Monday, August 31, 2009

buycott!

John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, wrote an OpEd for the Wall Street Journal in support of free market health care which resulted in union protests and a bunch of hippies getting their organic unbleached hemp knickers in a twist.

Mike and I always get a kick out of lefties in a tizzy so we decided to strap on our pistols and visit Whole Foods. I considered open carry for a moment but then thought it might be too much for the usual clientele and decided to be merciful. Besides, I wasn't really in the mood for being interrogated in the frozen food aisle. (Hey! What about my alternative lifestyle?)

Everything in the produce department is so lovely, from the stacks of heirloom tomatoes to the artful arrangement of speckled brown eggs, laying in moss-lined baskets. There are exotic mushrooms and yucca root right next to bunches of lemongrass but...

"Wait a minute...where are the regular bananas? I don't want organic bananas."

I am a Whole Foods heretic.

But what we don't buy in spotted, deformed vegetables is more than made up for because Mike and I stand powerless before the cheese selection. We always end up splurging - this time on a soft tangy buffalo milk cheese, a new-to-us bleu, and a nutty gruyere. We bought a bottle of Hop Stoopid IPA just for the name, ground up some fresh honey roasted peanut butter, discovered yogurt from Iceland and still managed to make it out of the store without having to take out a second mortgage on the house.

Sadly, there were no protesting hippies but we did see some looking mighty guilty as they surreptitiously served themselves at the hot smoked meat table.

21 comments:

Paul said...

Back in 2008, this Whole Foods, CEO John Mackey (how old is this kid?), was caught posting negative comments (trash talk) about a competitor on Yahoo Finance message boards in an effort to push down the stock price. So now I am suppose to take this loser seriously? Please, snore, snore.

It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people (honestly where can they go with a pre-condition). And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait, Medicare and Medicaid and our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown and Katrina but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.

How does shouting down to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots. How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a “lynch mob” advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types AKA “screamers” are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.

breda said...

If a comment is longer than the original post, you might want to start your own blog. Get your own soapbox, because no one is going to notice this here.

Snowdog said...

I saw some union types protesting in front of the local Whole Foods last week. So, feeling Evil, I turned in, went in, and bought some stuff for lunch. Then made sure as I drove out of the parking lot to hold up the bag and wave at them as I went by, yelling out the window "thanks for protesting, I wouldn't have thought to stop in if I hadn't seen you guys."


They were not amused. :D

Alan said...

Mention of "teabagger" = auto-fail.

But besides that...

Every "private sector" failure Paul mentions is due to government meddling in heavily regulated industries. Hardly the free market.

AND

Are you really going to throw up Medicare and the VA as sterling examples of how great Obamacare will be? Have you TALKED to any disabled vets or retired people lately?

Might want to rethink that argument Paul.

Jeffrey Quick said...

Smoked meat table, oh yes.
The varietal chicken eggs were a little silly (they've much minimized that of late) and I still think Trader Joe's is a better buy (out Chagrin, past the Whole Foods which used to be a Wild Oats...I assume y'all went to the Cedar store). But it IS fun.

breda said...

LOVE Trader Joe's! Love love love!

Jake (formerly Riposte3) said...

(In response to Breda's original post)

Behold, the power of cheese! :p

(In response to Paul)

Do you really want to hold up Medicare and the VA as government successes? The same Medicare program that is expected to be bankrupt in the next 10-15 years? The same VA system that veterans use only as an absolute last resort?

Remember, this is the same government that gave us Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The same government that can't run the Post Office at a profit, even though it's a monopoly by law. The same government that couldn't run a brothel at a profit in a state where prostitution is legal.

Why do people insist on thinking that government run health care will be any different?

wv: dessent - really!

Joanna said...

I've begun buying my coffee at Whole Foods -- it's a little more expensive than Trader Joe's (same prize, 4 fewer ounces), but I want to support the CEO and I can get there on my bike (barely). They also had some bitchin' sunglasses that made me sore lament my current poverty.

Joanna said...

Also, re: Paul: Aw, it's so cute! It's almost like it's trying to talk! It thinks it's people! *pat pat pat*

Seriously, dude: Get your own blog.

B_L said...

The cheese section at hippie supermarkets always drags me in too. That, and they usually have prosciutto.

You should try the organic bananas, though. Who gives a crap where the plants get their nutrients, but the ones I tried were fantastic. Mondo banana flavor and a very nice texture. I think they just took better care of the plants or were more selective about which ones they picked, but whatever they did resulted in a better banana.

Unknown said...

It's more than 20 miles to the Whole Foods nearest to my home -- but if they had butter extract on the shelf, I'd make the drive.

Merle said...

Paul, they don't hate. Tea Party people are just angry, and it is justified.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Dang soap-dodger, stinkin up yer comments section. This is almost as bad as the library. How is a transient like me gonna concentrate on his inernetz 'research' with that guy around?

IZinterrogator said...

@Paul: If as a military man I'm supposed to be getting the best medical care in the world, why did the medical clinic turn away one of my students who tore his ACL two weeks ago because he was wearing his PT uniform instead of ACUs? Keeping in mind we carried him directly to the clinic from the ball field where he was injured. And why did they turn him away and send him to the clinic downtown when he returned in the proper uniform because it was after sick call hours? Finest health care ever, my butt. When I get sick or injured, I'll blow my own cash at the CVS on medicine or painkillers before I'll ever walk into the TMC, everytime.

Zeke said...

Oh, Paul doesn't need to find his own blog. He's found about three hundred.

breda said...

HA hahahahaah!!!! Good work, Zeke!

Anonymous said...

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lboykin said...

"organic unbleached hemp knickers"?

Someone's been peeking and checking out them hippies.

aczarnowski said...

He's found about three hundred.

Wow. I knew it was possible, but I didn't think people would be so stupid as to actually do it.

I'll say it yet one more time, why do I continue to be amazed by the stupidity around me?

DAve said...

Our veterans receive the best healhcare in the world? With some imputed equivalence to that the Congress receives???
Turns out Congress gets their choice of 115 different private plans.
Just like the vets I spose...

Firehand said...

And you'll note that the Congressional plans are all private; not gummint-run, as I recall.