Archive for August 20th, 2009

Backlash against Whole Foods … just because CEO proposed healthcare alternatives

August 20, 2009

On Aug. 11, the CEO of Whole Foods wrote a WSJ op-ed advocating 8 specific proposals for really reforming healthcare.
https://kenhoma.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/improving-health-care-without-adding-to-the-deficit-8-specific-ideas/

Among his proposals: tort reform, equalized tax treatment of company-paid and private health insurance premiums, continuing health savings accounts, and access to  insurance across state lines.

Unfortunately (for Whole Foods), most of his ideas aren’t part of ObamaCare since they impact trial lawyers and / or unions.

Most unfortunate, he failed to include a government run insurance option as one of his eight proposals. 

Big mistake.

So, Whole Foods is now subject to a boycott.

Talk about angry mobs …

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Whole Foods Boycotted by Liberals for CEO’s Anti-Obama Health Care Position
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/08/19/whole-foods-boycotted-by-liberals-for-ceos-anti-obama-health-ca/

The grocery store Whole Foods is facing a boycott organized by liberal activists because the CEO opposes President Obama’s health care reform proposals.

The company’s chief executive, John Mackey, wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed on health care that has roiled the liberal blogosphere and prompted calls for a boycott.

“While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system,” Mackey wrote in the WSJ.

“Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction — toward less government control and more individual empowerment.”

The boycott leaders are organizing via the Huffington Post.

“To me, it’s pretty basic: Mackey is working to oppose things I believe in, so I should stop giving him money,” wrote Ben Wyskida, who also works for the liberal magazine, The Nation. In a column titled “Why I’m Done with Whole Foods,” he said: “Mackey has confirmed for me that my money is going to support deregulation of the insurance industry, lies about the current health care proposal, and a crusade to lecture people who can’t access or can’t afford healthy food. I’m just not going to go there.”

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Posted in Consumer Activism - Backlash, Health Care / Medical Insurance | 3 Comments »

How long do you wait in line to checkout at the supermarket?

August 20, 2009

Well, if you live in DC, you wait the longest – over 8 minutes on average. 

Best solution isn’t to pick moving lines  … it’s to move to St. Louis.

Here are the numbers.  Below are some ‘so what’ points.

 [ Average wait times in grocery-store lines, in minutes]

Excerpted from WSJ,  Justice — Wait for It — on the Checkout Line, Aug 19, 2009 

While Americans spend relatively little time in queues, a wait they perceive as too long or unjust could curtail repeat purchases.

The simplest way to reduce wait time is also the most expensive: adding more employees.

Instead, some retailers and fast-food restaurants have gone the way of banks and airports, shuttling customers into a single line where the person in front goes to the next open cash register.

Other retailers are dabbling in technological upgrades to improve the waiting experience with updates on wait times or pleasant distractions.

But the primary goal often isn’t a reduction in wait time.  Instead, retailers are appealing to consumers’ sense of justice by ensuring no one is served after another customer who arrives later.

“Supermarkets are one of the last major service industries in the country where you don’t have single, serpentine lines.”

Waiting research has attempted to quantify how qualitative factors can affect shoppers’ estimates of time in line and their reaction to that time. Customers overestimate their wait times by 23% to 50%.

When it comes to customer satisfaction, time isn’t of the essence; fairness is. Many studies have shown how frustrating it is for customers to see others get served faster.

Supermarket lines may not be the longest, just the most loathed. Two years ago, in 20 out of 25 major U.S. cities, the average wait time at grocery stores was under five minutes.

Many supermarkets address that tension with express lanes for shoppers with few items, so that they don’t have to wait for lengthy transactions. In other words, supermarkets are thereby treating their best customers – who buy the most —  the worst.

Nearly half of supermarkets have some form of self-checkout. But these systems are usually outnumbered by traditional cash registers and often slowed by customers’ unfamiliarity with barcode scanning.

Full article :
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125063608198641491.html

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Posted in Customer Service | 1 Comment »