The downward shift occurred around 2004 when we changed our focus from taking care of 'stakeholders' (customers, vendors, employees, shareholders) to taking care of 'shareholders' - it's all about profits now, it's all about shareholders now and stakeholders (all of them except shareholders) are in the center of everything. With this being said, all fundamental aspects of Whole Foods started to fade, while we made money, we started to slowly alienate pretty much all other stakeholders and you are seeing results of this right now. No, it'll not stop here, they will continue to tighten the belt regardless of how much money we make and how much employees are disgruntled, how much our customers start to dislike us or how much our vendors think that we have unrealistic expectations. There are a few straightforward solutions for this but I'll leave it at this.
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Another turning point was when Mackey started dissing products that helped build WFM, remember that? "Now when I eat something with olive oil in it, it tastes heavy and greasy to me." - John Mackey
sept du sem du jour, I remember the benefits votes always being a losing choice as far back as 2002
This is kind of a problem for the nation as a whole.
remember every benefits vote has been really about what we as team members are gonna lose versus gain..."do you want to cut your feet off to make your hair grow???" type of logic on those ballots
Nailed it