A Whole Foods employee speaks out
Not long after I posted Bennett Johnson's e-mail supporting the Whole Foods boycott campaign -- 483 Gate comments at last count -- I received an e-mail from Jamie Nessel, a Whole Foods employee who lives in Oakland. Ms. Nessel is not speaking for the company. Her views, below, are entirely her own.
To be up front, I work for Whole Foods Market. Take what I say with that in mind.
I think if I wrote a blog post about this topic, I would title it: "Boycott Whole Foods? You're Missing the Point."
To me, the level of organization needed to create picket lines, print out information pamphlets and get people participating, and out of their comfort zone, is wasted on boycotting Whole Foods. [CEO John] Mackey has his opinions. Most likely a boycott will not change them. And at the end of the day, the fact is, Mackey does not get to vote on legislation in Congress.
All the outpouring of anger and disapproval from Whole Foods shoppers and others is understandable in the political and economic climate right now. People are pissed that "elites" and "the wealthy" have what they have not. I understand that. I'm mad a lot of the time too.
And Whole Foods is a visible presence in many communities. There it is right on the corner, in that shopping center, down that block over there.
And now Whole Foods has a CEO with libertarian views, who gets the bully pulpit in the Wall Street Journal. And he's not speaking for the poor or disenfranchised.
It is so much easier to aim our anger over there, right in our neighborhood, at the "loudmouth" CEO. So much easier than to find out who is actually to blame for the state of the health care reform discussion right now.
It's just so much easier to be angry at John Mackey than to actually spend some constructive time, working with organizations like Healthcare NOW, or Physicians for a National Health Program, or sending a letter to your representative and senators, or going to town hall meetings to provide a counter-argument to whack jobs who argue against their own interests.
In Congress, John Conyers, [D-Mich.], has introduced HR 676 (again!). It would mandate a single-payer health care system that addresses all of those who are lost in our current system. Why not spend some time working to make that bill more widely known -- to drag the debate a tiny fraction to the left?
And its so much easier to target Whole Foods than to spend time thinking of ways to ensure that any health care bill that gets passed contains commitments to lower drug prices for all of us.
And it is just so much more satisfying to go after Whole Foods than to admit what Business Week said on August 6th in their article "The Health Insurers Have Already Won."
At the end of the day, Whole Foods is an easy mark. Stores regularly deal with customer disappointments with food justice issues already. Why not put the blame there for health care too?
Thanks for listening.
| August 19 2009 at 05:50 PM
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the_shamer
8/19/2009 6:00:16 PMUntil Mackey is removed as CEO, I will not shop Whole foods.
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whenindoubt
8/19/2009 6:11:27 PMGeez, now I've forgotten what I wanted to say...damn passwords. Oh, yeah. The guy is correct- astute and observant. Mackey is a libertarian moron and he is not, as much he wants to be, important.
He should be dumped. Whole Foods otherwise will not be whole.
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sfsmurf
8/19/2009 6:13:45 PMI can write my Congresspeople, advocate for a public health care option, attend town hall meetings AND boycott Whole Foods.
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equalrightsnow
8/19/2009 6:17:40 PMHe just lost four customers with us.
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SharpGirl
8/19/2009 6:20:12 PMI won't be shopping there. He got his piece published because of his position and he was speaking as the CEO of Whole Foods- therefore you cannot separate the CEO from his opinions. Whole Foods as a company should be held accountable for his opinions.
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michaelsf
8/19/2009 6:21:25 PMIf I boycotted every organization or store that havd viewpoints that I didn't agree with - I'd be in a very sorry state! Even some of the the Mom and Pop stores that I go to have owners who go off on some of the craziest tangents ... of course they don't have the ability to have their views printed in the New York Times, but that doesn't make their viewpoint any less concerning.
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spopepro
8/19/2009 6:22:26 PMThere are so many fallacies with this letter. See "Strawman" or "Red Herring", both of which are happening here.
To use the letter writer's language: It is so much easier to construct an attack on priorities than issues. You don't have to be a member of congress, an activist, an employee of whole foods and a CEO to feel disgusted about lining Mackey's pocketbook.
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username withheld
8/19/2009 6:28:26 PMThis comment violated SFGate's Terms and Conditions, and has been removed.
sjcres
8/19/2009 6:40:11 PMWhat's wrong with being a libertarian?
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manoflogos
8/19/2009 6:45:50 PMI see the glee with which you wield the word "mandate." Because nothing is more orgasmic to leftists than controlling other people. Free choice and the ability to live our lives as we want without the heavy hand -- and oh, is it a elephantine weight -- of government crushing our spirit and initiative. And on to Mackey:
Not only is Mackey correct, and not only will we shop MORE at Whole Foods, but it bespeaks the left's inability to tolerate anyone who disagrees with their beliefs. Support gay rights? Of course. But a gay conservative? Hang him! Support minorities? Of course. But Tom Sowell or Walter Williams, blacks who think for themselves? Well, they're Uncle Toms! The Marxist, Che-T-shirt-wearing, economically illiterate (and, may I add, just like Pelosi and Boxer, typically richer-than-Croesus leftists) simply cannot abide the idea that they are not omniscient and omnipotent. How dare a CEO who FOUNDED the company -- yeah, an entrepreneur -- actually say what he thinks? No, bad, bad, bad, say the leftists. So boycott the store. Truly, never have so many spoken for so few.
Finally, leftist geniuses, remember this -- Whole Foods would not exist were it not for Mackey. But you don't grasp the idea of an entrepreneur, only the idea of the government reaching into his pocket and giving it to someone else who doesn't deserve it and who never earned it.
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