Feedback feeds my Head

I've been writing the blog now for about 70 days. I started with it because I took a class that told me this would be a good thing. I had no idea what a GREAT thing it could be. I get to say whatever I feel, think or suspect. There's been some great feedback, and I always appreciate the things said by other writers I love (trust me, that's not a big number). One such is an old friend, the very talented and insightful Steven Ivory. Look at what he said: "I love what you're doing with the blog. I've always loved the matter-of-fact elegance with which you tell a story. I had no idea about Whole Foods. I'd heard a bit about the union thing, but like so many others, I basically bought the Whole Foods post hippie goodness thing. I didn't shop there a lot in the first place, but I'll certainly keep my black ass out of there now. Love you, Steven" What a thrill to have him say that and how amazing to provide information to the informed. Got the big head today, I'm Ruth Adkins Robinson

Bad Taste from Whole Foods

I haven't shopped in Whole Foods for several years --ever since I walked out and left my wallet on the checkout counter and turned around 30 seconds later and it was gone. I did some yelling but got nowhere with the cashier or bag stuffer. Later I realized they were working in such bad conditions for such pitiful wages, stealing must have become a viable option. Whole Foods pays its hourly employees the equivalent of 1960s minimum wages (when gasoline was 19 cents a gallon). They have fired people who've tried to organize a union. They lie about the quality of the food, won't promise to use only shrimp caught in turtle free nets, sell tuna so toxic it shot the mercury levels of one customer up so high, the Center for Disease Control workers were shaking their heads. There is a lot of other mess, but it all points directly back to the man at the top. Imagine a guy who assumes a fake identity and goes on line to trash his competitors, praise himself and snipe at his own employees. Where does he place on the scumbucket meter does he place lower than one of those predators who tells a little girl somewhere that he's a 17 year old football star.? Yeah, for my money and that of Daily Kos it would seem Kos said of this, "The very idea of the founder and CEO of a major national corporation hiding behind a pseudonym to lambaste one of his own hourly wage earners on an online message board says something about the personal moral integrity of union-busting executives. That John Mackey would step out against the healthcare reform is just another way of saying screw his employees. Let that despicable little man Mackey go out of business. Shutter Whole Foods up and let him try and live on what he pays his workers. Headed for Trader Joe's, I'm Ruth Adkins Robinson