The Wall Street Journalreports that Whole Foods CEO John Mackey plans to move Whole Foods toward selling only healthy food and stop selling what he calls "a bunch of junk."
After 15 years as a gourmet destination selling prime beef, crusty white bread and rich chocolate cake, Whole Foods will re-embrace its original emphasis, mirroring Mr. Mackey's personal conversion to healthier eating -- and reflecting consumers' reluctance to spend money on the company's pricier foods.
On Tuesday, Whole Foods posted a 3.1% increase in quarterly profit as cost-cutting offset its third consecutive quarter of declining sales at stores open at least a year. Results exceeded Wall Street forecasts and shares jumped 13% to $28.03 in late trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Mr. Mackey said in an interview prior to Tuesday's results that Whole Foods this fall will launch a "healthy eating" initiative with cooking demonstrations and recipes. The blunt-speaking Mr. Mackey said the company's product selection had veered off-course.
"We sell a bunch of junk," he said, vowing to promote healthier lifestyles for its customers and employees. "We've decided if Whole Foods doesn't take a leadership role in educating people about a healthy diet, who the heck is going to do it?"
But what if the "junk" is something gourmet and delicious that people want? Part of the change is based on Mr. Mackey's personal experiences with healthier eating. The WSJ says he lost "10 pounds in six months on a diet devoid of refined fats."
The Times Onlinesays some of what may be out at Whole Foods may be "cakes, cream, crisps" and other "junk."
Mr Mackey's conversion springs from a personal devotion to healthy eating. He says that he cut out all refined oils six months ago and has lost 10 lb as a result. "I don't eat olive oil any more," Mr Mackey said. "There is a whole myth about olive oil being heart-healthy. Now when I eat something with oil in it, it tastes heavy and greasy to me."
Mackey is dead wrong on olive oil, according to the American Heart Association. As for the cakes and pastry aisle, it's already a disaster. Any pastry chef will tell you that Whole Foods doesn't even use real butter in its butter cream frosting. It uses shortening, which is just disgusting. And we won't touch many of the prepared foods because are full of the noxious canola oil, which is actually rapeseed oil which has been chemically processed. Canola oil has a fishy aftertaste -- no real pastry chef would allow it anywhere near her cakes and teabreads. A Whole Foods chef (who was pretty depressed, we can tell you) once told us that she isn't allowed to use olive oil in the prepared foods as much as she likes because it is too expensive, not because it's not healthy (which, of course, it is.) She said that was also the reason that she couldn't use real butter in butter cream frosting. The plain breads and the candy section are quite good at Whole Foods, and use proper, real ingredients. But presumably handmade fudge and sea salt ciabatta made with olive oil are both "junk" and will be off the floor soon, if Mackey gets his way.
The CEO of Whole Foods is a raging lunatic, if you ask us. Remember this is the same guy that was discovered using the name Rahodeb (his wife's name spelled backwards) on a Yahoo stock market forum to make bizarre comments and post about the stock of Whole Foods (the SEC frowns on this kind of thing). He also did a post about how "cute" the CEO of Whole Foods' new haircut was.
