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Last week, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote a gutsy and possibly ill-conceived op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. In The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare, Mackey named “Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.” Sounds great, right? Well, yes and no. By taking on ObamaCare and pushing for less government, Mackey may have risked harming his company’s business by angering its traditionally left-leaning customer base. The blogosphere is having a field day amidst calls for boycotting Whole Foods:

Fueled by a typically deliberate misrepresentation of the facts by the Huffington Post, "illiberals" in the blogosphere are trying to launch a boycott against Whole Foods because of an op-ed piece CEO John Mackey wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Proponents of the boycott point to Mackey's supposed insensitivity for suggesting that people should take responsibility for their own health by eating healthful foods, exercising, and avoiding things like alcohol and tobacco. To whom is the suggestion of personal responsibility offensive? Only to liberals who believe -- uniformly -- that the government is wiser than its citizens and...

plan to do a lot more shopping at Whole Foods in the coming weeks. Mostly in response to the moronic boycott of the store now gaining momentum on the left.

I’m coming a bit late to this, but what a hoot: America’s - and Britain’s - smuggest supermarket, Whole Foods, is facing a boycott by its liberal customers because its CEO, John Mackey, criticised Obamacare in The Wall Street Journal. ABC news carries this quote: Christine Taylor, a 34-year-old New Jersey shopper, vowed never to step foot in another Whole Foods again. “I will no longer be shopping at Whole Foods,” Taylor told ABCNews.com. “I think a CEO should take care that if he speaks about politics, that his beliefs reflect at least the majority of his clients.” Speaking personally,...

Now is the time for all good capitalists to shop at Whole Foods. Not only will you get great produce, fresh meat, fish and healthy to-go meals, but you'll irritate those who think that President Obama's health-care plan isn't quite progressive enough. John Mackey, co-founder and chief executive of Whole Foods Market -- green missionary and exemplar of corporate compassion -- has riled hard-core reformers by endorsing free-market principles over government-managed health care. Well, knock me over with a wakame frond. (That's seaweed for you tofu-averse.) ...If you're unlucky enough to live in a city without a Whole Foods store,...

Of all the sideshows to the Great 2009 Health Care Debate, the Whole Foods boycott may take the prize as the most unexpected. Last Wednesday, John Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods, took to the pages of The Wall Street Journal to opine that “we clearly need health care reform,” but arguing against the solutions being put forward by the administration: “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...

I plan to do a lot more shopping at Whole Foods in the coming weeks. Mostly in response to the moronic boycott of the store now gaining momentum on the left. Let me see if I have the logic correct here: Whole Foods is consistently ranked among the most employee-friendly places to work in the service industry. In fact, Whole Foods treats employees a hell of a lot better than most liberal activist groups do. The company has strict environmental and humane animal treatment standards about how its food is grown and raised. The company buys local. The store near...

FedEx and UPS compete with the US Postal Service?! Come on, Obama. Everyone knows that overnight service is just one aspect of mail delivery. You can't walk up to a FedEx box with a letter that has a stamp that cost you only 42 cents and send it to the other side of the country in just a few days.Rather than grasp for these poor examples of how private industry competes with the government -- why not switch it up altogether? Rather than continue beating the dying horse known as Obamacare (you know, that 1000+ pages bill that you haven't actually read) -- why not have...

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, has an excellent op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal outlining his vision for a plan to reform American health care. 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...

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 last quarter, a 2 percent increase from the previous quarter. 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,...

Joshua has been taking the bus to his local Whole Foods in New York City every five days for the past two years. This week, he said he'll go elsewhere to fulfill his fresh vegetable and organic produce needs. "I will never shop there again," vowed Joshua, a 45-year-old blogger, who asked that his last name not be published. Like many of his fellow health food fanatics, Joshua said he will no longer patronize the store after learning about Whole Foods Market Inc.'s CEO John Mackey's views on health care reform, which were made public this week in an op-ed...

Joshua has been taking the bus to his local Whole Foods in New York City every five days for the past two years. This week, he said he'll go elsewhere to fulfill his fresh vegetable and organic produce needs. Customers are threatening to boycott Whole Foods stores after the company's CEO, John Mackey, wrote an op-ed discussing his ideas for health care reform. (Getty Images) More Photos"I will never shop there again," vowed Joshua, a 45-year-old blogger, who asked that his last name not be published. Like many of his fellow health food fanatics, Joshua said he will no longer...

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...

While the world most people inhabit rarely adopts Hollywood and Berkley fads, the 'green' movement has indeed caught fire with people who actually work to eat. Bemused by Kabbalah, Scientology, earth auras, and the like, regular America seems interested in being 'green.' Naturally, wherever there is a fad, an enterprising company will step up to exploit it. In this case, the practice of exploiting the public's concerns is called 'green washing.' While most green washing is simply characterizing established practices as somehow environmentally friendly, the grocery chain Whole Foods has magically turned one of the least green practices into a...

Dear (Right to Work Supporter): This week, the CEOs of Costco, Whole Foods, and Starbucks plan to throw you and their employees "under the bus" to appease Big Labor, offering a so-called "compromise version" of Big Labor's top legislative priority: the "Card Check" Forced Unionism Bill. It's vital you act right now to help fight back against their scheme -- which will leave workers vulnerable to union-boss intimidation and make you pay the price in higher costs. With our economy already blasted with recession and nearly constant political agitation, attempts to "compromise" over forced unionism really could push our economy...

Three major retailers on Saturday laid out broad details of an alternative proposal they hope will fend off a deadlock over a hotly contested bill making it easier for workers to unionize. Starbucks Corp., Whole Foods Market Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp. are opposed to portions of the labor-friendly Employee Free Choice Act, which would take away the right of employers to demand secret-ballot elections by workers before unions could be formed. Under the legislation, unions could gain representation if a majority of workers sign cards authorizing it. Still, the companies say they recognize that simply opposing the bill might...

Three big retailers are expected to back an alternative proposal next week on a hotly contested bill that would make it easier to unionize workplaces, a move some experts said would bolster the legislation's chance of passage. Costco Wholesale Corp., Starbucks Corp. and Whole Foods Market Inc. are supporting the alternative proposal, according to someone familiar with the effort. Ray Krupin, a management labor lawyer in Washington said the most likely compromise would allow employees to unionize if 70% of them sign union-authorization cards, as opposed to 50% as currently proposed in the Employee Free Choice Act.

Whole Foods Market, the national natural food supermarket chain that represents itself as supporting local communities, found itself under attack Wednesday when a large group of East Bay residents gathered outside its Emeryville headquarters vociferously protesting the company’s decision not to renew the lease of Ashby Flowers, a family-owned business that rents a small building in the corner of the parking lot at the company’s 3000 Telegraph Ave. location in Berkeley. In an interview with the Planet at his company’s regional headquarters Wednesday, Whole Foods Regional President David Lannon said that the company was not renewing the lease since it...

<p>A VICTORY FOR DEMOCRAT, BARACK OBAMA, and a Democratic-controlled congress could potentially benefit the supermarkets in our coverage universe, with Kroger (ticker: KR) standing to benefit the most. Impact on drugstores is less clear, although we see CVS Caremark (CVS) as a winner over Walgreen (WAG). Whole Foods Market (WFMI), on the other hand, could face additional wealth-destruction headwinds.</p>

You buy organic because it's better for you and the environment because the produce is grown without pesticides or other potentially-harmful chemicals. But what if those organic vegetables came from China? Would you serve them to your family? It turns out you may already have. I found packages of frozen organic veggies from China at many local grocery stores, including PCC Natural Markets and Whole Foods. Whole Foods, the country's leader in organics, sells a variety of frozen organic produce from China - peas, spinach, asparagus - under its "365 House" brand. People who buy organic expect something special, but...