Blog
Taking a look inside Whole Foods
Forward
Print
Subscribe
One thing you quickly learn as a reporter for a B2B media company covering sustainable food issues is that one of the most important companies in the space won't talk to you. As a matter of policy Whole Foods will not talk to trade press outlets such as Sustainable Industries. It's insanely frustrating as you might imagine because, as with Wal-Mart and retail in general, as Whole Foods goes, so does most of sustainable food sales. So I was very interested to read a one-on-one interview with Whole Foods CEO John Mackey and USA Today.
Thankfully, most of the interview is focused on the business of Whole Foods and is pretty interesting. He talks about the effects of the recession on the company ("During the recession, for the first time (in 2009), our same-store sales went negative."), the nickname "Whole Paycheck" and why it's inaccurate (" We have 30,000 items, and you can probably find 30 on which we're more expensive."), the best and worst business decisions the company has made (acquiring Bread & Circus and buying a vitamin company, respectively), and a raft of other interesting issues (yes including his opposition to the health care legislation passed by Congress and signed by President Obama earlier this year).
It's well worth a read for anyone interested in the business side of sustainable food and in the biggest player in that market.
Comments
Thanks for passing this interview on. It's great that they're taking steps to educate customers about animal welfare, but I find it very disingenuous for Mackey to claim that their new push for veganism isn't related to his personal vegan diet. Cutting out canola oil and sugar? Good idea. Cutting out all salt and fat? Very, very bad idea over the long term. Both are vital nutrients. He ought to know by now the difference that quality, processing and origin of fats makes. At least they still sell butter and coconut oil, for now.
I have an idea. Why don't we simply legislate what Whole Foods can carry on their shelves. Let's just have the government take them over and then we can tell them what to sell and what not to sell based on experts like you. If you don't like what they sell then don't shop there.
I know so many people who consider themselves to be environmentally aware that are also voracious meat eaters. So what? There's a lot of money to be made selling sustainably raised beef, pork, chicken, butter and oil. I just don't think that WF will stop selling any of those things because its CEO is vegan.
Leave a comment