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We were reminded yesterday of the recent Whole Foods boycott that's been gaining steam in the past month. Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial last month opposing the single-payer option of health care reform and claiming health care is not a "right," further perpetuating myths propagated by the for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries.
As James P. Hoffa aptly put it in the Huffington Post:
Like many wealthy conservatives, Mr. Mackey espouses anti-government views while benefiting enormously from government largesse.The U.S. government put its full faith and billions of taxpayer dollars behind the credit markets that enabled Whole Foods to operate and expand their empire.
The food they sell would be prohibitively expensive were it not for enormous government subsidies of dairy products, feed grains, wheat, rice, peanuts and sugar.
Whole Foods suppliers like UNFI couldn't deliver truckloads of organic oranges from California without a government-supported transportation infrastructure.
The Austin Chronicle also has a great smackdown of Mackey's editorial.
In all fairness, Mackey's viewpoint is his own personal opinion and not the corporate stance of the company or its staff. Additionally, Michael Pollen has come out against the boycott, saying, "Mackey is wrong on health care, but Whole Foods is often right about food."
For those interested in helping "raise a ruckus" locally, folks will be boycotting the new Noe Valley Whole Foods location next Wednesday, September 30th.
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Rainbow has a similar selection with -- more often than not -- more affordable prices.
Plus it's owned and operated by the employees, which means you're supporting your community by shopping there.
Same goes for Other Avenues for your Sunset folks.
So the question is, why would you shop at Whole Foods to begin with?
> So the question is, why would you shop at Whole Foods to begin with?
Brewsters Millions!
Rainbow is impossible to get to by mass transit and has an enormous, insufferable attitude problem. Sounds perfect!
I find Rainbow dirty and more expensive than Whole Foods. Ditto on the 'tude problem.
I haven't bothered to shop at, or boycott, Whole Foods because I live within walking distance of Falletti's. I can spend way more than I need to on fancy food there just fine, thank you.
If you are talking about the Faletti's + Delassio's on Broderick, hi, we're neighbors, and the proper name is "Fellacio's"
LOL! I will use that name from now on.
Because the folks working at Whole Foods don't go out of their way to ruin my day?
The only thing dumber than shopping at Whole Foods is boycotting it.
Yes, I have been boycotting - if, by boycotting, you mean not being able to afford their Whole Paycheck approach to grocery pricing.
I stretch my family food dollar amongst five stores for an even mix of quality, variety, price and support of local small business. Whole Foods has rarely made the cut even though it's close and has a good butcher counter (something I like fresh as possible). I have a nearby independent market called Good Life that can satisfy almost any need that I would go farther to Whole Foods for.
So aside from the occasional really good dessert or Thanksgiving turkey, I've been boycotting them from the beginning.
The food they sell would be prohibitively expensive
Would be?
Mackey is not expressing his "personal opinion" when he gets to publish his hateful screed in the fucking Wall Street Journal.
The Whole Foods board of directors needs to can him for pissing off their customers.
Since you know how to use "screed" in a sentence, I will assume you also know how to read. Which begs the question - have you read Mackey's article? And if so, would you care to point out which sections are hateful?
Or perhaps you live in such a loud echo chamber of identical beliefs that actually considering opinions different from your own is too difficult? You know, 'cause of the noise.
Here you go, ignorant jackass:
"If you have a pre-existing condition and you don't have insurance, insurance is not for you. Insurance is about risk. A pre-existing condition isn't a risk, it's a liability. What you really need is a loan."
Which portion of those four sentences qualifies as "hateful"?
"ignorant jackass", on the other hand...
Which portion of those four sentences qualifies as "hateful"?
So, your evidence for Mackey's hateful tendencies is that he understands the definition of the word "insurance"?
I am probably too stupid to understand, so I might need some clarification.
consider the possibility that you are merely agreeing with *his* definition of "insurance" and the purpose thereof.
Have you ever been denied car insurance -- AFTER you paid for it for years -- because your wheels weren't aligned when you signed up for the insurance?
Of course you haven't; that would be illegal!
So please explain to me why you think insurance should be defined differently when applied to human bodies?
The human body ≠ An automobile.
They're much more expensive to repair, can't be replaced entirely, and on average, last far longer.
And... you MAY be denied car insurance for a pre-existing condition... A propensity to drive drunk for instance.
And... you MAY be denied car insurance for a pre-existing condition... A propensity to drive drunk for instance.
B.S...If you can get a license you can get insurance.
i've never even set foot in the place. mexican mercados ftw
That Whole Foods on 24th St. in Noe Valley is getting close to done! I can't wait to panhandle those yuppies on their way out so I can shop there.
"Hey buddy, can you spare a tiramisu?"
That is so the title of my next album!
If I recall correctly he said he has a hard time considering health care a right when housing is not considered a right. And with that argument I totally agree. Picking and choosing privileges and labeling them rights is tricky. Why is healthcare a right and not housing? Why is free speech a right but not fee cable TV?
So nah universal healthcare isn't a right, it's something we would all benefit from and if done right we can easily afford. So its a great idea and something that we should agree to do.
I'm a Whole Foods customer and I'm not pissed at all. Their produce and meat counters have quality food at prices comparable to any other store I can get to on foot. Don't even get me started on how low their prices are compared to DeLano's. But that is another argument all together.
the language of "rights" is certainly problematic, particularly in the activist community, but his basic framework only accounts for rights enumerated in the constitution, completely ignoring the fact that the constitution itself acknowledges that it does not contain the entire definition of such. in other words, the 9th amendment.
"Rights" are whatever we as a society decide them to be. Free speech is a "right" in our country (sort of, anyway), but not so much in a lot of countries. Similarly, health care is a right (or close to it) in the UK, but not here.
Point being, if we collectively decide to make health care a "right" then presto, it's a right. But it's all kind of semantics, y'know?
Yup. It basically goes like this:
9th Amendment: The Constitution doesn't include all possible rights.
10th Amendment: Rights are whatever the people want them to be.
i don't think the comparison between health care coverage and housing is at all appropriate. it's true that there are a lot of people in this country who unfortunately do not have housing, but the number of people who don't have health care coverage is far more egrigious. clearly leaving health care coverage up to the free market has not worked out for far too many people to continue to ignore the problem.
also: your argument is just weak. the reverse of your argument is JUST as (un)convincing. see: if protection by the police is a right, why not health care?
The guy calls for independently purchased health care plans to receive the same tax benefits as employer-purchased plans, and that's evil? He had the temerity to oppose The One, and for that must be punished.
Me, I'm saving up my grocery shopping for the week and hoping to make a large purchase next Wednesday morning.
Have fun wasting your money and not contributing to your local economy!
It's quite easy to not shop at Whole Foods - you can find 95% of what they sell elsewhere for less. I don't understand why wasting money is considered a virtue, especially now. I can find better produce, better food, and better specialty items walking down Irving Street than I can at that place. And best of all I don't have to walk past an armada of priuses running on smug bullshit to get there.
So yeah, if you dig it and that's your thing and you'd rather piss away your money, by all means do so, it's a free country. If you insist on being stupid and shopping there, fine.
BTW, I thought SF hated chain stores yet these things are popping up like mushrooms. I guess a chain store is bad if it has low prices for the rest of us and it is ok if it's an overpriced emporium.
"SF" doesn't hate chain stores. "Some San Franciscans with a lot of time on their hands and nothing better to complain about" do.
"Some San Franciscans with a lot of time on their hands and nothing better to complain about"
Sounds an awful lot like SFist commenters.
I'll shop at the 24th St Whole Foods primarily because it's by far the closest shopping to home. If I'm riding home from work I'll definitely stop at Rainbow (I heart Rainbow), but I won't truck off to SoMa while bypassing that store from Noe Valley.
Time is money. Even if it's my "free time".
But I sure as hell bypassed the old Bell Market.
WF is really only expensive if you are addicted to their prepared foods anyway. The bulk foods section is very reasonable, and the produce if a bit more expensive doesn't bother me because it's generally of good quality - it doesn't matter to me how cheap a rotten tomato is (though I try to focus my produce buying at farmer's markets).
the biggest problem i have with their douchetarian ceo is that he let it be known what he thought. big liability. he should have kept his mouth shut.
providing part timers benefits have always been seen as quite generous but now that we know they have $2500.00 annual deductibles it shows how hollow that benefit truly is.
the company has no real idea how much exposure they have to this problem too since their average employee is too young to get sick or single and can't afford to pay the deductible even if they do.
total douchebags all around!
not only that, but now Whole Foods is going around drug testing suspected employee smokers. if an employee tests positive for tobacco Whole Foods charges them more for their health insurance.
The problem with WholeFoods is that they don't have a lot of non-organic foods -- nor do they things like Tide, Listerine or Crest. They also don't seem to cary things like roach killer. I gotta go to my local bodega or to Safeway. I did shop there for a big dinner last weekend, but wish they had more non-organic. Bring on the Cheerios!!!
That's not all the government aid Mackey receives. As I understand it the cash in the registers is also printed by the government, free of charge.
I'd be willing to shop there if I could get a 2500 dollar yearly deductible at the checkout.
screw whole foods and viva la san francisco!
i just signed up for kaiser through healthy san francisco. so stoked!
50.00/mo for what looked like a 450/mo plan if i went private/direct.
i figure i deserve it after paying 100's of thousands of property tax and sales tax here over the years.
I go to SAFEWAY, CALA WALMART ...etc........ cheap and who cares what the CEO or others believe in .... they could eat babies for all I care.... boycott Whole Foods ? thats just plain stupid
Reading SFist comments makes me smarter while at the same time introduces me to really dumb people ideas.
Hey... my strikethrough formatting on 'people' showed up in preview but not when I published... fail.