Whole Foods Exec Slams Health Care Reform, Says People Should Just Eat Whole Foods

[RedEarth]

Whole Foods Exec Slams Health Care Reform, Says People Should Just Eat Whole Foods
By Brian Beutler - August 13, 2009, 10:53AM

"We should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction--toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone." Sounds like a policy brief written by House Republicans, right?

Wrong.

The above passage comes from a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. His solution for the health care crisis includes common Republican ideas--"Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year"--to unexplained platitudes--"Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair."

But conveniently, it also includes the following advice: "Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat."

Translation: Whole Foods is the solution to all of America's health care woes


http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/08/whole-food-exec-slams-health-care-reform-says-people-should-just-eat-whole-foods.php?ref=fpblg

[krabigirl]

1. What an idiot. Will never shop there again, not like I do very often anyway,

[DainBramaged]

2. Douche bag lost me as a customer

does he thinks we aren't his customers? What else are they doing to fuck with us?

[Systematic Chaos]

3. He's right about the plant-based diet. I can attest that it works BEAUTIFULLY. However...

...the rest of this screed is just utter bullshit.

You can get your "Whole Foods" anywhere you damn well want. I would suggest a farmer's market or Trader Joe's for starters. Whole foods is somewhere you go for a very uncommon, specialty item when there's nowhere else to buy it locally.

[CakeGrrl]

4. OK, so if I shovel in THEIR mac and cheese and mashed potatoes

I'll be A-OK. Do I have that right?

It's very easy for me not to shop there. He shouldn't be saying that in areas where Trader Joe's is just as accessible and quite a bit cheaper.

[MineralMan]

5. And he'll be healthy forever, no doubt, right?

He'll live a perfectly healthy life, then suddenly drop dead at 103.

Yup, that's how it goes.

[fasttense]

6. Whole Foods is a scam.

Aside from buying from Agribusinesses and NOT small Framers, they actively fight against Unions. If you are an employee and dare talk about Unions at Whole Food you get fired, just like Wal-Mart.

Whole Foods = A more expensive version of Wal-Mart.

[global1]

15. Check Out Which Neighborhoods Whole Food Stores Are Located........

the more affluent ones. Why? Cause they have money. So if I was wanting to get into their pockets and get some of that money - my marketing plan for this business would be to position the business as something better than your average grocery store. Make it seem like you achieve some level of status if you shop at a Whole Foods store. Then charge a premium for everything in the store - because you put a label on it that says - 'organic', 'lite', 'sugar free', etc.

Aldi's and Trader Joe's I heard are run by two brothers - one runs Aldi's and the other Trader Joe's. They've taken both - the high end with Trader Joe's and the low end with Aldi's - of the business.

It is marketing. How do I get my hand in the pockets of the people.

Jewel Food stores in my area are now talking about lowering their prices 20%. Thousands of price reductions. They had to do this because they were losing business to the Aldi's of the world - because people were looking for ways to reduce their grocery bills.

Well to do their price reductions - before they ran this campaign - they raised prices - then when the campaign hit - they lowered prices - but to a point where these new lowered prices are higher than when they first started this. An example: Raisin Bread - was always sold for around $2.19. When they ran sales you could purchase it for $1.99. Just before this 20% reduction campaign - they took the price up on this same bread to $2.99. When the price reduction campaign hit - they lowered the price to $2.29 where it is priced at now. So bottom line they are making $0.10 more than when they started out and telling you that you are getting a deal.

Let's talk Wal-Mart. Notice that they have changed their logo's/trade dress. They've moderned it up. Made it look more up-scale. Why? Two reasons - they are battling it out with Target as their stores have a better overall look and the second reason is to appeal to the wealthier shoppers that before wouldn't step into a Wal-Mart because it was beneath them. Now that we've experienced this economic recession - more of those wealthier are economizing as well and they needed to make the stores appeal to them so that they would feel more comfortable shopping there.

All of this is Marketing - how do I get my hand deeper into the pockets of the people? How do I keep the profits up to appease my stockholders. I have to make more this year than last.

Same thing with how they are reducing the size of the product - but charging you more for less. Laundry detergents, bleach, coffee, ice cream, etc. Same looking containers - but less content - at a higher price.

Marketing, marketing, marketing. There are people in corporate offices all around - in all types of business from Banks, Department Stores, Stock Brokers, Auto Makers, etc - that are paid to figure out how they can get deeper into your pockets. How we can pull the wool over the eyes of the stupid consumer.

Back to World Foods. Why give a guy like this a forum on health care reform? He is not interested in we the people. He is not interested in his employees. He is not interested in the government and taxes. He is interested in only one thing - HOW HE CAN MAKE MORE MONEY FOR HIMSELF AT THE EXPENSE OF EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING ELSE. Bottom line it is pure and simple - GREED!!!!!!!!

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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[fascisthunter]

7. idiots who only care about making money

anything for a buck....

[Warpy]

8. Hey, ASSHOLE!

Yeah, I'm talking to you, Mr-Healthfood-Cures-Everything-So-Spend-At-My-Store, you might be surprised to find out your pure diet will do nothing to prevent those multiple fractures when your car gets T-boned by a kid high on crank in a stolen car. You might also be utterly shocked to hear that not only are the majority of disease processes completely unrelated to diet, you carry the seeds of them in your genes right this fucking minute and you are going to get sick, no matter how much bran you eat.

Thank goodness a Sunflower Market opened near me. They're hardly pious, but I no longer have any reason at all to spend a single dime at Whole Foods.

And I won't.

[enlightenment]

17. Much better produce at Sunflower, imo.

Whole Foods markets themselves to the 'oh-so-aware' crowd who have money and the need to prove they are hip to all the trends. They have four stores in LV - three are in the more expensive zipcodes and one is situated to lure in the tourists staying on the Strip, anchoring a new outdoor 'mall' that is filled with high-end shops.

The few times I've bothered going inside, the stench of the 'fresh' fish section was enough to drive me out the door - they put their fresh flower section in front of the entrance to mask the smell (newsflash: that doesn't work). The staff is surly (and given what I've been reading about the CEO, it sounds like they have good reason for that), and the prices are outrageous. Even their reusable bags cost more (and they are no better than the kind you get in other shops).

[Morning Dew]

9. You mean Mr. sockpuppet?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19718742/

DALLAS - The chief executive of Whole Foods Market Inc. wrote anonymous online attacks against a smaller rival and questioned why anyone would buy its stock, before Whole Foods announced an offer to buy the other company this year.

The postings on Internet financial forums, made under the name “rahodeb,” said Wild Oats Markets Inc. stock was overpriced. The statements predicted the company would fall into bankruptcy and then be sold after its stock fell below $5 per share.

In February, Whole Foods announced it would buy Wild Oats for about $565 million, or $18.50 per share.

The company acknowledged that the postings by “rahodeb” were written by CEO John Mackey.

They were made public this week as part of a lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission to block Whole Foods from buying Wild Oats on antitrust grounds. Regulators say the sale would combine the two largest organic and natural foods retailers and raise prices for consumers by concentrating too much power in one company.

[Lex]

10. Another corporate schmuck.

nt

[NashVegas]

11. Here's the Link to Mackey's Op-Ed

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

I think, overall, he's well-intentioned. The trouble is that most people don't and don't want to live up to the standard that he and other (that is, the few relatively sane) free-market types try to set for themselves, and that's what makes his plan unworkable on a massive scale.

For example, lawsuit reform. Impose a low cap on lawsuits, and it's guaranteed, whatever savings there are to be made will NOT be returned to medical patients and whomever pays the insurance bill.

[Cleita]

12. So will whole foods grow a limb back lost in an accident?

Will whole foods fix diseases that have a genetic time bomb?

Honestly, these people are uber stupid.

[xultar]

13. ****Send a note via their web page****

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/contact_submit.php

[thelordofhell]

14. "Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible"

Gee Mr. Mackey, that must be why EVERY company in America has full health insurance on ALL their employees, since they can just deduct the cost from their taxes, right?

:sarcasm:

[KamaAina]

16. That would be the Whole Foods that fights unions just like Wal-Mart?

Color me surprised. :eyes:

[progressivebydesign]

18. Wow! Guess who'll never shop in their store again?

Fuck him. I plan to let them know this. Heck, I sent many letters to Trader Joes over their continual use of produce and other food imported from China cheaply, and they defended it over and over.. until one day, they got enough letters and reversed their policy.

[aubergine14]

25. Could you please elaborate on that? I had read something

which slammed TJ's (a subsidiary of Aldi's, by the way) because they don't specify country of origin of their products (I think they do on some items, though). So it would seem to me that this means it's from China, which I will never buy.

[Vinca]

19. Dear Mr. Whole Foods,

Do you sell joint replacements in a can or a box? I prefer organic, of course, but will settle for any old hip joint. How about anesthesia? In the dairy case next to the whipped cream maybe? Sutures . . . let me guess . . . the noodle aisle. Can't wait for affordable health care at the Whole Foods Store.

[ContinentalOp]

20. Here's your Whole Foods healthcare plan...

http://blog.wholefoodsmarket.com/2009/04/part-3-homeopathy-for-allergy-relief/

[Odin2005]

22. Wow, Libertarian BS and Yuppie Health Food Woo combine!

All you people that buy stuff there are suckers.

[skipos]

23. EMAIL WHOLE FOODS HERE:

[e-mail]

[LynneSin]

24. What a bozo, do you think those idiot freepers will shop at Whole Foods?

:rofl:

They're too busy buying processed junk from their local Wal-Mart grocery store. Whole Foods became what it is from progressive folks like us who wanted to buy better quality food that wasn't overprocessed and pumped up with chemicals.

I always wished there was a Whole Foods near me and there has been talk of one being built in Wilmington. I was excited until I read that thread. I'll make it a point to let progressive minded people know to shop elsewhere. Anyhow Trader Joe's is a much better value with the same quality of food.

[supernova]

26. Looks like I'll be spending more food money at Trader Joe's

What a moron. Though the people at my local WH are really nice. i feel sorry for them.

[HillbillyBob]

27. Well being on a fixed income I can't shop at Whole Foods.

rpuke platitude or so called 'reasoning'?
They are just another big corporation with a bottom line.
How much corporate profit can I take home this year?

My partner speaks of when they first started out they were nice folks with good ideas.
Not for nothin is it now called Whole Paycheck.

We cannot afford to shop there, so we bought a place to make into an eco farm.

Its cheaper than rent in the city, I don't get mugged. Its quiet the only time I hear gun fire is when we shoot or during hunting season.
I am saner(well arguably) my bp is better on home grown foods. I know what is in and on my food. We buy locally what we cannot grow. A neighbor has free range chickens and guineas(who keep down the fleas and ticks etc in the yard, which is good for our dogs.

All in all it has been good for us, the dogs and our unraveling health and sanity.
Sort of a cross between Mayberry and Green Acres.