Whole Foods boycott: it’s all about social media
August 24th, 2009 by Cliff Bostock in Food & Life, News
Simon Owens is a journalist and new media consultant who writes a blog called Bloggasm. He e-mailed today to alert me to his interview with Steven Mikulencak and Mark Rosenthal, who started the 27,000-member Facebook group calling for a boycott of Whole Foods.
Rosenthal explains his motivation to Owens:
[The op-ed] lit a fire under me,” Rosenthal said. “This person was using his company as a sort of Trojan horse for a bunch of discredited, bad ideas that we have said no to over and over again. And it was just really frustrating because we had an election where we voted on these things, and we said no to these stupid ideas about deregulation being the solution to any of our problems. We’ve said no to the notion that ‘I’ve got mine and everyone else can go suck an egg.’
The post is well worth a read. It mainly focuses on how so-called social media have become a highly effective means of community organizing.
August 25th, 2009 at 10:00 am
So how many people boycotting Whole Foods are actually regular shoppers there? I am thinking very few as the numbers rise.
I applaud the enthusiasm, but it was just one man’s opinion. Some of his opinions/ideas I agreed with, and some I did not. Big deal, people.
Should I boycott the businesses of all those now boycotting Whole Foods? When does it end?
If he wasn’t the CEO of Whole Foods, his Op-Ed would not have been printed. That much is true. But printed or not, it remains just one man’s opinion to address the problems with healthcare. Why are people so scared of debate and the exchange of ideas? If you can’t stand the idea that the CEO of a company you shop at disagrees with you on a single payer healthcare system, that says more about you than anything.
Walmart is in favor of a single payer system, so by all means people, shop away. Uh, that’s right…..
August 25th, 2009 at 3:17 pm
I’ve always boycotted Whole Foods because their prices are insane.
It’s nice to see their revenues have declined sharply over the past year.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Heck I will shop there more – i’m not going to change my behavior because I don’t 100% agree with the executives of a company. If that was the standard, then we’d never buy a thing again.
August 26th, 2009 at 9:16 am
In reply to Frank, I checked my records last night – I spent just over $1,200 at WF Jan-Jul. So my boycott is costing them about $200 a month.
John Mackey has every right to say what he wants – and I have every right to take my business elsewhere if I disagree with him and the fact that he is using Whole Foods as a soapbox for promoting his views. To patronize WF is to contribute to his platform and I simply choose not to do so. Given the choice, wouldn’t (shouldn’t) you rather spend you money at business that reflect your values?
If/when Whole Foods ousts him, I’ll go back to buying overpriced produce from them, no hard feelings.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Back in 2008, this Whole Foods, CEO John Mackey (how old is this kid?), was caught posting negative comments (trash talk) about a competitor on Yahoo Finance message boards in an effort to push down the stock price. So now I am suppose to take this loser seriously? Please, snore, snore.
It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people (honestly where can they go with a pre-condition). And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait, Medicare and Medicaid and our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown and Katrina but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.
How does shouting down to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots. How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a “lynch mob” advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types AKA “screamers” are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
While I respect anyone’s choice to boycott WF, I unfortunately believe many are doing it under the false premise that John Mackey suggested “that healthcare is a commodity that only the rich, like him, deserve”. Mackey asked “how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter”? Suggesting that we have no more right to health care than food or shelter, at least in a government mandate that these would be guaranteed as well. Mackey made at least as many valid points as he did questionable points (for those who actually read the article) but saying that you’re against the proposed reform plan automatically makes him automatically evil, as judged by those who previously thanked him for bringing them their overpriced granola and veggies.
While I rarely shop at WF I’d suggest people consider the real effects of the boycott. If all goes as planned the business will suffer enough to lead to Mackey’s ouster. While Mackey leaves with a golden parachute and another job in the wings the employees and potentially vendors will suffer.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Paul, do you really believe Medicare, Medicaid, and the military are among the best healthcare in the world?
August 26th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Paul, if you think Medicare and Medicaid provide the best healthcare in the world, you really need to do some homework, as most everyone on those programs would likely disagree-I know most doctors would. I don’t think any users of those programs would use them if they had a better choice. They have countless cases of issues like taking a week or more to provide approval for emergency treatment/surgery (i.e. stuff needed within a day or two of the request).
August 27th, 2009 at 2:17 am
If you think the post office is a shining example of government efficiency then you will love government run health care. Progressives love the idea of government control – perhaps food should be a right too. After all no one can live without it and it isn’t fair the Cliff gets to dine all over Atlanta while the poor go hungry.
August 31st, 2009 at 11:45 am
I am always glad to see Americans voicing their opinions, I may not always agree with them, but I enjoy it, so please keep boycotting Whole Foods Market, Inc., companies keep dropping sponsorship of the “Glenn Beck” BS, Astroturfers keep showing up at town hall meeting and get your shouts in (we all know you can’t articulate your position and are all about hate) they hate and can’t debate, sweet.