Kind of reminds me of the slogan of the Bakers’ Square restaurant chain: “Good food, good feelings”. Yep, that just about covers it.

Must sting to be “betrayed” by their poster boy CEO.

I understand where you’re coming from. Labels that proclaim virtue can be annoying, but that’s just lazy marketing. That said, I think you’re over-analyzing a bit.

The people at Carls Jr. or my local Safeway don’t exactly have “stringent appearance requirements” either. I’ve never felt the vibe you mentioned. At my local Whole Foods the service is good and reasonably friendly. I have been treated rudely at a local Winco and WalMart (no grudges though). I’m not saying that “holier than thou” types don’t shop at Whole Foods. But so what if they do? I just ignore the few people who maybe come across that way and I don’t go out of my way to hang out at the grocery store anyway.

I think we make a mistake by lowering ourselves to the liberals game of politicizing choices in the marketplace. Are we all just going to shop at places that are supposedly “conservative”, “libertarian”, “secular” or whatever, just because it’s not liberal? I don’t particularly care for conservative mainline Republican politics either, so should I stop shopping at a “conservative” or “corporate” business even if I like their product? If I did that I would limit my consumer choices considerably, which is exactly what the environmentalist left wants.

Carl Karcher, of Carls Jr. fame, was an ardent anti-abortion supporter and came under attack for his donations. Likewise for the founder of Domino’s Pizza. But I’ve never felt anything remotely like a political stance when entering one of those establishments and I’d find it annoying if I did. Whole Foods is the opposite of this. You cannot enter one of those stores without encountering myriad companies whose packages are festooned with their beliefs. While the company tries to keep it sane, it is pretty much impossible to run such a business without attracting a lot of customers who have an intense holier-through-organics-than-thou attitude. Catering to those customers in turn tinge the feel of the shopping experience for others.

It’s kind of like why when given a choice between going into a Barnes & Noble or a Borders, I’ll favor the former because Borders is so concerned with living up to some lefty ideals that they allow their personnel to be repugnant. A bookstore is one of the places I’d hope not to encounter someone with more metal attached to the outside of their head than I had in my mouth as a 70s teenager with braces. (Orthodonture has greatly improved since then.) They may be equal under the law but I’ll take my business to the store has more stringent appearance requirements of their employees. They don’t have to be pretty but serious self-mutilation is right out. Given the choice, I’m going somewhere else.

I get enough of businesses patting themselves on the back for being ‘green’ or some other self-proclaimed virtue, as in mainstream supermarkets. Going into Whole Foods can feel like you’ve entered a special sanctified domain of the good people. They may not say it outright but the vibe is there and it attracts those who really believe it.

I know a lot of people who aren’t orthodox liberals who shop at Whole Foods. I sometimes shop there. Yes, some of their items are more expensive but I like some of the food. It’s just a personal preference.

I think there is a tendency among conservatives and libertarians to correlate organic food with liberals. But we defend a persons right to get fat eating cheeseburgers at McD’s and then complain about the false stereotype that we’re all just fat rednecks who “shill” for fast food. Sure, some liberals shop at Whole Foods. But let’s not stereotype too much because that actually plays into the lefts hands.

Mackey had the stones to speak up for the market and criticize the health care “reform” proposal, knowing full well how some of his customers would likely react. I think he should be commended for that. Let’s not turn this into a “organic is stupid” pontification.

apart from the absurdity of somehow assuming that the political beliefs of a business owner must reflect those of his customers, what ought to embarrass folks like those quoted is this: whole foods employees LOVE their health plan. it’s both cheaper and better than most others and has higher employee satisfaction. it’s one of the key reasons why whole foods is rated such a great company to work for.

perhaps before getting on their high horses and pontificating about helping the workers (likely from the seat of a mercedes) they might actually bother to ask the workers what they want. i realize it’s a radical idea, but…

For a good satirical look at this, watch Mike Judge’s new cartoon series “The Goode Family.” If you aren’t part of the subculture, you’ll be ROFLMAO’ing. If you are part of the subculture, you won’t get it.

Oh, and a central part of the show is the frequent visits to a satirical Whole Foods.