The Whole Foods Outrage
Many shoppers of Whole Foods Market stores are outraged with the comments that CEO John Mackey made about Health Care Reform last week in the Wall Street Journal. Mackey said that he supports the idea of Health Care reform, but does not support the plan our government is proposing. His belief is that every person does not have an “intrinsic right to health care”. Whether you agree with his statements or not, his comments just do not make sense from a business perspective.
Usually high profile people, especially from the entertainment, sports industries, make small comments about political topics, but leave it that. When you are a CEO and write a huge opinion piece about such a heated topic in a large newspaper, you are just asking to lose business. To top it off, why make such statements about health care when Whole Foods has such a huge liberal customer base?
Whole Foods in fact may lose some business since many people have taken to the streets (well actually quite the opposite) to boycott Whole Foods. The boycott has spread quickly, so much so that 12,000+ people have joined the Boycott Whole Foods facebook page to show their anger at the comments made. People have also flooded Whole Food’s forums to show their displeasure in the piece written. In terms of how much if any business Whole Foods may lose due to this is yet to be seen, but it will be interesting to see their quarterly numbers at the end of this fiscal year.
Regardless of how you feel about Whole Foods, it’s worth checking out your local farmer’s markets and CSA’s to get a lower price on all your dairy meats or produce that are direct from the source. I use local natural food stores to get items that I can’t find at my local farmer’s markets or during non-growing seasons. I do respect the values of company in terms of their efforts to be a green company and promoting organically grown products, but they do tend to have slightly high prices.
I want to get your thoughts on this whole situation. How do you feel about Mackey’s statements and will you stop shopping at Whole foods because of them?
With all due respect, Mr Mackey would like to do to the American health care system what the 401k did to the US retirement system. The term ” patient empowerment” is thinly veiled code of conservative “free marketers” to have yet another avenue to fleece money from people who are no more capable of choosing what conditions they ought to buy insurance for, than they were able to select investment choices within their “self directed” 401k retirement accounts. Only this time, the stakes are much higher. Now instead of having to defer or rethink retirement because you made an uninformed choice, you’ll risk your very life as you try to choose from the cleverly packaged and marketed insurance products.
Time and time again, private business interests have salivated over the the possibility of marketing products that by virtue of provider obfuscation, are able to take advantage of huge segments of the population who are too ignorant of what they are buying to make an informed purchase decision. The result has CONSISTENTLY resulted in outsize profits for the seller, while the purchaser is totally unaware of the con to which they’ve been subjected until it is far too late. Yes, these advocates of “free market competition” are really talking about a competitive game in which their legions of fast talking salespeople will sell huge numbers of health insurance policies so full of arcane “gotchas” and fine print, that you wont realize you’ve just bought half the coverage at twice the price, until its too late.
CEO John Mackey just made me a more dedicated customer. While we can all debate whether medical insurance companies are out to get us, few people have slowed down to think if health care, or what I like to regard as, “medical care,” is an entitlement to those who can’t otherwise afford it. Does everybody have the intrinsic right to affordable healthy food then? What about affordable, safe, cars and auto insurance? My fear is that this debate may set a precedent for future social programs that are not otherwise easily plentiful like the USPS or public transportation.
As a med student, I’ve already seen the lines and yes, rationing that currently exists in our hospitals. The numbers are horrible–we spend twice as much money on health care as the rest of the G8. There is room for reform, for sure. I would argue that private insurers are making a killing on an inelastic product, but I would argue that no matter how much money you throw at people, it doesn’t make them any “healthier.”
The United States doesn’t have a medical care problem–it has a health problem, and Whole Foods is a fighter for better health. Somehow people think more free doctor visits under this public option are going to cure them of diabetes, or make them lose weight–that preventative care is an intrinsic right. Hmm, not a chance. Preventative care will not correct the negative health externalities that exist.
Taxing poor behavior, however, will. So sure, tax soft drinks and fast foods, then take that tax revenue to pay off our other federal budget liabilities and maybe get kids running around the track in elementary school again, even if they’re the fat kid. We do this with the tobacco industry, and now less people smoke than ever before because cigarettes are taxed heavily.
Or if you’re a libertarian like myself, just let people have *liberty* to make their own health decisions. If people want to be healthy, then allow them to make whatever food decisions they want. If people want to be unhealthy and have medical care, allow them to purchase insurance for that matter.
More patents, new prescription drugs, and innovative medical discoveries exist in the United States primarily because of the existence of private enterprise. Government causes complacency in the medical department, regardless of how egalitarian it gets. Removing the private market, either through legislation or inserting a government monopoly, will stagnate innovation. Simple economics, and John Mackey knows this.
I agree that going to your local farmers market is usually a great deal less expensive than whole foods, with often much better quality food. I am pretty frugal most of the time, so I simply don’t shop at Whole Foods, as I find their prices much too high.
I think one point that Michael, the above poster, is missing is that most people aren’t looking for cures for diabetes, but simply affordable medical care.
In our system, if you come down with a serious disease, your insurance company is just as likely to give you the boot as they are to treat you. To top this off, if you don’t have insurance, because of ‘an existing medical condition’ or because you can’t afford it, you are simply out of luck.
You can argue that removing the private market will “stagnate innovation”, but this is certainly not the case in Canada or the UK, where new medical studies are constantly coming out and their citizens receive affordable quality care.
I simply can’t get insurance. I am willing to agree to just about anything, as i am just flat out denied and wouldn’t even be able to pay exorbitant amounts of money and be covered, I am simply turned away.
No I do not agree with everything he said, and I actually had quite a bit to say about it, I hate to link to my blog, but I also hate to leave a HUGELY long post! I hope you don’t mind.
he made some great points, and also so not so great points.
yes, I will give him to some degree that insurance is not a right, BUT I do believe healthcare is.
http://www.prissygreen.com/2009/08/the-whole-foods-alternative-to-obamacare-and-my-commentary.html
I mainly agree that some of the high deductible plans could work. hell I would rather have that then no insurance, at least then i would be able to pay the insurance allowables, get the write off and therefore get a “discount” compared to a selfpay.
Why shouldn’t ins companies be able to bid and compete across state lines? what is wrong with that? and what would be wrong with being covered when you go out of state?
okay, if anyone wants to read the rest of my take, hit my post.
My take on customers being upset? they are more upset that his way of thinking is not as liberal as they had hoped. sometimes people can’t not agree to disagree. Whole Foods has done a lot for getting organic food practices on board, and making it easier for the consumer. I don’t think boycotting them is a solution.
I am a progressive. I am fortunate enough to have health coverage through my employer. When me first son was born in 1993, he was close to death. He was air lifted from Upstate NY to Pittsburgh PA. His life saving care was over $100,000 fully paid with no questions asked. My guess is that would not happen today.
Your points are all spot on in this post. There is no Whole Foods in the Capital District of NY. Seems as though Honest Weight Food Coop has too strong a hold on the region to make it worth their while to come to town. If they were in town, I would definitely vote with my wallet and not buy from them based on the CEO’s comments. Conscious consumers think holistically about the companies they do business with. The essence of the business needs to fully resonate. The CEO’s position on health care does not resonate with me- in fact it repulses me.