Mackey's wacky stock tips

Whole Foods CEO secretly hearts Wal-Mart

Posted by Tom Philpott at 6:52 AM on 12 Jul 2007

Read more about: Wal-Mart | business | food

In January 2005, a poster on a Yahoo message board made a bold prediction on how Whole Foods stock would fare.

"13 years from now Whole Foods will be a $800+ stock," he insisted, adding that "the company is going to keep on strongly growing for another 10+ years."

Looking at the company's stock chart (and adjusting for splits), we can see he was calling for ninefold increase by 2018. So far, the prediction looks shaky. Today, Whole Foods stock trades at a lower price than it did in January 2005.

There's nothing unusual about a message-board enthusiast making wild claims for a stock. But in this case, the Wall Street Journal revealed ($ub. required) Wednesday that the tipster was none other than John Mackey, Whole Foods' famously loquacious CEO, writing under the secret nom de plume Rahodeb.

While the Journal article focused mostly on Mackey/Rahodeb's efforts to pump Whole Foods stock and his tirades against its rival, Wild Oats -- a company which Whole Foods is now trying to buy -- I'd like to highlight some of the CEO's musings on unions and Wal-Mart.

Now, Mackey openly bows to the altar of Ayn Rand, and has made no secret of his disdain for unions. And to be fair, the company is known to treat its employees well.

But check out this diatribe, from a post dated March 13, 2003:

Wal-Mart was just named the most admired company in America (also by Fortune Magazine -- that magazine which obviously hates "working people"). I probably admire Wal-Mart more than any other company in the world (except for maybe Whole Foods!). What a great, great company! Wal-Mart has single handedly driven down retail prices across America. They have improved the standard of living for millions and millions of American people. Also Wal-Mart is crushing the parasitical unions across America. I love Wal-Mart! Damn straight that they should be on this list. Sexual discrimination lawsuits? Sexual harrassment lawsuits? Racial discrimination lawsuits? What company doesn't have those? The Trial Lawyers (the richest professional class in the United States and the largest contributors to the Democratic Party -- even bigger than labor unions which are #2) sue Wal-Mart. They sue Whole Foods Market. They sue every business which makes any money. They are probably even a bigger threat to our country than labor unions are (if that is possible?).

Mackey likes to trumpet the unbridled market as the only guarantor of worker well-being. Thus Wal-Mart, which employs essentially a vast army of the working poor and relies on poverty-wage workers in Asia to manufacture its wares, seems an odd object of admiration.

I also think it's quite lame that Mackey believes that Whole Foods should be able to consolidate its power by buying any company it wants, but shrieks like a banshee when workers try to consolidate their power by unionizing.

In the days ahead, I'll be thinking and writing about Whole Foods' attempted buyout of Wild Oats, currently being held up by the Federal Trade Commission (investigators for which uncovered Mackey's Internet alter-ego).

For now, though, I'll leave you with another of Mackey's union gems. "Only labor unions going out on strike can radically harm a food retailer's cash flow and Whole Foods doesn't have any unions," he declared.

In the context of the post, he seemed to be assuming that Whole Foods would never be unionized. I hope that prediction ends up being as dubious as his stock forecast.

For story: Mackey's wacky stock tips
4 Comments | Post a Comment

Thanks for the post...

What more can you tell us about his politics?

by rozgrist at 8:40 AM on 13 Jul 2007

Mackey's politics

For a heaping helping of Mackey's 'libertarianism', you can look at his blog at http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jm/.

His sentiments do seem a little off here, as far as unionization. Libertarians (and Mackey says he's one) ought to support any mechanism by which individual employees can use their own power to make changes, rather than relying on gov't regulation of wages, hours, workplace, and so on. At least, I would think this would be a natural libertarian position.

Objectivism is a whole different beast -- although Rand should have understood this point, she favored individual valuation and bargaining over pretty much any form of consolidated bargaining. But, that's the difference between ethics (which may favor individuals bargaining independently based on their own worth) and politics (which is merely about what kinds of interaction are permissible. Sometimes Objectivists lose sight of this distinction, even though Rand grudingly admits that any form of cooperative action is technically allowed, as long as it's wholly voluntary.

by MGTW at 1:45 PM on 13 Jul 2007

Whole Foods: Just Another Facade

The problem with Whole Foods is that it STINKS!. It's phoney balloney from the owner down. If you're really into healthful food and know what you're looking for, Whole Foods is lip service at best. We've shopped there and have had one negative experience after another. The store has overcharged us, put the wrong meat in the right wrapping, lied about the origin of its fish (claiming that farm raised was really from the ocean), sell their own label that disguises where the hell the food comes from, sells buffet food that's from a big food handler ala Marriott or Servomation, offers milk and dairy that is NOT organic because the company is cheating (see the Organic Consumers Association newsletters for more), offers coffee that is not labelled organic in their deli (but the counter people say it's organic), features margarine in their baked goods and is unclear on which items are organic. Further, we've had produce people tell us that the "9" at the beginning of the organic labelling "doesn't really mean anything," so we've found non organic mixed with the pesticide stuff. Whole Foods is designed to make big money for the money grubber at the head of the firm. His tactics are big time corporate Republican which amounts to the average person getting screwed. He has no respect for his customers because he's not into organics. I hope the guy chokes on his own greed and pretense. On top of it all Whole Foods is trying to create a monopoly in an already shaky marketplace.

by nutritiondoctor at 3:47 PM on 15 Jul 2007

Mackey's Politics/Ideals (Wal-Mart lover Indeed)

Basically he's a lost Walton Brother...

In his own words (ahem):

How many people in the audience believe drugs should be legalized? What about pornography? How many of you believe that prostitution should be legal? I believe all three should be legalized -- within certain parameters which protect children. Who among you believes that private ownership of guns should be made illegal? I certainly don't. Gun ownership is protected by the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. It is an important right.
I believe, however, that all four of these issues are far less critical for improving our society than creating educational choice, privatizing Social Security, deregulating health care, and enacting meaningful tort reform. The legalization of drugs, pornography, prostitution, and guns, as issues, are all too closely associated with the freedom movement. Aligning ourselves with these issues has hurt our brand tremendously, by associating the freedom movement with cultural decadence. Parents don't want their children's lives ruined by drug experimentation, or their innocence prematurely lost to pornography and prostitution, or their lives ended with a bullet.
[emphasis added]

Wal-Mart makes his $10 an hour jobs looks good so Wal-Mart is the best thing to happen to him even while he and his company pursues many of the same business tactics as Wal-Mart regarding big agribusiness and purchases via other countries.

Better than Wal-Mart... I suppose but not better than true local shopping instead of those big operations that happen to be local to a particular branch of the store.

PickYourOwn.org
Food Routes
Sustainable Table
Local Harvest
Eat Wild
Organic Consumers Buying Guide
Green People
Co-ops
Oceans Alive
Eat Well Guide
Happy Cow Restaurant Locator
Canadian Organic Growers

All in favor of losing your rights, please do nothing

by gristle at 5:24 PM on 18 Jul 2007

ADVERTISING POLICY

You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.