G&S Nursery Spring 2016 Newsletter

Whole Foods Struggles to Stay in the
Good Graces of the Activist Customers
Who Made Them Mighty
Whole Foods, the socially conscious
grocery chain has risen
to great heights partly because it
has carefully cultivated an image
of being more concerned about
sustainability, quality of life, and
other values that resonate with their
customer base. They are just one
of an elite
group of
large corporations
that have
convinced
a cynical
public that
they operate
on a
different moral plane than traditional
corporations.
A company that enjoys an affinity of
purpose with its shoppers usually
has less concern for the traditional
checks and balances of the free
market, like price competition or
convenience. There are a lot of
shoppers out there who don’t mind
driving across town and paying
more—sometimes a lot more—because
they feel like they are supporting
the good guys when they
shop there.
But the socially conscious corporation
has to know that their connection
to their adoring customers
can be a mile wide but only an inch
deep. They have to live in fear of the
day the breeze blows in a different
direction. The culture that so
enthusiastically supports business
percieved as progressive tends to
hold an “all or nothing” attitude. If
you fail any of a bewildering array of
litmus tests, the angry internet mob
can mobilize in an instant. It must
be fairly unnerving to know that at
any time you could go from hero to
goat because of some faux pas that
a clerk at one of your locations might
happen to commit.
Whole Foods has had to learn this
the hard way. Founder and Chairman
John Mackey learned a few years
ago what would happen if he shared
his thoughtful and well-reasoned
views on health care policy from the
perspective of an employer when
Obamacare was being debated.
Many customers felt shocked and
betrayed to learn that Whole Foods
was run by someone who cared
about costs when the neediest
among us had inadequate healthcare.
Last year, a Maryland Whole Foods
store tweeted out a photo of some
smiling National Guard soldiers holding
a large satchel of sandwiches
from the store. They were in the mid-
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