Thursday, August 20, 2009

Whole Foods' values train wreck

There's a lot of clamor today regarding Whole Foods CEO John Mackey's recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal where he came out against many of the ideas contained in the Obama administration health care overhaul initiative.

Right or wrong, Mackey's POV conflicts with the leanings of many Whole Foods patrons who reportedly tend to support the Obama approach. Quite the social media furor is underway. Over 20,000 Facebook members have pledged to boycott the chain. The debate has prompted a new forum on the Whole Food website with over 14,000 posts.


The image of the original hippy store used to illustrate the "values" page on the Whole Foods site paints an image that does not line-up with the viewpoint of the CEO. Shopping at Whole Foods (and paying the significant premiums involved) is an overt values statement for most customers.

In this transparent era it would seem that either Whole Foods needs to migrate to a less progressive values position or the CEO needs to recant or even possibly resign. The current "values dissonance" will only erode the Whole Foods brand and franchise.

What would you do if you were on the Whole Foods board of directors?


1 comment:

  1. One of my faovrite Bill Bernbach quotes is "A principle isn't a principle until it costs you something." I think this guy should stick to his guns. His points are debatable, but valuable. Too many Obama supporters are giving Barack carte blanche. Wasn't that the criticism of Bush -- that his supporters didn't question him or his decisions?

    He should come out and clarify some of his points further. Take his high deductible argument. Those types of plans cater to the young and seemingly healthy (i.e. a majority of people who work at grocery stores). This world doesn't need more high deductible solutions.

    Whatever. The bigger questions is: Why Don't Republicans want to eat healthy?

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