I think that these gals are going with "evil":
http://haphazardgourmet.blogspot.com/2008/08/slow-food-nation-08-and-whole-foods.html

They ask the question "Is Whole Foods an appropriate sponsor for Slow Food Nation?"

Do you think they are being to harsh? I thought that whole foods was making improvements since John Mackey and Michael Pollan had their dialogue, but maybe I am just a perpetual optimist.

What do you guys think?

-Karen

I think this just speaks to the inherent contradiction with our market economy. Researchers study the behaviors and preferences of consumers and create stores that we *know* we should hate, but really really love. The typical customer at a Whole Foods would probably protest a big corporation (or at least read a lot of books about it) and a big corporation has figured out what they like best.

People are shopping more at Whole Foods because they offer many organic choices, friendly employees who are more than willing to help, fresh prepared foods, soothing lighting and colors, etc., etc.

And so a place like Whole Foods is probably just a product of brilliant marketing. They feature fliers that look handwritten (but are mass-produced for every Whole Foods), 365 brand foods are made economically by Whole Foods, even a lot of their prepared foods are shipped in from area distributors. After spending so many years shopping in flourescent-lit, impersonal grocery stores with all the same foods, shoppers are looking for a different experience. And different is what Whole Foods does best.

More people than ever are shopping at Whole Foods because there has been an abundance of convincing media on the topic of organics, natural food, partially hydrogentated oils, weight-related illnesses and processed foods, the Fast Food Nation, your carbon footprint, blah blah blah.

Playing on that pulse, Whole Foods has created a very successful store for a very large (and growing) American sub-culture.

So Whole Foods is probably no different than any other successful large-scale business in the US. And, in the end, customers do like the predictability and comfort of a Whole Foods.

There *is* an effort to make each Whole Foods unique, carrying many locally made foods, plants and products (local being 200 miles to WF) and featuring events like cooking classes and outdoor markets to make the store feel more Mom and Pop.

And, I tell you, they do a darn good job. I love shopping at WF. It comforts me to see t-shirts made down the road and flowers grown nearby but I also like knowing I can buy Cheddar Bunnies and Amy's frozen meals there too.

So I guess the only way for a company to be successful is to respond in like to the competing businesses (which, really, who is WF's competitor?).
WF *does* try to change their practices a bit (because they can charge a little more with the SES they attract). And to be honest, we have been trained to be marketed to and shop in the same way. It's just easier to shop at a place like WF that tries as much as it can to be different, but still appeals to the predictability and one-stop shopping we are used to.

Maybe it's contradictory (or really manipulative) for a mass corporation to be so individual community minded, but I like it. Plus I really love buying my laundry detergent where I get my lettuce.

I have shopped in both Whole Foods and the smaller community co-ops. I feel better in the smaller ones. The staff seems to be there because they want to be. I am not sure if this is my mental conditioning to believe that Whole Foods is just a big corporation? I don't feel that way about Ben & Jerry's or about Jones sodas... I like both of them. I also like Patagonia and they are a large corporation.

No. There is something intuitively wrong with Whole Foods, in my opinion. But I also do like to shop there, despite all of that.

I don't think that companies should be punished for being large and successful. That is just really bad karma for those of us business owners that would someday like to be successful. How can we be successful if we judge a company based purely on that? A company should be judged, if at all necessary to judge, based on basic principles. How do they "live" their mission statements? What ARE their mission statements? What do their employees say when they walk out the door at night? How do THEY feel about the company?

A company is an entity, just like a person. You can intuitively feel that something is wrong, even if you cannot exactly define it.

cirklagirl wrote:

QUOTE:
A company is an entity, just like a person. You can intuitively feel that something is wrong, even if you cannot exactly define it.

Great point. And Whole Foods gives quite a few people that feeling. Now the work is figuring out why!

Someone just forwarded me this article, and I thought about this thread. It is about Whole Foods doing more good stuff on the local food front: introducing school children to local produce:

Whole Foods Introduces School Kids to Local Produce

It seems that at least they are responding to the push for them to support local producers more. The Pollan-Mackey exchange was the type of dialogue that really seems to get results. If only that kind of dialogue could occur more often; imagine how the world might be!

-Karen

Whole Foods isn't evil-it's smart. They've learned how to take a smaller minded (and I dont mean small minded in the sense of being close minded) but small as anti big business, and made it big business while still keeping their morals and purpose.
Does that make any sense?

I think Whole Foods has cultured people in organic and natural foods in the past few years better than the movement has over the past 30.
Its an acceptable lifestyle and no longer thought of as extreme or left.