Can any of the WFM trolls on here please explain to me how the current move to combo teams and such help in enhancing the customer service experience or team member morale? It seems to me the only differentiator that WFM has currently is team members who provide exeptional, knowledgeable service, which leads to happy customers.. When they take away knowledgeable leadership and stretch labor as they plan to do, NOBODY wins! Due to the lack of specialists in stores, whats to keep our customers from giving up and just going to the competition?
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John is a figurehead who brought in all these "experts" 25 years ago who didn't know what they were doing. Why he hasn't lobbied for their dismissal is beyond me. He has a very tiny stake in the company now. He should just go give lectures on how not to run a business and why you shouldn't believe your own publicity.
It is turning from WFM (Whole Foods Market) into WFT (Whole Foods Target): automated replenishment buying, overnight stockers, and very little customer service.
Why dont they cut out the feelgood conscious kapitalism crap and change the core values to read "stockholders"..and that create value through profits and growth is a laugh...last time i checked my stock account was valued at like 2.00$ whilst i have 100s of shares
Money is the most important thing to Whole Foods right now. The fun loving days are over. They need profits and don't care about team member happiness. They think like many other major corporations now and just need bodies, the more robotic and yes men/women the better. Sure there are trolls exaggerating some aspects, but in the end money and the business will come first
You know what's funny, when trader joes opened across the street a couple of years back we were all given apron cards to help with talking points about why whole foods is superior. One of the points was the vast amount of product knowledge team members have in their individual departments since trader joes runs its stores in a rather decentralized manner (you may be cashiering one shift, unloading truck the next, stocking dairy the next). Now, we are following that model with the increase of PT team members and decrease of specialists and buyers. Now I have to send my team members to help pull the weight of other departments when they need help. These are people who are expected To be knowledgable of products in completely different departments. Or worse, part timers who just want to work their 4-5 hour/3x a week shifts who don't know what's going on in general because they don't spend a good enough amount of time here. This company is absolutely laughable. I'm going to continue to work my way up so I can pay off my school loans and house and then I'm getting the hell out of here. This place is pretty much good for a paycheck if you can stand the mental abuse from
Upper management.
I am shocked someone is still asking or saying this after all that has happened the last 5 years. Its business now, pure corporate business. Has been in the works and will not change. John does not run whole foods now. So many new faces that came on board and destroyed company. All the information if available you just have to dig. Jason Buechel Executive V.P. and CIO is turning Whole Foods into WholeMart!