Angry progressives have taken to Facebook to coordinate efforts to boycott organic food retailer Whole Foods. The action is a result of CEO John Mackey’s negative comments on the Obama health care plan, which were published in the Wall Street Journal on August 12.
It seemed a classic case of not understanding your own companies target demographic: it’s no secret that a good portion of Whole Foods’ customer base are left-leaning, and likely to support the president’s efforts in health care. Apparently Mr. Mackey does not.
Within hours of the column’s publishing, progressive blogs such as Daily Kos were buzzing with anger over the apparent betrayal by one of the left’s most revered companies. While the company had already angered some over its resistance to unionization, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The fight has now expanded to Facebook. Several groups have been formed calling for the boycott, the largest of which had over 19,000 members as of the writing of this post. At that size, it would be about a fifth the size of the 115,000 member strong Whole Foods fan page.
A blog has also been set up along with a Flickr group, although that appears to just have started as it contains no content. In any case, it appears at face value there is at least some effort by frustrated customers to attempt to make the Whole Foods boycott an organized one.
Will it work? Time will tell. Historically boycotts that actually have a true effect are quite rare. However, given the demographic makeup of a large portion of Whole Foods’ customer base, that could give the boycotters some advantage.
Either way its a lesson in understanding your customer, don’t you think?
#1 by CLM on August 20, 2009 - 12:35 pm
It’s interesting to note that back in 2007, Mackey ran into a little trouble when it was revealed he was using a pseudonym to criticize a rival company on forums. Seems as though it may be wise for him to keep his opinions more private.
#2 by JadeStar on August 28, 2009 - 1:24 am
Whole Foods is not, and has never been, a socially or environmentally conscious company. They are a large, national, for-profit chain capitalizing on the ideals of their customer base. The last time I was at a Whole Foods, in central Austin, I couldn’t easily locate a bicycle rack, a recycling bin, or a compost bin. I was having a conversation with a homeless man at the time, who told me he had been run off by Whole Foods security for scavenging food from their dumpster. What incredible waste! I suppose the condo-dwellers who drive their SUVs three blocks to provide patronage on a regular basis are too busy feeling cool for shopping there to actually notice or care about the contradictions!