Whole Foods’ customers have expressed anger at the company’s CEO John Mackey for his perceived conservative healthcare views. The Washington Post reported customers were blogging and using Twitter and Facebook to complain about Mackey, who in an op-ed column in the Wall Street Journal last week, argued for health-care savings accounts and declared that health care is not an intrinsic right. Some are even talking about a boycott, said the report, which noted Wal-Mart, once decried for its labor policies has become the U.S.’s largest organic produce retailer. “A lot of people have been paying a premium for the Whole Foods brand for years,” said Mark Rosenthal, a playwright living in Massachusetts who founded the Boycott Whole Foods group a few days ago. It has nearly 14,000 members. “A lot of people are sad to look at this corporation and see that it is just like any other, if not worse.” Whole Foods spokeswoman Libba Letton said that Mackey was expressing personal opinions in the op-ed and that the company has no official position on the issue. Whole Foods has sent letters to customers apologizing for any offense and created a forum on its Web site to discuss the issue.
Whole Foods’ Customers Vent Fury at CEO
An op-ed written by Mackey resulted in consumer backlash.
August 19, 2009