Whole Foods Under Fire For Comments Made By CEO John Mackey As Memes Mock Grocery Chain Online
After comments made by Whole Foods CEO John Mackey about “socialists taking over,” the upscale organic grocery store chain is facing a lot of blowback online.
Mackey shared his opinion on an August 10th podcast run by Reason, a libertarian magazine. He also said that the idea of Gen Z desiring “meaningful work” struck him as entitled, and argued that “liberties are under threat” as liberals “march through institutions” and unions gain more power in the United States.
In response, a number of posters wrote about wanting to boycott Whole Foods or shop at Trader Joe’s instead. A number of them compared Mackey to Tesla CEO and attempted Twitter owner Elon Musk, another CEO who's often labeled as politically at odds with his company's environmentally conscious target customers.
Many found Mackey’s comments at odds with the brand image of Whole Foods, which is usually associated with liberal America and its cultural values. Mackey is leaving the company in September, and so has seemingly been more outspoken in his final weeks.
Some wondered whether Whole Foods would begin catering to the other side of America’s cultural divide, joking and memeing that Mackey might find a new customer base among those who wave the Confederate flag or support former President Donald Trump.
#MAGAFoods Formerly known as Whole Foods. pic.twitter.com/Vec8ceJnxg
— CHOOSY (@CH005Y) August 14, 2022
“Whole Foods has the best kombucha!” pic.twitter.com/6pU3LF0DFw
— Benji King (@BenjiKing13) August 14, 2022
Others, however, also applauded Mackey’s comments, such as Jordan Peterson's daughter Mikhalia.
A corporation standing up to woke insanity @WholeFoods 👏👏👏👏👏https://t.co/4LTm4rtjss pic.twitter.com/IEy6y0gQXx
— Mikhaila Peterson (@MikhailaFuller) August 14, 2022
Clips from a debate between Mackey and Professor Richard Wolff, in which Wolff questioned Mackey’s commitment to the free market in light of his selling Whole Foods to Amazon, also spread widely around Twitter and elsewhere.
In a debate discussing Capitalism vs. Socialism, watch @profwolff remind Whole Foods CEO John Mackey exactly who he sold his company to.pic.twitter.com/L5MgBYfz5G
— Revolutionary Blackout Network (@RevBlackNetwork) August 12, 2022
Other controversies involving Whole Foods were brought up, including the company’s refusal to let employees wear Black Lives Matter apparel.
Whole Foods has fired workers in 6 states for wearing Black Lives Matter apparelThe workers & NLRB say labor law protects their right to wear BLM apparel, but a Whole Foods lawyer told the NLRB that "President Trump referred to BLM as a 'symbol of hate'"https://t.co/qyxwX8DMud pic.twitter.com/KKJh6agFo3
— Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) August 15, 2022
Under Mackey’s leadership, Whole Foods has also been heavily criticized for attempting to undermine unionization efforts. A new boss, Jason Buechel, will take charge in September and has said he wants to reconnect with the company’s “heritage.” But many wonder if that will be possible, as Whole Foods is so deeply associated with Amazon and entirely owned by the tech and retail giant.
Share Pin
big thonk
isn't the whole main argument of capitalists the old "hurr hurr, no food" meme? Picked some pretty shaky ground to pick a hill to die on…
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
>entire company survives off of left-leaning urban socialites and gen Z/millennial customers
>goes on libertarian magazine
>insults both demographics at once
brilliant business strategy
SSmotzer
tl;dr: "I started getting paid $5 an hour and got a car, house, and started a family, kids today are just lazy. Shareholders are more important than workers. Screw regulations, unions, and healthcare. I miss Reagan, Thatcher, and Trump. Socialists evil!!! …Buy my book."
Gumshoe
What's more annoying than anything about this is just how dumb his statement was. You'd think a guy running a company like Whole Foods would maybe have some slightly more nuanced insight into the factions of the left in America today, but instead it really just is some Facebook boomer nonsense about how everything even mildly progressive is socialism taking over the country. This guy probably thinks Joe Biden is a radical socialist.
Peanut970
I might be stupid but what does this have to do with Copenhagen?
Revic
No corporation can endorse an ideology with any degree of sincerity except capitalism unto itself, which is why "socialism bad, capitalism good" is chief among the few sentiments expressed here. This should not surprise anyone.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
it's surprising that he's stupid enough to say it outright when it's his whole demographic
mcdonalds could get away with it but it'd be like a vegan restaraunt posting a video about their CEO jacking off while eating fried chicken
Panuru
It's ironic that he's talking to Reason, because these are some pretty anti-libertarian views. If people want to hold out for "more meaningful" work, that's their prerogative and they can use the leverage of a tight labor market to get it. If workers want to unionize, they have every right to do that.
PhasmaFelis
A fair few people seem to think that "libertarian" mean "I do whatever I want, and you have to go along."
Panuru
Yeah, the same vein as religious freedom meaning that nobody is allowed to do things that contradict your own faith.
LastAngryWrestleman
So you have a brand that's almost exclusively targeted at affluent left-leaning people and your brilliant strategy is to make grandma at thanksgiving dinner talking points?
Chewybunny
To the everything is political crowd this is a huge blow because they are right, everything is political, it's just that they don't like your politics. Corporations placated to the progressives thinking they were tapping into a loyal customer base, to discover they are instead mostly broke, angry, and have no intentions of buying your products even if they weren't. Hollywood is also starting to turn on this, hopefully the comic book industry will follow suit.
PhasmaFelis
What
PhasmaFelis
I mean, like. None of this makes sense. I don't know where to start. Who do you think shops at health food stores? Whole Foods has been marketing to affluent lefties since before you were born. Their money turned it into a billion-dollar multinational. And you think those people are "broke"?
Revic
I'm not sure being right has ever been considered a "huge blow" to any social theory.
view the rest of this conversation →