Whole Foods, Safeway & Starbucks

After visiting the Whole Foods in Fresno I remember someone on a mailing list trashing Whole Foods for their business practices so I did a quick search. Seems like the worst of their sins is being anti-union. My feelings about this are complicated. The dying words of a friend to his son were, "Don't go to Safeway." because they were a corporate market and he believed in supporting the local stores. My grandmother-in-law (if there is such a thing), a union organizer and Communist party member would go nowhere but Safeway for her groceries since they were unionized and the other supermarket in town wasn't and still isn't.

As an employer who is rather uncomfortable with the capitalist system (but not uncomfortable enough to form a worker's cooperative) the union thing bugs me also. While I am thankful the unions of the 1920's accomplished so many things, and saddened so many people laid down their lives for some of the rights that I in my former life as an employee took for granted, I don't see the unions these days as doing all that much for their members. Perhaps I'm wrong and I'd love for a rank and file union member to explain to me where but at this point unions seem as corrupt as the employers and corporations they were formed to fight.

In thinking about the corporate versus local debate I also have mixed feelings. Certainly as a small business person in a small town I try to support the small business person even when it costs me a bit more. As long as the offerings are equal that is. We now have a Starbucks in our sleepy little town. We also have 4 independent coffee shops I can think of. One is strictly drive through, another is in the center of town with nice artwork, good live music and strong local support, another is in a little strip mall near the health food store and always seems to be limping along and the last is in the same building as us.

I'll focus on the last one since the owner very prominently displays a "Support your locally owned coffee houses" sticker on her business and has had (long before they arrived) a "Friends don't let friends go to Starbucks" bumper sticker. Her shop is tiny and mostly focused on to go orders. There is a small counter in the shop where people can sit for a moment. There is also ugly, cheap plastic furniture out in the lobby of our building. The owner takes after her now deceased father in being combative and totally self-centered. She's been caught on so many occasions turning the heat for our entire 68,000 sq foot building down that she's had keys taken away from her. Why ? Because she doesn't want to pay for heat. I guess she's hoping her not locally roasted coffee (though we have 2 local roasters) will warm up her patrons.

So, if I'm going to a coffeehouse where am I going to go ? Probably nowhere since I don't have time to hang out in coffeehouses. If I were I'd go to the local one in the center of town. But if the choice was between Starbucks and the one in our building ...let's see. I can go to someplace with comfy, stuffed chairs, nice lighting, wifi access and decent (usually) music playing or I could go to a brightly lit shop and then take my drink under fluorescent light, sit on hard unwelcoming chairs and listen to the Muzak that plays before we open. Hmmmm.

It's not like there aren't other chains in town. There is a McDonald's, Round Table Pizza, Subway, Papa Murphy's, Safeway, 2 Rite Aids, Long's, not mention other types of franchise/corporations like Edward Jones, State Farm Insurance etc. I didn't see her getting up in arms over them.

Would I feel differently if an Olive Garden or some shit hole like that came to town? I don't think so because the customers that would choose to go there I don't want. But that's because we focus on our food, our service, our environment and mostly, on our customers. We are better than everything else around us. Does it puzzle me that people still go to places with shitty food ? Yes but not everyone cares about what they eat.

Whole Foods and Starbucks are at the very least pushing some ideas into the mainstream. Organic food, fair trade products, things can be good tasting, good for you and good for all of us. Should they unionize? I don't know. I don't know how they treat their people since I've never worked for them or known anyone who has. I know if my employees wanted to form a union I'd feel utterly defeated since we have tried from the beginning to be a business that treats people well, pays fairly and gives as many benefits as we can afford (even some we really can't). I would feel as though I had personally failed. How I would respond, I don't know.

Comments

[jsp]

My two day experience at Whole Foods was that all employees seemed genuinly happy to be there. They were working together and helpful to the customers. The place had a good feel to it. My experience at the local Safeway here is oblivious employees who jabber away with others while ringing in your stuff. Half of them couldn't tell you what the last customer they helped looked like, They say thank you but it is ingenuine. Often they complain about work (to the customer, no less).

[BEP]

I work for Whole Foods and have to say that *I LOVE MY JOB*! And not only that, *I LOVE THE COMPANY I WORK FOR*! It's so wierd, even I can't believe it.

Whole Foods rocks. Yes, some of the food is more expensive than what you'll find in your local supermarket. But it's real food, food you can trust - and a lot of it is grown by local organic farmers. And if you shop the 365 brand, it's usually no more expensive than other store brands. Plus it doesn't contain preservatives or artifical anything or other bad stuff.

I work with foodies! I work with people who are passionate about their lifestyles, their beliefs and their world! I work for a company that not only supports that, but celebrates it! Yeah for me!!

[Justo Hernandez]

Safeway/Wholefoods/Lunardies
I love Wholefood, but I hate thier attitude. When you complain that the
vegetables are old,wilted and dirty, they say they are organic. The fruit
is too ripe, and the berries often have mold. At least this is my observation at the Los Gatos Store. They have obvious refrigeration problems or hold the produce too long or just get a deal from the wholesaler for buying old goods. Safeways vegetables used to be even worse, now they boutique them and they are a little better but they never
have enough product out and lately have less variety. Lunardes looks like
an exposition at the County Fair. Fantastic. They even have a good size
organic dept. They used to be a great place to pick up ethnic products
but now they have joined the ranks of selling shelf space and it has turned into a w.a.s.p. emporium.
PRICING>>>> I have had horrible problems at Wholefood and constantly had
to review my reciept as the clerks and management have a cavelier attitude
thinking everyone that shops there is rich. I had to go to customer service weekly to have a correction and refund made. They overchage like
you can't believe. Even the shelf sticker price is often incorrect . It
got so bad that I wrote them a letter of which they never responded even though I claimed if they did not I would go to the D.A.office. And guess
what? And so the dept of weights and measures went out there 3 time and each time they purchased a series of items the price was, you got, way off.
They cited them and are working with them. Never the less based on my average errors, I calculated in excess of over a million dollars annually
in thier pocket.
PRICING>>>>>>>Safeway has this Club Card thing, but you better watch out.
I did a price comparison on 12 items I normally buy. Milk, eggs, bread,etc. Ofcourse to be fair they are healty type products, but neverthe
less Safeway was 30% higher the Lunardies and 20% higher than Wholefoods...
the exact same product. I write them a letter......no response.
PRICING>>>>>>>>Lunardies I bring this up to Lunardies and they show me an
article from the Los Altos Times that did simular research and found that
Lunardies was the least expensive place to buy in the County. Goes to show. I grew up thinking Safeway was the only place to buy.....I guess if
you want thier off brand or private lable stuff it's cheaper, but I found
that even with thier Club Card they are most of the time just selling it
for what Lunardies or Wholefood sells it for.

PRICING>>>>>>>So I guess if price is your bag, you need to shop at all
the stores for the best value. I find myself going more often now to
Costantinos as the vegetables are are great as Lunardies and the meat
department is incredible. At Lunardies the don't know the difference between ossobucco and shank. If you don't believe me go ask them for
osso bucco and you'll get shank with hardly any meat at an outrageous
price and with attitude.

[WFSucks]

Whole Foods has wonderful food dont get me wrong but once you go behind the scenes you learn they are an UGLY company fronted by the whole life whole planet lifestyle. imagine having a pastry shelf fall on you to only be told you have to hurry back to work since you havent been there long enough to take 2 weeks off even though it was their equipment that put you in that situation in the first place. Watch your whole foods store closely especially the ones that are newly opened & see how many of the originals stay. ive watched a store of 300 to now 3 years later there is barely 11. everyone is happy at first & then reality kicks in

[Yaring Logan]

Am I getting old and weaker? Fourth time out of about twenty buying visits I've left Safeway after buying few full sacks of goods an item never was in my bag when I arrived home. I spent hours looking for these items, as I was charged for them. Searched every location possible before calling the store for help. The last instance was week ago. April 2006, called store. Yes! They found an item matching my description. Come in and pick it up as we have it. What a store. WOW! Notifying me to come in each time for their error to pick up my items.

Safeway brand "Select" is a poor line of food goods, mostly canned goods, some bakery items, if it fits in the marketplace for the homeless crowd or low incomers, I will not say more and let you be the judge.

Safeway deli sandwich. I believe Safeway holds the record for the thinnest slice of tomato ever created. And! They place a piece of lettuce in there someplace that reminds me of a large piece of parsley. GO Safeway Go!! Keep squeezing and squeezing the pennies to the cashflow bottom line. Keep ripping! Let me revise this stores name to something more appropriate "Squeezeway Stores"

Now I understand more clearly the reasons for the success of Costco, Walmart, Wholefoods, etc.