least embody what his stores are supposedly selling. It appears there's a painful disconnect. ...

(click here to read the rest)

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/08/21/notes082109.DTL&nl=fix)

this ad?

as "Wing nuts to the left" - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/18/BUFR199UVS.DTL

Looks like the Chronicle's well in bed with Whole Foods.

Morford is an uncharacteristic dick in his piece, I have to agree.

I love his writing, so of course would prefer to always agree with it but he's shilling here. Whole Foods is an elitist, union-busting fake. And I personally think giving them credit for the growth in the organic/natural/local foods demand is ignoring a whole host of other factors. Wal-Mart didn't steal any customers from WholeFoods - the Limosine Liberals who shop there are never going to set foot in a WalMart unless they are in disguise - or suddenly unemployed, which I have to fight with my own worser nature to even try to avoid wishing on them.

Whatever you think of Whole Foods' CEO, crab cakes are still really tasty!

while further enriching the insurance industry.

nothing new here. Glad to see the press get something correct...

... is that it's NOT "safe to assume" that relatively affluent and health conscious Americans are "largely immune to the health care woes of the 47 million uninsured Americans".

The customer action may not be in their self-interest (directly), but good for them to take action for the interest of others.

bother so many people.

it's kinda like 'The Gay Agenda' -- i'm enjoying this.

:eyes:

from my cold, dead hand you'll get this. ;) This is my 1000th post. I think it's fitting that it was about crabcakes. :hi:

Why pay top dollar for two bites of crab surrounded by tons of filler?