Whole Foods hates kids?

We do all our shopping at TJs -- except for some produce at the WF across the street, as well as turkey hot dogs because our TJs never has them.

Coincidentally, 12 hours before even seeing this thread, I was in TJs today with my 2-year-old. He's been refusing the balloon lately because he gets too sad when he inevitably lets it go in the parking lot and sees it float into oblivion. So he asks for stickers instead.

So WF is our next stop and he's covered with TJ stickers. I myself was wondering whether someone would say anything if they saw him. Nobody did.

And KJIM is dead on about the packaging at TJs. Plus, the plastic pouches and plastic wrap are impossible to open -- you always have to grab a knife or scissors. They really overdo that shit.

 

Along those lines: I'm back in school working on an Econ degree after 5 years in journalism and I recently took Environmental Economics. The professor pointed out that that organic fruit you get at Whole Foods or Trader Joe's may have come from somewhere in South America. How much pollution was released via the trucks etc. used to transport that organic fruit to the U.S.? Obviously a lot. So you may be getting organic foods at WF, but you're doing so at the expense of the environment. So I guess it could be argued that we should all boycott WF until they start getting all their products from local farmers!!! Seriously, it's it's a tough dilemma when you look at it in those terms if you care about the environment and also feeding your family fruits and veggies without pesticides and meat without antibiotics etc.

 

My WF gets its tomatoes locally and most of the berry fruit from either California or Washington.

 

for the record, i like whole foods; i hook my fishmonger up and he hooks me up.
however, it seems the CEO has rob neyer disease - posting under a differently alias and ripping a competitior.

from the ny times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/12/business/12foods.html

 

Rico - have you heard from anyone at WF yet?

 

Speaking of John Mackey ...

http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/article/SB118418782959963745.html?mod=home_whats_news_us

 

I finally heard from Whole Foods today. The regional VP and his secretary weren't good at returning calls (it's been nearly 2 weeks since I originally called their office).

I finally got through to a human being (his secretary's vacation replacement) Tuesday and she passed along to the VP what had happened and said to expect a call from him within 24 hours. She said she had kids and couldn't believe what had happened. Long story short, the VP never called back, but I figured out his email address last night and sent him a nice letter explaining what had happened. I cc'd it to corporate customer relations just in case he didn't respond. I used the Gap-American Eagle T-shirt example someone had posted here and the taking your kid's Happy Meal in another restaurant example and said trying to take balloons from two small kids was basically the same thing. I told him we were thinking about the manager just last night when we were in Moe's and saw a family come in with a Wendy's kids' meal. I told him the Moe's employees didn't take the Wendy's meal away even though they're a competitor and located across the street. It was probably overkill, but I think it drove home the point.

Anyway, I got an email back from the VP this morning saying he had talked to the manager and that "if the situation was to happen again he would make a better judgment." He said it is their company policy to not allow advertising from competitors, but the VP agreed with me that children with balloons "does not constitute advertising" and that he believes the manager now sees that.

In the end, he said he realized we could have just taken our business elsewhere and not said anything but that he was grateful we had contacted them and given them a second chance. I asked for a written letter of apology from the manager and a gift certificate to show they valued our continued patronage. The VP said they would be sending us a "token of their gratitude". The manager left me a voice mail saying he wanted to apologize.

So all is well. I rarely go through that much trouble, like I said, but it's a different ballgame when you mess with my kids. I don't kick my dogs, but one of my dogs got whacked pretty hard last year when she bit my daughter in the face. The secretary I talked to at WF agreed about being protective of her own kids. She had a line I liked: "You can take away my balloon, but just don't try to take balloons away from my kids!"

 

I just wanted to update this thread one last time because Whole Foods went out of their way to make this situation right and I think they deserve some big props.

We got a big package today from the Whole Foods store itself. Inside was two big Whole Foods tote bags filled with goodies. Two pairs of kids' crocks, two WF T-shirts, two WF frisbees (They were going all Noah's Ark on me), two boxes of cereal, two packages of juice boxes, two packages of apple sauce and a few other kid-oriented grocery items.

There was also an envelope inside with a letter from the manager apologizing and a $50 gift card. We were overwhelmed to say the least. This was way more than we were expecting. I'll definitely have to send out a thank you letter to the manager and forward it to the corporate office because this really wowed us. Like I said, they righted a wrong in a big way and restored our loyalty and I just wanted to give them credit for that here where I started the original bitch thread.

 

Quite a shakedown there, Rico.

 

It's only fair... play both ends against the middle

 

wow.

you go, Rico

way to get the Man to cave.

sweet.