My store had a "buycott"!

[bean]

A lot of you have heard about what John Mackey, the CEO of The Whole, said in an opinionated editorial in the Wall Street Journal, about health care reform.

Personally, I agree with some of what he says, and disagree with a bit. However, he is 100% entitled to state his opinion, and I'll defend that until the day I die. I'm VERY much a believer of free speech, and I'm a firm believer that you are entitled to speak your mind no matter what.

Little did he know it would spawn protests, boycotts, and even "buycotts" in front of his stores.

My store was a victim of a "buycott" today. Meaning they weren't boycotting us, they were actually there as a show of support for the CEO.

A coworker posted a cellphone pic of the people outside the store on facebook as he was leaving, I happened to be on facebook at the time, saw it, and hauled ass up to the store to snap pictures.

C'mon guys... it's a fucking GROCERY STORE. A very nice, higher end one, but at the end of the day we just want your money in exchange for the food/wine/whatever you leave with. Our CEO won't be hurt by decreased sales, he has a yearly salary of $1.00 and gives the rest to charity.

so without further ado...
http://picasaweb.google.com/awfulbea...eat=directlink

Edit: I picked up a week's worth of groceries a few hours before this happened and was approached by 2 guys trying to sell me speakers in the parking lot while I was loading my car. I suggested they leave ASAP, they got pissed until I told them I worked there and said I was calling the police (and pulled my phone out of my pocket). Ever heard of the white van speakers? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_van_speaker_scam And seriously... are you REALLY stupid enough to approach someone with a scam IN THEIR OWN WORKPLACE? (I had on a Whole Foods hat with the logo clearly visible)

[wraiths_crono]

Neato, thats pretty interesting actually.

[bean]

And I got a "talking to" today about what I do online (specifically, what I say on facebook), by upper management.

Pretty sure they didn't like the buycott photos. Even though it brought us tons of (positive) publicity.

[bainsidhe]

Wow, that's a lot of people involved. I guess I thought it's be something smaller in scale.

[Horsetuna]

so what DID he say? link?

[mattm04]

I have been following the health care debate. I would have imagined that maybe people woudl show up who have rarely/never purchased from WF and buy stuff and leave. I never woudl have imagined a rather large protest.

[bean]

As it turns out, the "talking to" I got had no relation to the photos I took. In fact, management told me they couldn't give 2 shits about any photos I took outside of the store. The talking to was because I dared to leave a comment on the company Facebook page. Nevermind it was a POSITIVE comment....

Anyway, they told me I'm free to say whatever the hell I want on my own page as long as it's not libel (i.e. I can't post anything that's not true), and dropped some hints that if my facebook page is public (which it no longer is), I shouldn't talk about customers in a negative light. They also reminded me that while I'm free to take pictures outside of the store, once I walk through the doors I have to get management approval. Fine with me, upper management actually saw me standing on top of my car in the parking lot to get photos and later said "Was that you standing on your car out there with a camera? Can you let us know how the pictures turn out?"....