A Former Whole Foods Employee's View of Whole Foods by: Jill Richardson

"...I've been asked by several people to weigh in on Whole Foods (or WFM for short... the M stands for Market). I worked there for 5 months in 2007 & I wrote a chapter about it in my book, Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken & What We Can Do To Fix It. So here's my take on it..."


http://www.lavidalocavore.org/diary/2300/a-former-whole-foods-employees-view-of-whole-foods

A Former Whole Foods Employee's View of Whole Foods
by: Jill Richardson
Sat Aug 15, 2009 at 11:57:30 AM PDT

DailyKos has been buzzing about a piece in the Wall Street Journal by the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey. Here's what I have to say about it. I've been asked by several people to weigh in on Whole Foods (or WFM for short... the M stands for Market). I worked there for 5 months in 2007 and I wrote a chapter about it in my book, Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do To Fix It. So here's my take on it...

First things first about Whole Foods: The CEO, John Mackey, is a nut. He's a Libertarian, he's anti-union, and he stupidly went on financial blogs - anonymously - to praise WFM (and he got caught doing it). When you visit Austin, where WFM is headquartered, you hear good and bad about Mackey. I don't know which of the many things I heard about him during my 2 trips to Austin are true, so I have repeated none of them.
So is it a shock he just came out with an idiotic and harmful statement about health care? No. Is it an outrage? Yeah. Does it necessitate a boycott of WFM? I don't know. For one thing, Mackey takes an annual salary of $1 from the store. On the other hand, he probably has a ton of the store's stock. WFM has had a tough year because of the economy, and no boycott is going to change that. Nor do I think a boycott will change Mackey's mind. It might just get him to keep his ideas out of the national press in the future. And maybe that's a worthy goal.

This latest outrage aside, WFM has both good and bad about it. It depends on what you compare it to. Compared to a regular grocery store or a Sam's Club, the food they sell is great. Compared to a natural foods co-op, a farmers' market, or your own garden, they suck.

My day to day experiences at WFM had very little to do with John Mackey and a whole lot to do with the staff of my store. And I like the staff. There are some lifelong career employees - several have been there for years - and many others are musicians and artists who are just there as a day job. They are creative, kind, and open-minded. Some are into sustainability and some are just there to earn a living and don't care about sustainability at all.

Despite our lack of a union, I think most of us felt we were treated pretty fairly by the store and by the company. The minimum wage the store paid anywhere (this was in 2007) was $10/hr, you get health care paid for after you're there for 6 mos, and employees can get bonuses called gainsharing (although I never saw a penny of it). When we had a problem with the store over a ban on facial piercings, the employees held a meeting with management and worked out a compromise. Would it have been better if we were unionized? I don't know. I've never had an opportunity to join a union, even though I absolutely support them and their ability to lobby in DC for more fair labor laws.

Another part of my day to day life there were the customers. They were a diverse group. I can't tell you how many freaking times somebody came up to me at the bakery and asked if the gelato or cakes were healthy. I told them no and suggested they get some berries as a healthy dessert instead. For some reason, an awful lot of people really want to believe that WFM sells healthy food. Junk is still junk, even if it's all natural junk. But the customers were always hopeful that maybe, for some reason, all natural gelato is good for them. And WFM doesn't do a lot to discourage them from thinking that.

How about the food? Is it sustainable? It depends. Packaged crap and junk is still packaged crap and junk even if it's organic. Maybe it's slightly better than the non-organic junk sold in regular grocery stores. I still wouldn't recommend eating it.

The meat in WFM was exposed by The Omnivore's Dilemma as being organic factory farmed. You're paying a high price for a product that is not the ideal of sustainable meat. But you are getting SOMETHING for the price premium you pay. The meat IS better than the standard stuff you get in grocery stores, it's just not as good as you'd want it to be. If it's the best you can get, maybe you think it's worth it.

The produce is sometimes local and often (but not always) organic. The prices are high. Lately WFM has been selling veggies from one of my favorite farmers and selling them at fair prices. If I'm in a pinch because I didn't buy enough at the farmers' market and I can't get to my natural foods co-op, I'll buy my farmer's veggies at WFM. (I live walking distance from WFM but several miles drive from the co-op.)

That said, WFM is not the pinnacle of sustainability. It will ALWAYS be better to grow your own or to buy from a farmer you know. If you can't do that, it will be better to buy from a natural foods co-op - that's a point I wish I made in my book but I forgot to include it. I'm 99% happy with the book but that's my #1 critique of it.

The most surprising thing to me about working in a grocery store was the amount of waste. This is not unique to WFM. I'm sure all grocery stores waste a lot of food. It's impossible to buy the exact amount of food that people will buy, particularly for perishable stuff. Customers get REALLY PISSED if they show up to buy something and the store is out of it. So the store tries to keep everything in stock, waiting around 24/7 in case somebody wants to buy it. If nobody buys it, it gets thrown out.

WFM deserves some praise for their composting program. Most grocery stores throw away their waste. WFM composts theirs (at least in my region - perhaps not everywhere) and sells the compost to gardeners. That is something that ALL grocery stores should do, in my opinion. However, it'd be better not to waste the food in the first place.

All in all, I realized while working there that WFM is part of the industrialized food supply chain, even if they are selling "sustainable" products. To be truly sustainable, we must obtain our food through channels other than grocery stores, and many of them will be a bit less convenient.

Gardening is hard work! Shopping at a farmers' market is fun and easy but it means you have to save your shopping for a specified time of the week when the market is happening and you can't just run out and grab something on a whim. I don't think we'll leave grocery stores entirely behind, but co-ops are still better than for-profit corporate chains because they give the member-owners some say in how the business is run.

What does all of this mean about John Mackey's latest health care BS? Not a whole lot. I probably won't end up boycotting Whole Foods, to be honest. I don't have a whole lot of money so it's not like I spend a lot there now anyway. I get most of my stuff from the farmers market and most of the rest of it from the co-op. If I was to pick a chain to boycott for political reasons, I'd probably start with Home Depot. In fact, I DO boycott Home Depot. Whole Foods image at least depends on some degree of sustainability, whereas Home Depot has a wingnutty CEO and nothing redeeming about it. And Home Depot spent $370k in lobbying just in the first quarter of this year alone. Whole Foods spent a tiny fraction of that, and - unlike Home Depot - all they really lobby on are their own mergers and acquisitions.

Whole Foods Market Bows to OCA Pressure-Promises to Sell Significantly More Organics in 2010

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
Whole Foods Boss: We Sell a 'Bunch of Junk'

"We sell a bunch of junk. We've decided if Whole Foods doesn't take a leadership role in educating people about a healthy diet, who the heck is going to do it?"

John Mackey: Whole Foods Market Founder, The Telegraph (UK), August 6, 2009

http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Whole Foods Market Bows to OCA Pressure--Promises to Sell Significantly More Organics in 2010

The emperor of natural foods, Whole Foods Market (WFM), has no clothes. Throughout the 2009 summer months, OCA has been alerting organic consumers to the troubling fact that the overwhelming majority of grocery items (approximately 2/3) sold by WFM, even their private label "365" brand, are not certified organic, but rather so-called "natural" products that are typically just conventional products in disguise. After being defensive and unresponsive at first (basically saying "we sell more" organic food than any other retailer), and after putting pressure on OCA's advertisers to stop supporting us, WFM seems to finally be "seeing the light."

After thousands of emails from OCA members demanding that the company stop selling so many bogus "natural products" and embrace its stated mission to sell healthy organic foods, WFM's executives apparently realized last week that OCA will not shut up, and that they have a major problem on their hands. You can't just simply proclaim that you are a leader in selling organic foods, you must actually walk your talk. Last week, WFM announced it was launching a new "healthy eating" initiative with a greater emphasis on organics. In a highly publicized speech in the UK, John Mackey confessed the company's product selection had veered off course. The OCA will be monitoring WFM's practices closely to make sure that the giant retailers' actions match its rhetoric. Instead of 2/3 of its sales being so-called "natural" products, (with only 1/3 certified organic), OCA wants to see 2/3 of WFM's sales be organic by the end of 2010.




Thank Whole Foods: Under Pressure from Organic Consumers, Whole Foods Says it Will Expand Organic Offerings in 2010


The Organic Consumers Association has been pressuring Whole Foods Market and wholesale giant United Natural Foods to put a priority on selling organic, as opposed to so-called "natural foods."

Now, Whole Foods Market is bowing to OCA pressure and has promised to sell significantly more organics in 2010.

Please write to Whole Foods to thank them for putting a renewed focus on its core customers. If you can, please take the time to personalize your letter. Sample at: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/642/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27761

(If you wrote to Whole Foods and recieved a reply from them, you might be interested in OCA's response to Whole Foods' letter: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_18697.cfm )

Learn More: http://www.organicconsumers.org/whole_foods_unfi.cfm



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/5978809/Whole-Foods-boss-We-sell-a-bunch-of-junk.html

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
Published: 7:00AM BST 06 Aug 2009

Whole Foods boss: We sell a 'bunch of junk'
John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods, one of London's leading organic supermarkets, has told customers he sells "a bunch of junk".

John Mackey, chief executive of Whole Foods, admitted shoppers had been let down by filling his shelves with fat-laden products Photo: PA

Mr Mackey admitted shoppers had been let down by filling his shelves with fat-laden products.
He said: "We sell a bunch of junk. We've decided if Whole Foods doesn't take a leadership role in educating people about a healthy diet, who the heck is going to do it?"

While his comments were intended to stir shops into action, they revived memories of the jewellery chain tycoon Gerald Ratner, who made one of the most famous gaffes in corporate history.
He saw his business empire collapse after claiming one of his products was "total crap".
Mr Mackey apologised for losing sight of the American-based company's health food roots and said all retailers had a responsibility to help tackle Britain's obesity crisis.
Staff at stores in Kensington, Camden and Stoke Newington will be trained to advise on healthy eating and be "bribed" to lose weight. Employees will be given bigger discounts off the store's products if they meet targets to lose weight, stop smoking or reduce their cholesterol or blood pressure.
Whole Foods opened in Kensington two years ago, promising to lead a healthy organic food revolution in London. Mr Mackey said he would be offering in-store nutritionists from now on instead of cakes and meringues.
His comments came after the Food Standards Agency said there was no evidence to suggest that organic produce was better for consumers and it had no extra health benefits.
Mr Mackey made his comments while launching the Whole Foods' "healthy eating" initiative, set to start in the autumn, will give the brand a higher profile in London that bosses hope will lure in more shoppers.
A spokeswoman for the British Nutrition Foundation said: "British retailers need to heed this message. There is too much promotion of biscuits and chocolate with special offers.
"There needs to be a better balance. They have a part to play in educating consumers."

WHY ORGANIC CONSUMERS & FAIR TRADE ADVOCATES ARE PRESSURING WHOLE FOODS & UNFI

"...Whole Foods has employed an expansion strategy that resembles Wal-Mart with its targeting of local & independent retailers with new store locations while steadily buying out competitors like Wild Oats... Whole Foods & UNFI's business model of centralized sourcing & prioritizing natural products over organic rewards large corporate farms & processors, to the detriment of local & regional small-scale organic farmers &..." brands.

http://organicconsumers.org/unfi.cfm


SAFEGUARD ORGANIC INTEGRITY

WHY ORGANIC CONSUMERS AND FAIR TRADE ADVOCATES ARE PRESSURING WHOLE FOODS
AND UNFI


Corporate Takeovers & Monopolistic Practices

The $25 Billion organic marketplace has enjoyed substantial growth for
over a decade, thanks to growing consumer consciousness and farmer
innovation. No longer a passing trend or simply a niche market, organic food
and farming are proving to be a viable alternative to the unhealthy,
unsustainable and unjust conventional food system. Unfortunately
unprecedented wholesale and retail control of the organic marketplace by
UNFI and Whole Foods, employing a business model of selling twice as much
so-called "natural" food as certified organic food, coupled with the
takeover of many organic companies by bottom line multinational food
corporations such as Dean Foods/Horizon
(http://organicconsumers.org/Organic/OrganicTop25Jul07.pdf), threatens the
growth of the organic movement.


Perpetrating "Natural" Fraud

Consumers are confused about the difference between conventional
products marketed as "natural," and those nutritionally and environmentally
superior products that are "certified organic." Retail stores like WFM and
wholesale distributors like UNFI have failed to educate their customers
about the qualitative difference between natural and organic. A troubling
trend in organics today is the calculated shift on the part of certain large
companies from certified organic ingredients and products to so-called
"natural" products. With the exception of the "natural" meat sector, where
there are limited voluntary guidelines, there is no definition of "natural."
In the majority of cases, "natural" products are greenwashed conventional
products, with "natural" label claims neither policed nor monitored. Whole
Foods and UNFI are maximizing their profits by selling quasi-natural
products at premium organic prices. Organic consumers are increasingly left
without certified organic choices while organic farmers continue to lose
market share to "natural" imposters. It's no wonder that less than 1% of
American farmland is certified organic.



Excluding Small and Family Farms

Whole Foods and UNFI's business model of centralized sourcing and
prioritizing natural products over organic rewards large corporate farms and
processors, to the detriment of local and regional small-scale organic
farmers and brands. Organic farmers must "get big or get out" to be able to
compete and have free access to markets. Many industrial organic farms and
dairy operations reflect the same abuses and problems of the conventional
food system: extremely energy intensive, systematic abuse of workers,
reduced food quality, and damage to biodiversity. And of course so-called
"natural" products, since they are actually in most cases conventional
products in disguise, are being sold at lower prices than genuine organic
products--thereby retarding the growth of the organic sector.


Organic and Local Food?

In light of the food system's significant contribution to the climate
crisis and the deepening economic troubles facing local food economies, it
is more important than ever to prioritize locally produced organic food.
Though Whole Foods talks a lot about supporting local food and producers,
the fact is that the vast majority of their products are not local, and much
of what they sell is sourced from a small number of industrial organic
operations in California, often owned by the same conventional food
conglomerates responsible for destroying the world's food system.
Organic Monopoly and the "Whole Paycheck" Phenomena
UNFI has undermined the growth of the organic movement by implementing
an unfair tiered pricing system that gives Whole Foods deep discounts while
other grocers, coops and independent retailers pay significantly higher
prices, in effect subsidizing UNFI for its reduced profits at Whole Foods.
With UNFI as the largest organic (but of course their sales are mostly
so-called "natural" products) food wholesaler and Whole Foods as the largest
organic (like UNFI most of its sales are "natural") food retailer, organic
consumers are assured higher prices, lower quality and fewer choices.


Cancer in a Bottle?

In 2008, the Organic Consumers Association exposed a problem which
particularly threatenss women - a large number of leading conventional as
well as "natural" and "organic" brands of shampoos, lotions, cosmetics and
household cleaning products which contained the carcinogen 1,4-Dioxane.
Included in the list of products were several Whole Food's 365 brand
products and many products in the UNFI catalog. While several dozen
companies have committed to eliminating the 1,4-Dioxane, neither Whole
Foods, nor UNFI, have endorsed OCA's Coming Clean Campaign:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/index.cfm
nor have they called on the USDA to crack down on blatant labeling fraud
in the organic personal care and cosmetics sector.


#7 Corporate Consolidation of Organics

In the last decade, the organic marketplace has experienced hyper
consolidation, with numerous small to medium-sized farmers, manufacturers
and retailers being taken over by larger, profit-hungry corporations. Whole
Foods has employed an expansion strategy that resembles Wal-Mart with its
targeting of local and independent retailers with new store locations while
steadily buying out competitors like Wild Oats. UNFI has also grown rapidly
over the last decade, in part by aggressively taking over other
distributors, regional wholesalers and manufacturers.


Organics for Elites?

The organic food and farming movements were born out of the desire to
provide healthy and safe food to all. Whole Foods' business model: selling
overpriced conventional foods as "natural," with organics in a subordinate
role, is a recipe for maximizing profits rather than maximizing the growth
of organic food and farming. Worse yet, Whole Food's high prices have not
translated into larger profits for family farms or small-scale
manufacturers. Likewise, UNFI's growing market share and near-monopoly of
the organic and "natural" market has reduced the options for consumers and
independent retailers alike, undermining the growth of consumer buying clubs and the lower-cost alternatives.


Anti-worker

UNFI and Whole Foods have a history of cutting workers' benefits. Both
have gone to extreme lengths to block their employees from choosing to
unionize. Whole Foods has long fought unionization of its retail locations,
largely ignored the demands of farm workers organizations, like the United
Farm Workers, and kept workers' wages consistently low by industry
standards. UNFI has repeatedly fought efforts by its employees to fight for
better pay, benefits and working conditions. Where workers have sucessfully
formed unions, UNFI has begun moving jobs to new, non-union locations.


WHY OCA BELIEVES THAT MOST "NATURAL" FOODS ARE A FRAUD
1. There is widespread use of GMO (genetically modified organisms) ingredients in so-called "natural" foods, including the "natural" brands that make up most of WFM and UNFI's sales.
2. So-called "natural" (non-organic) soy milk, including leading brands such as "Silk," are made with conventional soy lecithin, utilizing the hazardous chemical, hexane, as an extraction agent.
3. 90% or more of the vitamins and supplements now on the market labeled as "Whole Foods," "natural" or "food based" are spiked with synthetic chemicals.