Customers Intimidate Whole Foods' CEO with Threats of Boycott Due to Obamacare Views

[jaesun]

Calls to boycott Whole Foods Market are growing louder and more sophisticated following a Wall Street Journal opinion article by the company's chief executive, John Mackey, in which he criticized President Obama's health care plan and offered his own alternative.

Mackey's article first prompted individuals to threaten taking their business elsewhere. But now the Progressive Review, an online alternative publication, is calling for a formal boycott, and campaigns are popping up all over, including on Facebook, a popular online social networking site.

Protesters are hoping a boycott will cut into the success of Whole Foods, the 10th largest food and drug store in the U.S., which reported sales of $1.8 billion for the last quarter, a 2 percent increase from the previous quarter.

As of Saturday, the Whole Foods Internet forum had more than 4,000 postings. One commenter thanked Mackey for revealing his political views.
"While it was a horrible business move, it was a great courtesy," a commenter identified as boycottwf wrote. "Now, I know that my dollars spent at whole foods are going to fund your misguided conservative views."

The commenter added, "Until you publically apologize to the nation and pledge that you will provide better benefits to your employees, I will not spend another dime at your store."

Another commenter identified as Betrayed, who claims to have been a customer for nearly 20 years, said, "I was so shocked to read Mr. Mackey's horrible, horrible opinion in the WSJ. I hope this severely hurts his profits. His customer base is mostly liberal Democrats who will, like me, be horrified at what we have been supporting all this time."

Phone messages left Saturday seeking a comment from Whole Foods were not immediately returned.

In the opinion article, published Wednesday, Mackey offered eight reforms for the health care system and outlined Whole Foods' employee health insurance policy.

Click here to read the Wall Street Journal article.

Whole Foods pays 100 percent of the premiums, but not the deductibles, for all employees who work 30 hours or more per week, or about 89 percent of its workers, and gives each employee $1,800 per year in "health-care dollars" that can be used for health and wellness expenses, according to the article.

Among the recommendations he made: equalizing tax laws for health insurance benefits; repealing all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines; repealing government mandates regarding who they must cover; and enacting tort reform and Medicare reform.

Mackey argued that health care is not a right, noting that neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution guarantees it.

"While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?" he wrote.

"Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges," he continued.

Mackey's opinion article started with a quote from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher: "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

Mackey's article appeared to be consistent with the views of dozens of doctors and business executives who have weighed in on the controversial bill. But Mackey's comments have drawn a much harsher reaction and is being compared to an "organized campaign to defeat a single payer health insurance system."

Yet Mackey did draw supporters as well on the forum who said they would start shopping at Whole Foods because of Mackey's article. A commenter identified as Guns & Liberty wrote that he will start shopping there to "support this man who understands the real needs of this country and it isn't paying for doctors for a bunch of lazy smelly hippies who need a bath."

[PETA]

your avatar looks like one of those aliens from sesame street that try to talk to the clock

[jaesun]

Originally Posted by PETA

your avatar looks like one of those aliens from sesame street that try to talk to the clock

Yes, The Yip Yips. My wife loves them.
"Yip yip yip yip yip yiiiipp yip yip yip...."

Classic Sesame Street - Yip Yip aliens discover a radio

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[PETA]

yip yip yip yop yop yip yip.... yeah? me too. That and the bugs that live in the windowbox planter... you know, the ones that take the family car? Twiddlebugs!

Sesame Street - Twiddlebugs Going to the Zoo (1973)

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"Oh sadness! How will we ever get to the zoo?"

[jaesun]

I'm going to show up to a HC Town Hall dressed as one of the Yips with a sign that says "Nope nope nope nope nope" just to get on TV. LOL

[PETA]

classic

[jaesun]

<runs to Joanne's Fabrics... and Whole Foods>

[tricky]

intimidate? that's the free fucking market. we don't like mackey's views and are taking our business elsewhere. don't you normally rub one out to people being able to choose where they wanna shop?


fucking communist. you disgust me.

[jaesun]

Originally Posted by tricky

intimidate? that's the free fucking market. we don't like mackey's views and are taking our business elsewhere. don't you normally run one out to people being able to choose where they wanna shop?


fucking communist. you disgust me.

Is Tricky an evil free market capitalist pig? Oh my!

The reason I posted this is because...

What does it matter what his opinion of the current Obama HC plan might be? He still supports reform! If these people knew the views of the people running most of the companies they buy goods/services from these people would be boycotting a lot of places. Try finding a place to buy gas now.

Whats the message here? Follow Obama blindly or you will be punished? Or is it, don't speak your mind or we will hurt you (or your company)? Or is it, if you are for reform but have a different plan than Obama then you must be delt with harshly and we will take it out on you.... blah blah blah. For a group of people who define themselves as open minded, they sure don't like other points of view. Keep in mind this is the same guy who pays himself $1 a year and gives the rest back to the company and employees. ALSO, he takes all of the stocks he owns in the company and donates all of the money to charity. Doesn't sound like a bad guy to me.

[tricky]

Originally Posted by jaesun

Is Tricky an evil free market capitalist pig? Oh my!

The reason I posted this is because...

What does it matter what his opinion of the current Obama HC plan might be? He still supports reform! If these people knew the views of the people running most of the companies they buy goods/services from these people would be boycotting a lot of places. Try finding a place to buy gas now.

Whats the message here? Follow Obama blindly or you will be punished? Or is it, don't speak your mind or we will hurt you (or your company)? Or is it, if you are for reform but have a different plan than Obama then you must be delt with harshly and we will take it out on you.... blah blah blah. For a group of people who define themselves as open minded, they sure don't like other points of view. Keep in mind this is the same guy who pays himself $1 a year and gives the rest back to the company and employees. ALSO, he takes all of the stocks he owns in the company and donates all of the money to charity. Doesn't sound like a bad guy to me.

i'm aware of the hypocrisy considering all he does for his employees and charity....however, all he has to do is keep his mouth shut and not infuriate the masses that keep his company in business. specifically:

"Calls to boycott its stores after CEO John Mackey's comments on health care reform could hurt sales at an already challenging time for the seller."

&

"Health care is a particularly emotional and politically-charged issue," said Robert Passikoff, branding expert and founder of Brand Keys Consulting. "[Mackey] certainly has the right to his opinions, but from the brand's perspective, perhaps it wasn't the wisest thing to do."


there would be no backlash for following blindly or not speaking his mind or offering a differing viewpoint. he ATTACKED obama's plan when a majority of his customers support.

plain fucking stupid. don't let your hate for obama blind you of pure stupidity....which his actions were

[jaesun]

Originally Posted by tricky

i'm aware of the hypocrisy considering all he does for his employees and charity....however, all he has to do is keep his mouth shut and not infuriate the masses that keep his company in business. specifically:

"Calls to boycott its stores after CEO John Mackey's comments on health care reform could hurt sales at an already challenging time for the seller."

&

"Health care is a particularly emotional and politically-charged issue," said Robert Passikoff, branding expert and founder of Brand Keys Consulting. "[Mackey] certainly has the right to his opinions, but from the brand's perspective, perhaps it wasn't the wisest thing to do."


there would be no backlash for following blindly or not speaking his mind or offering a differing viewpoint. he ATTACKED obama's plan when a majority of his customers support.

plain fucking stupid. don't let your hate for obama blind you of pure stupidity....which his actions were

Yet, had he made the same statements and came forward with what he wanted to see government do with HC just 4 months ago... he would have been made out to be a crazy radical leftist idealog by all.

Yet now that Obama and cronies have the plan they are pushing, any nay-sayers are now tagged as right wing zealots and must be boycotted.

Does that make sense to you?

[Ash]

people are such pussies. so the ceo of a corporation said something to hurt your feelings? now you have to shop at kroger? suck it up faggots.

[tricky]

Originally Posted by jaesun

Yet, had he made the same statements and came forward with what he wanted to see government do with HC just 4 months ago... he would have been made out to be a crazy radical leftist idealog by all.

Yet now that Obama and cronies have the plan they are pushing, any nay-sayers are now tagged as right wing zealots and must be boycotted.

Does that make sense to you?

What was different 4 months ago? Not all nay-sayers are tagged as right wing zealots. Just those against a public option or co-op. and Glen Beck.

and btw...did you even read the original post in the WSJ? or are you just getting outraged over a reported story of something you don't understand at all while making outlandish assumptions?

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.
While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:
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Chad Crowe
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• Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees' Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.
Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan's costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.
• Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.
• Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.
• Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
• Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
• Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor's visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
• Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
• Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren't covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program.
Many promoters of health-care reform believe that people have an intrinsic ethical right to health care—to equal access to doctors, medicines and hospitals. While all of us empathize with those who are sick, how can we say that all people have more of an intrinsic right to health care than they have to food or shelter?
Health care is a service that we all need, but just like food and shelter it is best provided through voluntary and mutually beneficial market exchanges. A careful reading of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution will not reveal any intrinsic right to health care, food or shelter. That's because there isn't any. This "right" has never existed in America
Even in countries like Canada and the U.K., there is no intrinsic right to health care. Rather, citizens in these countries are told by government bureaucrats what health-care treatments they are eligible to receive and when they can receive them. All countries with socialized medicine ration health care by forcing their citizens to wait in lines to receive scarce treatments.
Although Canada has a population smaller than California, 830,000 Canadians are currently waiting to be admitted to a hospital or to get treatment, according to a report last month in Investor's Business Daily. In England, the waiting list is 1.8 million.
At Whole Foods we allow our team members to vote on what benefits they most want the company to fund. Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-care dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments. Why would they want such additional health-care benefit dollars if they already have an "intrinsic right to health care"? The answer is clear—no such right truly exists in either Canada or the U.K.—or in any other country.
Rather than increase government spending and control, we need to address the root causes of poor health. This begins with the realization that every American adult is responsible for his or her own health.
Unfortunately many of our health-care problems are self-inflicted: two-thirds of Americans are now overweight and one-third are obese. Most of the diseases that kill us and account for about 70% of all health-care spending—heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes and obesity—are mostly preventable through proper diet, exercise, not smoking, minimal alcohol consumption and other healthy lifestyle choices.
Recent scientific and medical evidence shows that a diet consisting of foods that are plant-based, nutrient dense and low-fat will help prevent and often reverse most degenerative diseases that kill us and are expensive to treat. We should be able to live largely disease-free lives until we are well into our 90s and even past 100 years of age.
Health-care reform is very important. Whatever reforms are enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible, and that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices. We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society.
Mr. Mackey is co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market Inc.

If you had any clue as to what "reform" he was pushing...you'd know that he's pushing typical republican talking points (for the few that actually wanna do anything) about HC. Nothing the left wants....So do you understand now?

[david austin]

So people are getting all up in arms to the point of wanting to destroy a company via boycott because he doesnt agree with the changes to the system.

He goes on to point out well thought out ideas and suggestions and the response is 'fuck him... he doesnt agree with my side'?

This is why our country is the the toilet bowl. Theres no actual compromise. Nobody is listening to anything except what their viewpoint leaders are saying. From BOTH sides.

[SeedfulMusic]

Originally Posted by Ash

people are such pussies. so the ceo of a corporation said something to hurt your feelings? now you have to shop at kroger? suck it up faggots.

I 2nd that.