Whole Foods Market and "whole foods" (unemployment, wage, generations)

[Beenhere4ever]

Originally Posted by Bily Lovec

thats the only reason I need to shop there.

And you aren't going to care what beasties come with your food, anyway.
As a full-fledged supporter of the 1 percent, you'll pay whatever the freight is they ask. So my message is for those who do care and would rather search for some alternative.

[An Einnseanair]

Originally Posted by bchris02

Whole Foods are pleasant stores to shop in and where I live, its the only real alternative to Wal-Mart or Target. They also have a much wider selection. I'll keep shopping there until I have a better, cheaper option that's not Wal-Mart or Target.

This is amazingly sad...

Wal-Mart and Target killed off the chain grocery stores. Before that it was mom-and-pop grocery stores. I'd rather shop in a dinky mom-and-pop store or produce stand any day than any chain. And I try to avoid Wal-Mart at all costs.

[artisan4]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Years ago, I stopped going to Whole Foods Markets. I was an original co-op participant going way back, one of the local ones was even named Whole Foods. I came to the conclusion that Whole Foods Market was a bit of PR blurring. The insides looked pretty, but their use of "whole foods" didn't square with my past experience of what that meant.

Recently a question came up with a local person recommended the store for protein powder. All I could say was that I always found Whole Foods to be pricey. The person was living on $5 and hour and didn't seem at all like the customer profile Whole Foods aimed at. But that did make me want to visit a store to see if time had led to big changes I'd missed.

Short answer: No Pretty much the same store. Prices vary from a little high to very high. But the customers can afford them or the store would be o ut of business.

But I did catch a political statement by their CEO that made me curious. So I websurfed to find out more things. I follow FDA recall notices, and Whole Foods have had a bunch. They are really no better than a WalMart or Target on quality. Which is odd since they base their upscale pricing on "our quality is superior".

Now I've found out a couple of other things. Their top management is anti-union. The CEO has fought unionization campaigns in the Tea Party heartland of Wisconsin. Also, they "endorsed" a California initiative on genetically modified foods labeling. But they route money to politicians who claim the labeling is a bad idea. So that seems pretty much a PR campaign. I also notice that no matter what you Google with "Whole Foods Market", their links come up first. Which makes me wonder how they pull that off. You fill a whole screen with their web pages on every issue. Can you pay Google for that. If you have a lot of money, can you game Google to do that?

At this point, their prices have become seondary. If they can't go all in for truly natural foods (not created in a lab), they aren't "whole foods". It is a matter of definition, and they were late in the use of the phrase whole foods. Like all corporate chains, you take your health in your own hands if you go there. Best to stay on top of the FDA recalls. Meanwhile, I'll go back to stores where my shares give me voting rights.

I also stopped shopping at 'Whole Paycheck' once I found out their CEO, MacKey, was a right-wing, anti-worker fanatic. They would be the 'domestic' part of 'enemies foreign and domestic'.

[hnsq]

Originally Posted by artisan4

I also stopped shopping at 'Whole Paycheck' once I found out their CEO, MacKey, was a right-wing, anti-worker fanatic. They would be the 'domestic' part of 'enemies foreign and domestic'.

anti-worker? Are you serious? Whole foods pays their workers an average of $15/hr when the national average is around $9/hr. Everyone who works for Whole Foods (even the guy stocking shelves) gets health care after they have worked for 400 hours. After 800 hours, their premium is lowered to $10, and after 10,000 hours (around 5 years) health care has absolutely no cost to the worker. They also give dental, vision, life insurance, a 401k, gainsharing and stock purchase plans to everyone, including the lowest level workers. They have the highest employee retention of any retail chain, and have been voted one of the top 100 companies to work for every year since their inception.

They are anti-union because unionizing would ruin their model and create worse and less efficient environments for both their business and their employees.

So to summarize, you think that a CEO who gives this to the lowest level employee is 'anti-worker'?

• Health care paid 100% by the company
• Dental
• Vision
• 401k
• Gainsharing
• stock purchase options
• pay more than 50% higher than average for the lowest level worker

[Ohiogirl81]

Originally Posted by artisan4

I also stopped shopping at 'Whole Paycheck' once I found out their CEO, MacKey, was a right-wing, anti-worker fanatic. They would be the 'domestic' part of 'enemies foreign and domestic'.

I stopped shopping there when the CEO violated anti-trust laws by engineering the hostile takeover of Whole Foods' only national competitor, Wild Oats (which was a vastly superior store).

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81

I stopped shopping there when the CEO violated anti-trust laws by engineering the hostile takeover of Whole Foods' only national competitor, Wild Oats (which was a vastly superior store).

I haven't thought about that store in many years. How on earth did Whole Foods little dinky store on Lamar St get to be this huge monster store that's everywhere?

[hoffdano]

The CEOs anti-union stance is a great reason to shop there. I don't shop there often, because of the prices. I also don't buy into much of the hype about organic foods. Obviously lots of people do.

As for GMOs, the tide against them by some may be turning. One of the most prominent environmentalists who began the fight against them changed his mind.

Mark Lynas, environmentalist who opposed GMOs, admits he was wrong.

[wehotex]

Originally Posted by hnsq

anti-worker? Are you serious? Whole foods pays their workers an average of $15/hr when the national average is around $9/hr. Everyone who works for Whole Foods (even the guy stocking shelves) gets health care after they have worked for 400 hours. After 800 hours, their premium is lowered to $10, and after 10,000 hours (around 5 years) health care has absolutely no cost to the worker. They also give dental, vision, life insurance, a 401k, gainsharing and stock purchase plans to everyone, including the lowest level workers. They have the highest employee retention of any retail chain, and have been voted one of the top 100 companies to work for every year since their inception.

They are anti-union because unionizing would ruin their model and create worse and less efficient environments for both their business and their employees.

So to summarize, you think that a CEO who gives this to the lowest level employee is 'anti-worker'?

• Health care paid 100% by the company
• Dental
• Vision
• 401k
• Gainsharing
• stock purchase options
• pay more than 50% higher than average for the lowest level worker

Do you have a Link for any of those stats?

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by artisan4

I also stopped shopping at 'Whole Paycheck' once I found out their CEO, MacKey, was a right-wing, anti-worker fanatic. They would be the 'domestic' part of 'enemies foreign and domestic'.

Whole Foods treats their employees exceptionally well - probably better than any major supermarket chain in the US. The CEO is not anti-worker at all. Apparently you think though because he is anti-union he is anti-worker. Whole Foods has been on Fortune's "best companies to work for" list since 1998.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/care...s-team-members

[NoJiveMan]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Years ago, I stopped going to Whole Foods Markets. I was an original co-op participant going way back, one of the local ones was even named Whole Foods. I came to the conclusion that Whole Foods Market was a bit of PR blurring. The insides looked pretty, but their use of "whole foods" didn't square with my past experience of what that meant.

Recently a question came up with a local person recommended the store for protein powder. All I could say was that I always found Whole Foods to be pricey. The person was living on $5 and hour and didn't seem at all like the customer profile Whole Foods aimed at. But that did make me want to visit a store to see if time had led to big changes I'd missed.

Short answer: No Pretty much the same store. Prices vary from a little high to very high. But the customers can afford them or the store would be o ut of business.

But I did catch a political statement by their CEO that made me curious. So I websurfed to find out more things. I follow FDA recall notices, and Whole Foods have had a bunch. They are really no better than a WalMart or Target on quality. Which is odd since they base their upscale pricing on "our quality is superior".

Now I've found out a couple of other things. Their top management is anti-union. The CEO has fought unionization campaigns in the Tea Party heartland of Wisconsin. Also, they "endorsed" a California initiative on genetically modified foods labeling. But they route money to politicians who claim the labeling is a bad idea. So that seems pretty much a PR campaign. I also notice that no matter what you Google with "Whole Foods Market", their links come up first. Which makes me wonder how they pull that off. You fill a whole screen with their web pages on every issue. Can you pay Google for that. If you have a lot of money, can you game Google to do that?

At this point, their prices have become seondary. If they can't go all in for truly natural foods (not created in a lab), they aren't "whole foods". It is a matter of definition, and they were late in the use of the phrase whole foods. Like all corporate chains, you take your health in your own hands if you go there. Best to stay on top of the FDA recalls. Meanwhile, I'll go back to stores where my shares give me voting rights.

My words of whole foods won't matter in this discussion because most of what we purchase comes from three places, pick n save, piggly wiggly, and walmart.

But let me say this about search engines. I'll be non specific because I don't wish to single out any particular one.

e.g.
I want to start a website, and have several pages ready to upload. I go to one of those web stores that let's you upload your pages, for $19.95 a year. I decide to name my home page cookies, but what I'm really pushing is videos or scantily clad men and women, but not pornography. As soon as I pay and upload my pages, and pay to be on several search engines, it's up, and people can browse away.
When a person types cookies in their web browser, my web pages will be in the top 10, it's totally legal.

Now, where does people's money go when doing business in America? If people found out that walmart lobbies politicians in DC for one thing or another, would we still be shopping there?