Home Pop Culture The Whole Foods Drama. Coming to terms with Corporate Greed part deux.

The Whole Foods Drama. Coming to terms with Corporate Greed part deux.

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customer, who we have always been taught is always knows best. Maybe that’s where the blowing steam up someone’s ass comes in. Better to look the part than actually reveal the reality of what it took to get so and so to look delicious. After all, when you’re hungry you just want something delicious and satisfying to eat, not a sermon of corporate dogma and how management has different smoko rules for new as opposed to old time employees.

Now some of the letters that gawker received from fellow Whole Food alumni employees, present or previous. Which is to say, gawker may have received congratulatory letters, but if they did they never chose to publish them. So instead, let’s look at some of what across the board looks to be condemning of Whole Foods practice.

As to the wastefulness of Whole Foods… it must’ve been one of the most appalling experiences of my life when I spent a day working in the Bakery, and at closing time threw away enough food to feed a hungry mass. Not only did we throw the food out, but it was thrown into a trash compactor so as to eliminate any possibility of salvaging the food. Occasionally, they would give some bread to nonprofits, but don’t believe what they say… they are throwing tons of good food away.

Spoiled food galore. If a piece of produce is slightly bruised, a tad over ripe, or just not pretty, it’s deemed unsellable. also, if any bulk product is removed from a bin, it is considered unsanitary to return to the bin. if one egg is cracked in a dozen, it’s not sellable. all these things are thrown away. up until a week or so ago, team members had access to some of these products as “cull” that they had to pay 25 cents per item for. or if you knew someone, the right someone, they might give it to you. this is no longer at my home store. all produce is now composted, as is bulk products. day old baked goods, dented boxed products (alternative milks, soups, etc), canned goods and various other products are said to be donated to the sf food bank, but I have often witnessed them just being tossed.

Spoiled food galore. Well, that’s the trick isn’t it? To have as much food on hand so as to sell it, but not to be caught having not enough food. Surely that’s not a task one can predict with 100% precision every day.

And then there’s the dilemma of throwing out perishable food that doesn’t get sold. Yes, I know in an ideal world we should give it to the starving children, but that too raises the question, will the food make it there, and who out of those masses starving do you give it to and even worse will people start pretending that they are homeless to get the left overs? But one hopes someone in management is sensible enough to understand as a large provider of food, they should from time to time facilitate the delivery of unsold perishables to food banks, and perhaps receive a tax write off.

Another letter:

The don’t recycle properly. I worked at 3 different stores and the last one I worked at didn’t have a recycling program at all. Some overly committed team members took it upon themselves to take some recycling every week, but the majority of it went in the dumpster. OH! And the recycling bins that were in the cafe for the customers to use were for appearances, that stuff went in the regular trash too.

Went in the trash bin too? But then again, isn’t part of the appeal of Whole Foods the manafactured Utopia of a pleasant shopping experience? I’m just curious, how many consumers put away a designer dress when they find out it was made in bootshop houses employing 12 year olds? Something I’m sure the fashion industry isn’t going out of its way to talk about. So yes gimmicks suck and corporates use them, and it is shameful, but ultimately it’s what the consumer demands, whether realistic or not.

Getting fired on the job:

I got pregnant while working there. I’m not even going to get into all the passive aggressive, verbal & emotional

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