nosh nook #104 - thursday, august 6, 2009

we sell a bunch of junk, says whole foods boss john mackey (link)
08.05.09 - the guardian - by mark tran

isn't whole foods just the best? they're originally from good ol crunchy austin, tx & all socially conscious & green & organic & whatnot & just when you think they couldn't possibly get any damn healthier and/or righteous, they come along & surprise the living daylights out of you...& do so in a way that's totally all corporate missionlike.

as the guardian explains, whole foods CEO john mackey recently told the wall street journal that it's time for change at whole foods--"basically, we used to think it was enough just to sell healthy food, but we know it is not enough. we sell all kinds of candy. we sell a bunch of junk." as such, he says that they're going to launch "a healthy eating education initiative" & encourage employees to improve their own eating habits. wait a sec...whole foods sells junk food? really? actual junk food? as compared to what? whatever. as long as i can still get my thai peanut seitan jerky there, i don't give a crap what they do.

whole foods markets have been around for almost thirty years, but they've only been spreading their message of healthy eating to the u.k. for about two years. thus far, they haven't had the best of luck, as they've lost millions of pounds in revenue over the last year. regardless, since them brits are even more psyched about government health regulations than we are over there (& about guvment security cameras, for that matter), they're probably pretty psyched about the push for EVEN HEALTHIER products.

over here in nyc, there are six whole foods (all concentrated in manhattan) to help us eat healthy, but there's been a ton of recent flip flopping drama about them opening a new location in brooklyn over by gowanus canal. if it actually does get built, it'll just really be more of the same thing--a whole foods opening up in a neighborhood where they cater to people who can actually afford to eat healthy. yawn. until whole foods opens a store in the ghetto & helps the folks there eat healthier, them promising to make their stores EVEN HEALTHIER doesn't seem like that important of a change at all.