Whole Foods has self imploded from one of the top brands in America to one of the most hated. And unlike many other companies that have fallen from grace, Whole Foods managed to do this all to themselves. They were arrogant during the recovery and subsequently blindsided by the competition. In an effort to appease stockholders, they began cutting corners in an effort to cut costs. Training became a DIY piece of paper signed into your HR file. CAPEX was axed in favor of cost savings. Areas were neglected and risks taken in the name of EVA and short term earnings and stock price. Mackey was the most arrogant of all because he got away with it so many other times-RAHODEB on yahoo, The Wild Oats fiasco, The OP ED in the Wall Street Journal about Obama care, and the BS about how much they learned from the recession so that they wouldn't make the same mistakes twice on build out and price. Basically they were relying on the brand to continuously bail them out. Even as recent as the last conference call John Mackey was arrogant about how easy comps were going to be to beat going forward because they were coming on 1 year since the weights and measures fiasco. Happy Anniversary John, Values MATTER!!!
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@HUS8SP2-2cvv: Excellent summary of the situation. Stick a fork in this turkey 'cause it's DONE.
Yes indeed the WFM brand has imploded. Let's take a brief look at the brand's devolution:
WFM in the early days was: cutting edge, unique, on trend, high quality, trustworthy, exceptional customer service, knowledgeable and dedicated team members
WFM in the present is: antiquated, lagging behind the times, deceitful/dishonest, lackluster customer service and lack of quality team members (not the fault of the TMs,--this is due to layoffs, cutbacks, etc). The only thing that hasn't changed about the brand is that it's still more EXPENSIVE! If they think they will escape this image with the 365 stores, they are wrong. Customers know it's the same company with the same inept and corrupt leadership; they are not stupid.
Yeah good OP. My favorite stuff are the average people, employees/ non-employees, sticking up for them and for what reason? This FDA issue is pretty giant and I know, I know, I know that in 2016 trying to hop in front of an opposing opinion is really just the thing to do. So when these fanatics pretend that this is no big deal, the FDA are a bunch of crooks ( which I do agree but that's not the case here unfortunately ) and that the brand is fine. Let's say you, yes you single rich trendy man sitting in your BMW outside of a WF reading his phone, had a nice little 8oz pack of that pesto salad with some roof drippings all mixed in and the business money news hour your listening to is interrupted with this news report listing the horrendously disturbing practices, you're going to tell me then it's fine? Nah brah. I get that the girl behind juice bar doesn't know how to say No to your advances as you stop by every f---ing day to pretend to enjoy wheat grass, but this is a serious thing. The other serious shot in the foot this brand hasn't felt yet is the true to f---ing form resource of competitive pricing. Once I was let go for this powerful, aura crystal induced restructuring that included lowering prices, I was like " Good, lower that sh--. LET MORE PEOPLE HAVE ACCESS TO THIS BEAUTIFUL FOOD YOU'RE THROWING AWAY EACH NIGHT. " But nah brah, you're good with using this as a social tool to proclaim your toolness. Same goes for the ladies who act this way but with guys, WF is a giant peacocking opportunity they can't pass up. And the facade of your mature, financially derived opinion of " The brand is fine, trust me, I had dinner with the guys last night. " is just as arrogant as the direction this company is going.
" Hey, we sent the FDA a response saying we got it, ya know, no need to look here again guys. I don't get why that's not good enough, I mean, c'mon. "
It's laughable to assert "Hey, everything's fine, don't worry, customers don't read, the mojo is great, no one really cares about any of this.." Investors see just how serious this is, not just because of this latest (horrible) incident, but what it says about management's competence. People DO care, they're FED UP, and instead of talking about how fabulous the products are, they are wondering (AGAIN) when the next debacle will happen, and why nothing whatsoever is being done about it by the Board of Directors. NOTE: Another reason they're not talking about how fabulous the products are is because they just really aren't that fabulous. Last time I got a chimichanga that tasted nothing like the description on the menu board. It was a salty, greasy pile of glop. When I went to the service desk to ask for my money back they admitted that numerous others had been returning them. Another time I wanted to make my own fish tacos and the fish trimmings I bought were spoiled and disgusting when I got home. That's how they were sold. I thought I was going to barf. It was obvious that these were being sold AFTER expiration. But the track lighting and Starkey Water were world-class.
Well stated. This is why I'm thinking that there needs to be a deep investigation into this company's accounting. There seem to be serious problems involving managerial controls so why would anyone be surprised if it turns out after an investigation that there are possibly serious issues with internal controls in accounting?
Is this company run by that arrogant guy who even wanted to fight Obama care? What happened to conscious capitalism? This company lacks priorities and above all so many tired minds running regions.
@HUS8SP2-eqs I work for Sodexo in culinary management and we do a lot of research on buying/shopping/food/behavioral trends. Nowhere in my post did I mention the word millennial (19-35)...typical millennial always thinks we're talking about you haha..jk. But regardless, who are you kidding, millenials are working too hard to pay attention haha... you mean working too hard at taking pictures of their food and posting selfies maybe! j/k. The 15-29 demographic combines two different subsets, one being Gen Z and they are already exerting themselves as a group not to be confused with millenials.
@HUS8SP2-bhm I'm 23 so I fall right into that demographic. I go to WF to get quality meat and good service from the deli. Then I go to Trader Joe's to buy everything else for a reasonable price. My friends and I are too busy working to care about things like cakegate, which I had never heard of before. Careful not to buy into the millenial stereotype hype.
@HUS8SP2-zsa unfortunately, the "average" shopper at WFM is very informed and very active on social media. Whole Foods was a pioneer in social media success and using it to their advantage. Believe me, these things reach more and more "average" shoppers every day through their friends, family and especially children who are the next big shopping demographic (age 15-29) whole foods seeks to attract. Why do you think they park so many close to Colleges and Universities? These Whole Foods stories go viral in hours, are picked up by mainstream media, niche media and market players and financial news outlets in a heartbeat and disseminated to trading desks, stock boards etc...viral!! Once viral, damage is done, because we are a headline reading society who shoots first and asks questions later. Just look at the recent cake gate issue in Austin. Man, that spread like wildfire across the internet, but by the time whole foods refuted it all, the damage was done. Many of WFM biggest competitors are or were up to recently private and some that have made the mistake of going public and selling out to Wall Street have paid dearly (TFM, SFM, FWM, NGCV ). There will be serious consolidation in this space and at one time WFM was in the position to seriously capitalize on that and strengthen its position in this sector. They were too arrogant to believe anyone could catch up as they were "consistently innovating". Even so, they probably would have weathered the consolidation much better than most and combined with a recession in the future at some point would again have come out stringer. Unfortunately, the brand is damaged and maybe this is the final nail..who knows.
Speaking as a WFM customer, you are out of touch with the average shopper. They don't sit in on corporate earnings calls, read John Mackey's op-eds, or see any of the things you are complaining about. They just go into the store and see everything labeled as organic and GMO, and they get good customer service. The brand is fine from the average consumer's perspective - it's just seen as expensive so people are shifting to Trader Joe's and other lower cost grocery stores, which translates into cuts and less CAPEX, especially on employees.
Agree with everything in OP. One of the most glaring weaknesses I observed when I started 5 yrs ago was how far behind they were technologically; it was astonishing. At first it was fascinating to me---How do they compete in today's world with such ancient tech? then I realized: "Oh, they don't.."
I guess that comes back to that Arrogance again...like, "we don't have to worry about that stuff, we're WFM" .
The Competition is looking at WFM in the rearview at this point, and it looks like too little,WAY too late.
I love when they throw that " moving forward" crap in there-it means no accoumtability for the people,especially stls or regional types who f--- up..
Well said!