This question was asked on the WF forum. 

BSDetector says, "Yes and this Mackey guy is about to find out exactly what tofu eating "libruls" have been buttering his whole wheat bread."

Timba says the following: "Absolutely yes. This is the single stupidest case of brand-poisoning in corporate history! Whole Foods' entire customer base consists of people who are passionate advocates of public option health care reform." 

Kristinzc says, "Yep.  Not a chance I will shop at your store again.  I will give my many food dollars to worthy local farms and markets, rather than making trips to your store.  I was previously advocating to get a Whole Foods in my town -- not any more.  This whole craziness solidifies the quote that we should be pushing for "study halls, not town halls."  You have alienated a huge portion of your customer base -- and that just doesn't seem so bright.  Good luck with what's left -- I hear they love Hamburger Helper and see no value in paying for organic.  Have fun with them."  

I found this on the Whole Foods Forum written by Ceegee.  Who knows if it will be there tomorrow, so I wanted you to see it today.  It sums up things very well for me.

Dear Mr. Mackey,

I have shopped at your store(s) for many years.  Among the many reasons I have shopped there is my belief that by doing so, I was putting my money where my mouth is in several key ways:  WF's policies about procurement of products (leading to better treatment of animals who are part of our food chain), WF's buying power putting pressure to decrease the use of pesticides, even in your conventional produce items, getting more food producers to take high fructose corn syrup out of their products -- these are just a few examples.  I also admire the efforts that WF makes to give back to local charities, and much more.

My conversations with others have led me to believe that many of your customers shop with you for similar reasons.  So, your typical customer shops with you not just to fill our cupboards and refrigerators, but is also motivated by the belief that by giving you our hard-earned dollars, and choosing your store over others, we are "making a difference" in our small way (in addition, I hope, to the activities we are undertaking ourselves to make an even bigger difference through other actions.  It is clear from the way that you market WF that you understand this, and logically, even trumpet these virtues proudly to attract and retain customers.

As your company has grown, you have gained visibility, wealth, and influence.  That is a great result of what you have built, and it means that when you speak, a lot of people pay attention.  So when you use the power of that platform (that is based on what your customer base has supported, through our choice to shop with you) to issue your opinion on the current health insurance reform debate, you are able to do so in a high-profile publication like the WSJ, and expect it to receive a lot of attention.

I say all this in the hopes that you understand that hesitation to continue to shop at Whole Foods is not a knee-jerk response, or one that I take lightly.  Health insurance reform is an enormously important thing for our country to achieve, and we have a chance to do so at this time that is closer than ever before.  So I don't take it lightly that you chose to use your position to attempt to derail reform efforts.

Given the way that you understandably expect to use the Whole Foods "virtues" to  attract customers like me, you cannot reasonably expect to take a public position against health insurance reform, one of the most important issues for sustainability of our economy as well as social equity in our country, and not alienate customers like me.

So, regretfully, I will no longer be a customer of Whole Foods.  I cannot prove that other grocer chains don't have attitudes in opposition to some of mine, necessarily.  But I do have other choices of where to shop (and some of them are quite good.  I won't be giving up in quality, where I live.  I have remained a customer with you out of loyalty and habit, not because I don't have other options.)  And I can say with confidence that none of them has used their position of visibility, wealth, and influence (built on top of my money) to try to sink something I believe in so strongly.

Sincerely,
C. Glendening

At first, I read the comments and had a good laugh about them, but now they just make me sad. I actually feel very bad for the Whole Foods customers who have spent thousands of dollars supporting a brand that just betrayed them.  I would love to be able to re-direct those customers to a new, better option (farmer's markets, co-ops, locally grown produce, etc.).  Hopefully, they are resourceful enough to come to those conclusions on their own. 

And thanks, I'm glad to be here.

I stopped shopping at WFM long ago, after my car doors got mercilessly beat up in the parking lot by uppity shoppers and my thighs were bruised by pathologically selfish people who banged me with their cart while writing my check. I don't know if it was the conventional-industrial-food-billed-as-healthy and twice as expensive as conventional that pissed me off more, or the people who shopped there. The staff were actually pretty nice. Now I only shop at my co-op, where the vibe is great.

But when I think about the food gap in our society, how poor people are left out of the nutritious, nonindustrial choices, WFM strikes me as a blatant example.

http://www.ecohearth.com/eco-zine/eco-heroes/824-closing-the-food-gap-an...

I have NEVER been a fan of Whole Foods for the simple reason that they deliberately moved into a neighborhood in Seattle where they could compete with the local, long-lived co-op (Puget Consumers Co-op) and promptly put MY neighborhood co-op store out of business (there were and are many other branches of the co-op open, but this one had the best deli in the city).

When I moved to Chicago, I heard the same story - they'd put a local co-op out of business. Whole Foods is a for-profit corporation. We may like some of their choices but make no mistake - they are a corporation, a corporation, a corporation. They exist to make money. Don't stop shopping at WF because the head cheese opposes health care reform - stop shopping there because relying on ANY corporation for your family's well being is not only risky but undermines the mission of local cooperatives.

Why support local cooperatives? Because by definition, cooperatives have the interests of their members at heart - their voting members who determine how the cooperative runs and what it provides them with. If someone lives in an area without a co-op, I would encourage him or her to start one. You may be surprised by how much interest there is locally and how many local producers you can find. You'll notice WF has a bulk section  but not a very large one - this is because when it sells a lot of products, products, products it makes more money, money, money.

Wake up, people - "It's a Corporation, Stupid!"