Whole Foods CEO Apologizing For OverCharging Customers Is A Disingenuous Coward

Yahoo- Whole Foods’ two top executives have apologized for overcharging customers. “Straight up, we made some mistakes and we want to own that,” Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb said in a two-minute video apology alongside John Mackey, the chain’s co-founder.

Whole Foods came under fire last week after a New York City investigation revealed that several stores were mislabeling packaged foods and selling them for more than they were worth.

City inspectors claimed it was the “worst case of overcharging” that they had ever seen, according to the Daily News.

In the apology video, Robb and Mackey said the overcharges were unintentional and that they mainly occur with packaged fresh foods like sandwiches and juices. 

“It’s understandable sometimes that mistakes are made,” Robb said. “They are inadvertent. They do happen because its a hands-on approach to bringing you fresh food.”

In the New York City investigation, inspectors weighed 80 items from eight Whole Foods stores and found inaccurate labeling on every item, according to the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs.

For example, inspectors weighed eight packages of chicken tenders, which were priced at $9.99 per pound. Consumers who purchased these packages would have been overcharged by about $4.13 on average, according to a DCA release. One package was overpriced by $4.85.



Some will say that this is customer friendly. That it takes a real man to admit his mistakes. That Whole Foods coming clean about overcharging their customers could manage to bring in the average consumer. I say FUCK all that noise. As far as I am concerned Whole Foods is dead to me, and I have never even shopped there before. You know why a bunch of overly health conscious, pretentious assholes shop at Whole Foods? Well, for one, because apparently putting the word 'organic' on a bag makes the contents double in nutritional value. More importantly, people shop at Whole Foods so people can tell other people, "I was at Whole Foods the other day....". People shop at Whole Foods for the prestige that comes with being someone that shops at Whole Foods. If you start charging regular prices then you just become a regular old grocery with too much quinoa and not enough saturated fats. 

I got to say I would have never felt comfortable walking into a Whole Foods in sweatpants and a stained t-shirt until this very second. Now I would walk up in that bitch free balling in white pants on a humid summer day. There's no stigma anymore. Whole Foods apologizing for their markups is like having a girlfriend that apologizes for being needy. Once she admits that it's apology worthy she goes from being being high maintenance to being a cunt. If Saks 5th admits that they overcharge then they basically just become H&M. If Louboutin shoes aren't expensive anymore then why not just shop at Aldo instead? These luxury stores don't offer up products that are worth thousands of dollars more than their bargain basement equivalent. Spending hundreds of dollars on heels doesn't mean that they won't break down just as quickly, and spending $10 extra dollars on a piece of chicken isn't going to make it taste any better. We are Americans. We like expensive shit because we are shallow, narcissistic assholes. We overpay because it makes us feel important, not because we can't live without it. I may not like that these places of business value themselves so highly, but goddamn it I respect them. That's the point. Scare off the poor folk and give rich, pompous shitheads a place to feel at home. Whole Foods with reasonable prices is just ShopRite and I've never felt obligated to look respectable and wealthy walking into a ShopRite.

P.S. Nothing says sorry like admitting that you have been stealing from customers for years and making up for it by selling items at their actual retail value. It's like robbing a bank and then depositing the money back into the same bank to collect interest. Seriously, fuck Whole Foods, and bullshit products like this...