...projecting your values on capitalist enterprise (emphasis mine):
While many shoppers find the new stores exhilarating places to shop, the company also faces critics who feel it has strayed from its original vision. In angry postings on blogs, they charge that the store is not living up to its core values - in particular, protecting the environment and supporting organic agriculture and local farmers. In interviews, some of the customers who describe themselves as committed to these values say they have become disillusioned and taken their business elsewhere.
MAKING MONEY. That's what the firm's "core values" are. And if pandering to hippies isn't what it takes to MAKE MONEY anymore, Whole Foods doesn't have to keep doing it.
As the market for organic expands, and more stores jump on the bandwagon (not to mention that recent changes in government regulations watering down the organic label, making it easier to say you are organic) the less Whole Foods can rely on being the only game in town. Without having the market cornered, they have to attract people in other ways.
Posted by binky at February 28, 2007 12:26 PM | TrackBack | Posted to EconomicsWF HAS gone downhill, at least around here. Our local WF doesn't even have tons of organic produce anymore -- the local mainstream supermarket has more, most weeks, and the meat is just as good (though the cheese selection isn't). WF has managed to keep their prices above the mass market, though I'm not sure they'll be able to sustain that indefinitely.
Posted by: jacflash at February 28, 2007 01:10 PM | PERMALINK