As a former Whole Foods employee I can wholeheartedly say not a single lie was told here. Excellent work. I would have added that Amazon essentially bought Whole Foods for free. If I remember correctly they paid in cash and Amazon stock- the price of which rose post purchase to cover what they spent. The entire company has effectively turned into a data mining operation. I hope these guys win their contract.
i'm the guy that came up with weed 'em and reap. i published it on kvraudio where every producer/creative would have been at the time in a list of metathesis, such as "whack and blight," which this nation has failed to adopt as insightful quippage. that's my clever nicked by a twit.
Who even shops or works here anymore? Yeah i love paying $25 for a pint of peanut butter. Do me a favor and get everybody to mass quit across the country right after the union forms. Then walk acrosa the street nd get a.job at Trader Joes or Chick fil a. WTF people... "jeff bezoz so rich and predatory and oppressing WAH but nobody on planet earth can resist from ordering 20 things a day from Amazon. Quit the job and work for an institution that you like instead of improving their public image for them by getting better treatment. You'll be fired THE MINUTE they can replace you with a set of robot arms anyway. jeez
well i appreciate the hard work you put in for the customers, a true american hero. Hey did you know the NFL = WWE? Also do me a favor and look up Jack Parsons for me, did you know NASA and Scientology are connected?
Maybe large corporations, I've worked at small business and its really different. At my current job they actually send bonus to everyone when profits come in.
I worked at an Amazon warehouse for a Christmas season. 12 hr shifts 6 days a week. It was actually fun, but they came to us every Thursday to show us our times. They kept saying we’re going to fire you if you don’t go faster. It was belittling demoralizing. Putting in 72 hrs per week. Never sick, always there…I was already fast. After weeks of these Thursday scoldings, I told them you’re deflating my motivation. You never fire me, you just demoralize and demotivate me every week. If you keep doing this I will quit. (It goes both ways). He laughed. Next week he came by to break my spirit again, I walked away. He followed me all the way to break room yelling at me to stop. I gathered my things from my locker and left the warehouse… I swore I’d never buy anything thru Amazon again, and I haven’t. Total boycot. Now I find out Amazon owns Wholefoods? And they abuse their employees there too??? Well then, NO MORE WHOLE FOODS!
Jeff doesn't care if you quit. The model is based on exploiting people until they break. You quit, then they hire the next person and do it to them. The fool who was yelling at you is also being exploited, he's just too dumb to realize it because he thinks if he internalizes the oppression, they'll pat his head like a good boy and let him into the club. You quitting just hurts his metrics, the same way they yell at you about yours.
@Shelley-j2y it depends on context, in situations like these its a solution. It can be a problem in other ways, but that's not what's being addressed here.
I agree. I was happy spending a little more for some fruit that wasn’t damaged, yet now I am just spending more. It is difficult to find independent grocery stores or food markets. The closest I have seen in my area are international markets. It would be nice to have specialty grocery stores like in Europe (ie. fish markets, bread shops, and bakeries in a centralized downtown).
@@arayan83079I live in a larger suburb of Tennessee, we also don’t have anything even remotely resembling a “local grocery store”. We have a seasonal outdoor farmers market that only happens on weekends, it is located in the downtown area where parking on the weekends will cost at minimum $20/hr.
A friend of mine worked for Whole Foods before and after Amazon bought it. He said that things were worse after Amazon bought the franchise. It went from a hip and healthy supermarket to a mindless and soulless machine. He's a supervisor at a small supermarket now, and he's actually happier.
As a customer that is so true. I definitely noticed that. I don't shop there as much as I used to due to a lot of these changes including being rushed at the register. F*@k that!
Same experience here. The main difference I noticed was before employees had more time for learning about products and talking to customers, after the switch there was no time for either of those things mostly because of the switch to prime and having to keep up with all these scans to keep the online inventory updated
We have been a Whole Foods customer since the early 90’s around the US and fortunate to live in lots of great cities; having a Whole Foods nearby was a very important criteria in deciding where to live. It breaks my heart to see how Amazon has destroyed a great American company. The employees used to be so happy and we knew many by name. Our local Whole Foods market closed the restaurant and now it’s an Amazon depot. The employees seem so sad compared to employees at Publix and Fresh Market. Thanks for highlighting this issue, I hope they get the support for a union.
John Mackey knew what would happen when he sold it to Bezos. I cannot blame him. Whole Foods was a groundbreaking company and without it many of the wonderful natural products we enjoy would never have been developed, due to lack of market access.
What did you expect when Amazon bought the company? Amazon warehouse was so bad that a worker (older man in his sixties) had a heart attack and passed away, everyone that witnessed this was told to immediately go back to work and a sheet was draped over the man's body on the floor and you had to walk around it to pick orders!
@@cjjohnson4231 I worked there for 18 years and loved my job ( and genuinely did not want or feel the need for a union) until Amazon came along. I quit three years ago.
wont happen.. robots are already replacing pickers... thousands of people per state picking fulltime will be a robot from 1 of 3 companies now... by 2026.
NO business wants to "create positive change for the world." When a company gets as big as Amazon, they want to keep things status quo. What does "positive change" even mean? 'Positive' is SO subjective.
The only time I ever got to talk with my company's CEO was when I worked RT doing BHIS with minors. They did what they called "focus groups" trying to figure out why our facility was having so many issues. When I told him about a recent (at the time) situation when I was held against my will by my supervisor as a client escaped and tried to force her way to me after I was barred by management from having any contact with her (long, incredibly stupid story short, even psych has no self-awareness or concept of confirmation bias even after evidence is provided), causing Romeo and Juliet syndrome to manifest, the only time he showed any emotion or registered what I said was when I repeated satements from another staff and inadvertently implied they cussed in front of this client. CEOs aren't even human.
If you have a concern, address it during a meeting with other employees. If a member of management tries to stop you and wants to discuss it later, remind them of the open door policy and continue in front of everyone else.
It really falls on her direct manager not really corporate. Everyone knows what it’s like to have an asshole manager but we all also know that a nice manager would let you sit out.
@@maulvillalagarda2243 corporate could have better first aide training. personally I think that more people should take a first aide class or CPR training. that could be something that they are in control over.
Have they ever NOT become corrupt just like any other large institution? People missing the real point here and that is that all value is being sucked out of money so fast that EVEN THE LARGEST evil corporations cant keep up with it and are revealed to be abusing people when theyre trying to keep up with the plummeting value of the dollar. Not sure when wages were literallly not the VERY LAST thing to rise in response to inflation, in my lifetime at least, but i'd really love to hear about it.... seriously like all the backbreaking work these people do and.... ok...welll give you guys a 25 cent raise every 8 months with this new contract.Wow.. that's a GREAT START. Literally $2 a day? SUCKERS. Start your own thing, move out of the toxic city, find the people who have hearts and minds. Or you serve the rich and their ridiculous whims indefinately. Pretty sure we all know that deep down guys
@@SK-fq1by3977 a union isn’t the end all be all. It’s going to take years of change and different thinking from our society when it comes to our relationship with work. A union is a good start in my opinion so long as both sides are willing to play ball.
Exactly, lol they could be any Corp and it’s the same, this is nothing insightful nor new. My question would be how much do you think you should make stocking shelves, etc, these job require almost nothing to do. Should they be paid more sure but let’s get realistic too.
@@AmergedinA jobs value isn’t defined by how difficult it is, rather the amount of money that it brings to the company. And besides that, the best paying jobs in the world require little to no labor and are held by people who did nothing to deserve them outside of being born to the right family. I don’t expect companies to care about me personally. I don’t care about them either. But I expect them to pay well, offer good benefits, and treat me with dignity and respect.
@@quikkdraww Eloquent, no lies were told and I share the sentiment but I am just curious as to what that number would be? What is the new minimum wage in 2024 in a world where millions are not made in a life time but in hours. What is the worth of the least of us per hour of life? And will they agree to it… or continue to horde. Your tone feels as though you mistake my curiosity for a position.
A company cannot care. Companies are not people. It's the people in the company who can care but they're not allowed when everything and everyone is beholden to shareholders
And the ones that kinda do actually don’t care until you’re at the breaking point. And they only care at that point because they might need to replace you.
“Work faster faster faster!!” Why is Amazon so obsessed with speed? You’re already a successful company. All this does is make me want to buy my stuff elsewhere. Sadly, we are in an oligopoly where all these major supermarkets treat their staff horribly
As a former union member at AT&T, I can appreciate the benefits I had due to the members who fought before me. Best wishes to you all demanding BASIC pay & rights.
I work in wholefoods Napa ,ca and I can 1000% agree . This company has gone to hell in a hand basket . They silence the team members when we bring up immoral behavior. The pay is unfair. We are now just soulless robots rushing to meet demands . Thank you for shedding light on this issue
exactly, 30+ of my coworkers and i were verbally assaulted and bullied by our manager and assistant manager on the front end for years. when we went to store leadership to complain, absolutely NOTHING happened. if anything, we got in trouble for bring it up. it’s disgusting
there comes a time when we have to realize expecting every company's employees to unionize separately is unfeasible. companies need to be forced to act morally through regulation. even if every company in america unionized, new ones would pop up that find a way to prevent unions, and that would allow them to generate profit quicker, which would get them more shareholders, and eventually they would take over the market and all employees/customers would be forced to use them instead. we're already all part of a union, it's called the united states. yet we voted to let the corporations decide the rules, and we have no power to stop them.
I agree. We need more laws protecting workers. None of us should have to leave our basic human rights at the home when we work through the door of a corporation.
@@ohiasdxfcghbljokasdjhnfvaw4ehr Generally, the Republicans don't want to allow unions. The Repubs have the majority in many states and they also gerrymander to get their way with our votes.
@@bzh7648we have shop unions in the UK... As a whole they do what the supermarkets say... They help in individual cases, but as far as big decisions nope. I know how stressful this way of working is, as I've been in this situation from a bad employer. It made me really ill, these companies are psychopaths.
As consumers we need to spend our dollars wisely if we want to live in a fair and equitable world. If workers want a union and the corporation fights it I won’t shop there any more. Corporations are not for the people. They only care about profit, period. That’s why our dollars can be quite powerful if, we the people, stick together.
Folks wouldn't boycott Amazon back when they fired Chris Smalls, who went on to lead the Amazon worker's union. They sure as hell aren't gonna stop shopping at WF. When eating high-quality food that is raised right matters to you, your only supermarket choices in this area are WF, Sprouts or Fresh Market. No one will get the yuppies to boycott WF.
If the choice is between Wal-Mart, Target, Wild Oats, Whole Foods, and Kroger..... .. which evil do you choose? What makes them better than the rest? (Hint: they are all the same)
@@chernobyl169 The bottom line for me is that is there's no place else where I can get what I need, I'll shop at the place that I know has it. Which would be WF. I boycotted Amazon for 2 yrs. during Covid, but I might have been the only one in my group.
The biggest problem with that is everyone has to eat. So unless you're going to grow all your own food, it's not that feasible to boycott grocery stores for most people.
I believe these type of companies need to be regulated. This horrible modern slavery needs to end. The owners are billionaires meanwhile the workers, with no benefits, need two or three jobs to survive. Where is the justice here?
@@mujerfenix444 laws protecting workers are better than unions but we can clean up corruption in unions just as we can clean up corruption in government.
Never been to Amazon or whole foods. Now I see no need to give them my business in the future either. Love the small business grocery stores, shops, flea markets and farmers' roadside stands. Grateful for those places 🙏
Worked at Whole Foods while in college and for about a year and a half after graduating. They didn't train me on the register until three weeks after I started, so I collected baskets for eight hours each day. COVID hit right after I graduated, and I worked through the thick of it. One of the worst experiences of my life. They refused to acknowledge that COVID was even a thing at first and wouldn't let employees wear masks because they didn't want to 'start a panic'. Corporate raised wages by a dollar for about six months so people wouldn't riot and then dropped it. Had enough one day, walked out and never went back. The people I worked with were some of the most hardworking, kindest people you'd ever meet. It's disgusting how poorly corporate treats everyone. We had to take anti-union training modules, which were framed as 'we think you don't need a union because we care about our employees' needs.' I can only imagine how much worse it's gotten since I left.
Man it sounds like it got worse even from when I quit to when you started. Then you'd talk to the real old-timers, the people who'd been there over a decade, and they'd describe a completely different company.
Well... they fulfill your food needs. But I get where you're coming from. They love using different words for something that already exists and make it look as if it was something different or friendlier but it's a linguistic façade. It has a specific name but I forgot what it was called. It's used on News and by big corporations in general.
Former employee here. Everything they are saying is accurate. I only last 6 months to there. My idea of what it would be before I started was totally shattered, and I was treated poorly by management when I brought up issues concerning my safety. They refused to address it and treated me like I was lying. I quit two weeks later.
I worked at Whole Foods in the prepared foods team for about two months before quitting. I was constantly told by higher-ups that the Amazon buyout had not changed things, but it was so obvious that it had changed everything. The only people who had been there longer than 6 months were people who had been working there since before Amazon took over. One manager who had worked for Whole Foods since the 1980s proclaimed that when he started he made $7 an hour. I put that into an inflation calculator and realized that meant he had been making more money as a teenager with no experience than I was making there as someone with over a year of experience in stock keeping a prestigious culinary school and two years in the food industry. I quit after I was berated over the phone by someone who was not my manager for not coming in despite the fact that I had never been scheduled on that day of the week before and no one informed me that I had been scheduled.
Glad you had a job, someone has to do the collating etc. I know you weren't probably part of the policy making but your knowledge (given anonymously if you like) would go a long way to helping those still stuck working under that scrutiny. Not everyone has to strike or be on the picket line -- the knowledge you have can be your way of helping 🤞💜
I knew a guy who worked there until the Amazon buyout and his entire RANK as a supervisor was eliminated. He wasn't laid off, because then Amazon would have had to pay Unemployment, so they invented ridiculous reasons to write-up everyone in the company who shared that rank, forcing them to quit or be fired for "incompetence." Jeff Bezos is a saint. (sarcasm)
I am definitely Republican and right wing, no doubt about it but my dad has worked at a local grocery store chain in St Louis for 45 years, and is in the UFCW Union. I remember going on strike with him back in 03, that was a wild time. He still works a few days a week, but has great benefits and a pension. He feels if he completely retires, he will lose purpose in his life. I am all for workers getting better pay and benefits from companies who can afford it. I'm a trucker and the teamsters used to be a massive union, covering most truckers, but sadly a major company closed a couple years ago called Yellow Roadway Carriers (YRC freight) , which was union, and a lot of what killed that company was excessive demands from the teamsters that the company just couldn't afford. Towards the end, they had one of the worst fleets in the road. I think the decision to unionize needs to be made on a company by company basis. Just because your company has great profits and a ton of employees doesn't mean working conditions will improve because they choose to go union. You might even be risking your own livelihood because companies who are very much against unionizing might just close the location in question just to avoid setting a precedent for the rest of the company, leaving everyone worse off especially the community.
Enough people need to do it. Most of us only know how to blindly consume while saying "I only care about me and mine". That rugged mindset is what got us here.
No reason to frame this as a uniquely Whole Foods problem, although it’s certainly exacerbated by Amazon ownership. The entire system of Western capitalism is falling down this hole. You are no longer an investable person as a worker, you are a soulless commodity to be used and discarded.
Yep, Walmart kept saying how I did the work of 4 people but when I finished my first year there during Covid as an essential worker they gave me a 20 cent “raise” while groceries bought at Walmart went up 25%. The 10% WM associate discount doesn’t apply to grocery items…
My store had a bi-weekly auditor that always said he were never good enough. Then one day they gave us a pizza party to say we were the only store in Illinois to reach their standards.
That pizza party was paid out of the wages they kept from workers. What a lame way to pretend to reward good employees. I'm sure that helped everyone with their bills.
This video just made me aware of something I do and have done which I didn't think was a big deal but now I know it is. I am a senior disabled person (legally blind/Deaf) and when I shop at W or WF or wherever, I can NEVER find someone to assist me if I need to find something or read something for me (another thing they've done cutting employees to service the floor). So I ask the online shopper person who is always present now. Not thinking they are being surveilled or even have a time quota. They of course are very nice and do assist me (I have yet to meet one who refuses) but it never dawned on me that I am cutting into their squeezed time making their job that much more stressed. I really despise what corporations have done to our world (and the politicians who give them the power to do whatever they want). I'm old enough to remember pre-1980's shopping and it was a whole different world where customers and workers had a symbiosis relationship that was wonderful. Corporations drive was to make customers happy, profit came from that.
The drive for increa$ing profit is putting pressure on the bottom row of workers in the organization. Its funny that the 'boot' always squeezes down like that. I wander if there is another way?
@@darkbit1001 LOL. How about the "boot" kicking upward into the ass of the bosses. But personally I am trying to be more conscience of how I act and respond to the worker. Always assume there is a reason. Esp. not take things personally and they may have a very good reason they can't help.But then I wouldn't be so frustrated to start off with if businesses would hire more staff so I don't have to spend an 1/2 hr hunting for someone....esp. ones who speak English (Walmart being the worst offenders).
As a former worker there (before the era of the online shopping person) I can say that whether or not you interrupted their timed work, they would never have fulfilled their quota anyway. While I was there, the shifts went from "hectic but if you hustle you can get everything on the checklist" to "you will never get all the things done that are required of you." At least I could connect with the occasional customer like you who was polite, kind, and didn't take my servitude for granted.
Whole Foods was a terrible employer fifteen years ago when they were an independent competitor to Wild Oats in the still-budding natural and organic food market. All that imagery of being the healthy future was disguising the same corporate culture of worker exploitation you get at Wal-Mart.
I shop at Walmart often, for years. I don't see the workers killing themselves. I see them doing their jobs at a normal pace. Sometimes I see them stopping and having a chat amongst themselves and a laugh. I've never seen a supervisor walk up and scold them for their speed or chatting with a fellow employee. I shop in NJ and Pa. Walmarts. They even employ disabled workers at the front doors as greeters and receipt checkers. BTW, these jobs are not necessarily meant to be jobs you take to support a family by yourself.
@@macc240038you need to watch the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. I watched it in 2008. Have been to Walmart only a handful of times since, and only because I was visiting towns where it was my only option. Walmart was crappy 20 years and continues to be that way today.
I used to work in produce and I remember this had this made in house product called 'Spa Water'. I would watch them in the back fill bottles of tap water from the same sink used to clean dishes and put a mint leaf and a few slices of cucumber in the bottle and sell it for $5.99. The crazy thing is people would actually buy it. I wanted to tell customers the truth but I was afraid of losing my job.
When I worked in the cut fruit department we would take the rotting moldy fruit that was spoiling off the shelves re cut it and sell it as cut fruit packages. It was gross and it felt dishonest I didn't stay there very long, They called it "minimizing waste"
I remember the spa water thing. They'd put anything in there... I saw asparagus a few times. The implication on the customer end was that it was spring water; the fact it was just out of the tap isn't surprising though.
@@Van-nk4eecutting of fruit that has imperfections isn’t a Whole Foods thing all grocery stores do that if you go to Albertsons or krogers or even Aldi their cut fruit is food that has been cut around. The reason is that the food is edible the parts cut are not but the entire fruit doesn’t need to be tossed. Customers are paying for the labor spent to cut fruit if it was a whole fruit you’d be paying that price. Even in a bag of oranges or blueberries you’ll be bound to eventually get some that are spoiled or have imperfections.
How much were you getting paid to be scared to lose that job? I’m assuming not much. How unemployable are you that you’re scared to lose a minimal-paying job? I know life is tough and I’m broke af too but I just don’t understand people being scared of losing their highly replaceable job.
Ex Whole Foods employee here. Big rant coming lol. I didn’t work there long, because I just couldn’t deal with there bs. Employees are all working our ass off to get everything done, but we’re constantly “short staffed” simply because management refuses to hire more employees. As soon as you don’t hit the unrealistic production goals, you’re chastised or threatened. In training they taught us to focus on helping customers, as soon as I started working, my managers basically said stop helping customers to hit your production goals. The worst part was the scheduling. I told them I could work either a morning, afternoon, or night shift. They decided to schedule me for all 3 and switch up. I’d get off work at midnight and come back to work at 6 am the next day. When I complained, they said that since my shift technically ended at 10, it fit the 8 hr gap that is mandated. I had to stay 2 hrs after close because we were “short staffed”. When I decided to leave, my coworkers advised me not to tell my managers ahead of time because they would fire me right before the deadline for the Christmas bonus. If that’s not the pettiest thing I’ve heard, I don’t know what is. All of this happened in just 4 months. I can’t imagine the crap that people go through working there for years.
I work at Whole Foods and Amazon is all about metrics. Every time the CEO starts spouting off customers love this or that, he is flat out distorting the crap us workers have to deal with.
Yep, I'm adopting this too, --and now after learning-- not gonna buy there again. I used to work there 2012, and it was fun and chill. (though I couldn't afford to shop there). I wondered why my vibes felt rejected try to make a cashier smile during my rare visit the "whole paycheck," ...was like a twilight zone feeling. Wow, If Trader Joe's would just stop using Canola and Seed oils in products they'd be perfection!
That young man is so right about the open door policy. WOW I’ve never thought of it like that. Stay together and fight together, we are more than them and we will win
Agreed. We have a tough road ahead. People who are committed to dismantling the government have just been re-elected. Why do you think Elon and Bezos are buddies right now?
Not an option for most. My community's new food co-op took ten years to get off of the ground, and we will see if it can succeed. I only shop there. So grateful. The staff and customers know each other by name. It is a community. Do support yours if you have that option.
I have local farmers markets but they're extremely expensive. 99% of people can not afford it, which is actually the goal. Squeeze everybody dry, and you have what we have now. Actual fascism, not the "omg trump is a fascist" like actual fascism where companies and the government are working as one.
Whole Foods has been ruined by Amazon. The one in our neighborhood used to be a friendly, community hub, it was closed and then turned into a Whole Foods with walk out technology with cameras everywhere. It was CREEPY. They recently took out all the cameras and tried to make it a “regular “ Whole Foods. It’s still a shell of what it used to be. Happy that we have unionized grocery stores, Trader Joe’s and local grocers as other options. Kudos to the workers who are advocating to have a respect, a livable wage , safe working conditions, healthcare and fair working hours.
As a former Whole Foods customer, I can confirm the decline the employees are talking about. I was amazed when Whole Foods opened their flagship store in El Segundo, CA years ago. But since Amazon took over its faded to nothing more than an expensive supermarket. I only go there now for the occasional unique ingredient that they might carry.
I hope you guys get a union. I want to shop where workers are paid and happy. I feel very uncomfortable shopping these days. I think online shopping allows us to ignore the face of the real workers. Same as eating modern meat. It doesn't look a thing like the animal and is transformed in ways that obfuscate the fact someone slaughtered a living animal so we could pleasure ourselves. If we can do that in mass it's no wonder people like Jeff can just crap on his employees. 😢
@@TimeFlies-d8byes…yes it is and again whole world aside from Whole Foods Sprouts is growing and amazing I have bought one thing from Amazon in the past year and some there are stores all around you and there are companies that make those goods to be sold on Amazon. Amazon just barely got into being the one to produce its own goods.
This is blown way out of proportion. The goals are not requirements. No one is getting fired for not meeting goals. People need to remember there is a worker shortage right now, so the power is in workers' hands.
I seriously cannot fathom these people and their complaints. My husband has worked at WF, in multiple departments, for over 16 years. The pay is decent, the benefits are decent, and all of these testimonials sound like total bs. Produce guys whining about lifting boxes?? 😂😂 Riiiight. Because they don't tell you when you're applying that lifting up to 50 pounds will be required, lol. This is just nonsense.
@@katashley1031you can’t fathom the fact these people work well over 40 hours and are not being paid a livable wage? good for you and your husband but that is clearly not the case for a lot of workers at wf.
@ashleyc5257 yeah, because you know more about a company you don't work for than people who have worked there for 16 years, in multiple states, lol. Sit down, girl.
@ECW555 false. In fact, I suspect these are paid actors. Nothing in our 16 years experience working at WF in multiple states matches this nonsense one iota.
I am definitely Republican and right wing, no doubt about it but my dad has worked at a local grocery store chain in St Louis for 45 years, and is in the UFCW Union. I remember going on strike with him back in 03, that was a wild time. He still works a few days a week, but has great benefits and a pension. He feels if he completely retires, he will lose purpose in his life. I am all for workers getting better pay and benefits from companies who can afford it. I'm a trucker and the teamsters used to be a massive union, covering most truckers, but sadly a major company closed a couple years ago called Yellow Roadway Carriers (YRC freight) , which was union, and a lot of what killed that company was excessive demands from the teamsters that the company just couldn't afford. Towards the end, they had one of the worst fleets in the road. I think the decision to unionize needs to be made on a company by company basis. Just because your company has great profits and a ton of employees doesn't mean working conditions will improve because they choose to go union. You might even be risking your own livelihood because companies who are very much against unionizing might just close the location in question just to avoid setting a precedent for the rest of the company, leaving everyone worse off especially the community.
Literally every single business since Covid. Profits have gotten used to skeletal crews. And when I worked as a MIT/AGM in the grocery stores (another chain) we were already seeing the management philosophy of “if you get everything done in a day, you’re not pushing hard enough”, as one of my store managers said. But still, it’s everywhere. In doctors offices, hospitals. Have you ever walked into a Walgreens before? There’s like one person in the whole store.
As someone working in healthcare, i agree. God forbid you go over your 40 hrs because you’re trying to get as many patients coordinated or the assistance they need navigating care. “F the patients if it means we have to pay you more because we’re too greedy and spineless to properly staff our hospitals” shareholders or some bizworm
I am sometimes in WF office buildings for work and wanted to point out that their higher level computer office workers (idk what those titles are) seem very happy with their pay and benefits, as well as the "company culture". I am not singing their praises, just pointing out this is also a class issue. Lower paid & "lower skilled" (as they are referred to despite often having plenty of skills and experience) workers are deprioritized and exploited almost everywhere in this country and it is a huge problem.
Precisely. The issue isn't with corporate. It is their customer facing workers who actually fulfill orders and supply and sell goods in stores. This dynamic is especially common in biotech.
I was a software engineer for Amazon for a few years, there is an issue with the work culture in corporate: they abuse the employees but pay them high enough to not only accept the abuse but pass it on down the line to the frontline workers. They also love hiring people on work visas since they are much less likely to leave for fear of being deported, this keeps the working conditions down and creates a culture of fear and cruelty. They had irresponsible hiring practices (competing for headcount with other big tech for no real reason) which led to unnecessary layoffs throughout the company a couple years ago. They claim they need to “be more lean” despite rising profits. If they had profit then they didn’t need to lay off anyone and they don’t need to underpay and squeeze frontliners until they get hurt physically and mentally. They have a program that is ostensibly meant to train warehouse associates and other frontliners to get into the tech part of the business - we had one on our team, she was a hard worker - but guess who was first to get laid off… the one who spent years with the company and followed all the rules to move up only to be kicked down again, she didn’t even get her old frontline job back
The perks are nice in the offices but honestly the job security is not. The company cut 1/3 of its regions recently where do you think those regional or global jobs went?
I worked at Whole Foods in 2010, way before Amazon took over. We were constantly made to watch videos about how to handle abusive customers. They didn’t help. Worst customers by far of any retail job I ever worked. And insane levels of micromanagement.
Aww hush you air head . They can go get a new job. This is what reality would be like with yall socialist society mut head. If you don't like it then just go. Why do people sit and cry in misery
As a former WFM employee, I can testify that the policies that "support" employees are actually inhibitive. I was cut hours just under full-time, even when I was employed full time, so management could save budget and not offer benefits. Tbh I'm not sure what this company has in mind than making customers feel giddy for shopping while the company and customers alike treat the employees as less thans. The products offered are not all organic anymore and customers want and need now all the time due to the high expectations the company is now branded as. This is not a "white glove treatment" supermarket, yall... Fortunately, I had many coworkers who appreciated one another and were constantly trying to give one another motivation while we were under stress every second to be perfect and coordinated... someone has to understand this. Sarcasm and good energy goes so far until you've completed used a person. 🙏🏻 I really hope things change for my former coworkers!
@@RayPointerChannel Honestly, I wonder what groceries aren't scummy. I avoid Kroger, Whole Foods, and (of course Walmart). Who's left other than regional shops? I tend towards Meijer, but it's only in the Midwest and I even sideeye it there too, since just because I haven't heard much bad, doesn't mean it's not there.
I'm a regular whole foods guy and had a good feeling in former years esp when John was at the helm. Hopefully they can evolve into a symbol of health that our society desperately needs nowadays. Need loving employees to get there too!
Going 3 years now without giving Amazon a penny. I don't have an Amazon account anymore, and spend the 10 extra minutes to go to a small family grocery store. I know it's tough peeps and the convenience is nice but these companies treat people like trash and we need to make these companies hurt.
Try living somewhere where all the small grocery stores have been run out of the city... There are are lot of places where people don't have that luxury😢
there are no small family grocery stores by me, and that’s the reality for millions of Americans. we don’t use chains because we’re lazy and can’t do a ten minute trip to the store. that is a lie that you’ve just made up and believe. we use chains because that’s all we have. it is not a sign of moral inferiority.
I watch the dedicated Whole Foods employees conscientiously using all their intelligence and energy, hour after hour, attending to the needs of customers in a polite, friendly and helpful way. They should be rewarded. The stock holders are stealing what should be theirs. I'm living without Whole Foods as long as there are Co-Ops, and on-line shopping like VitaCost and iHerb, and a little help from the major grocery chains.
Being poor is not good or helpful either. It's hard to boycott or have a choice if people are poor. I've seen comments say they know Temu or Walmart is bad but they didn't have a choice but to shop there because they were poor.
That’s the USA now . When u r told to not spend more than a couple of minutes with patients as a new nurse when asked what to do the head nurse that teaches us say just walk out while they are talking! This is the good ole USA!
Wow, nurses feel like the angels in hospitals... When my brother was coding, one nurse said "he can still hear you" while also his temperature dropped and we all put our bodies on top of him before they brought blankets. Then my father scolded him to come back. and he did. You are all Angels on Earth. Thank you for being a nurse. 💗
I worked in a factory in the late 1970's in New Bedford, MA. I did "piece work" and this system sounds like the factory that I worked in. Had to raise my hand in order to get the floor managers attention to "ask" if I can use the bathroom. After a while, I learned to increase my production so they knew my number were up in order to freely go to the bathroom. Made a lot of other workers angry that I could bypass the manager. I also made @ $375.00 a week back then and was able to buy my first car and save money while still living with my parents. The wages today are not in alignment with the cost of living today. It is criminal to see these MEGA corporations siphon off money from the bottom to line their pockets and shelter their assets overseas.
This is 100% the experience of Whole Foods. After Amazon bought it, Whole Foods and the culture was literally eviscerated. The people I enjoyed talking to for YEARS- are no longer working there. Amazon has literally destroyed the brand. CUSTOMERS SEE IT AND FEEL IT TOO.
@ 100% accurate. This is the same dehumanizing approach people like Musk and Ramaswamy will attempt to drive into literally every business and interpersonal interaction we have. It’s like forcing a form of autistic interaction onto the entirety of US society. This will lead to deeper erosion of human culture. Bezos, Musk and their ilk must be stopped.
@ and now we have a sh*tty version of Walmart where the shelves often go unstocked and the employees are disconnected from customers. Whole Foods used to have a positive vibe and a friendly environment - now it is a sad, dystopian desert staffed by people who aren’t even remotely connected to the people who shop there.
I worked for E-Commerce at Whole Foods in 2021 while also going to community college. During my entire employment, I was often put on 4 am shifts, despite constantly asking that I not be because it was affecting my health. It would change to more normal hours for a week then go back to 4 am shifts every shift like a few days later because a COMPUTER, not a person, was scheduling my shifts based on an algorithm. It used to be kind of a fun job where you did normal grocery shopping in a cart and went to a backroom to package everything and could even socialize with coworkers. But everything changed when management decided that wasn't efficient enough, so they started making us use these hard to manage double decker carts that were such a PAIN. They were so much harder to move around than a regular shopping cart and you had to try to predict how many bags you needed before you went out on the floor. So if you made a miscalculation, you're screwed for your time. Also, because I'm tall and the carts were shorter than shopping carts, I had to bend down more and started getting low back pain for the first time in my life (those things are not ergonomic AT ALL). Because you had to bag on the cart, this also took out the social element of bagging in the back room and made me feel more sort of sad that I couldn't really talk to people anymore. My last straw was when it started interfering with my education. I was originally a temporary summer employee that was supposed to leave when school started, but was asked to stay and became part time. However, this meant I went from working a manageable 16-20 hrs/week in the summer to 32+ while also being a full time student, working at 4 AM every day and gradually experiencing more pain every day. Mind you, my supervisors KNEW I was in college, and I feel like I was resented for it. I had to miss class because of work. When I went to my supervisor to complain about getting scheduled during class, my supervisor said "that's not my problem, find someone else to cover your shift" but I couldn't, so I had no choice but to miss class. It was like it was SO inconvenient for them that I had other commitments and was even scolded once for having to change my availability. Eventually an older coworker came up to me and said that they dropped out of school because they worked 50 hrs/wk at a job and that they regretted it, and they didn't want me to make the same mistake and said that I should prioritize my education. That was kind of a wake up call that I didn't want to risk my education for this barely-above-minimum-wage job that frankly treated me like shit, so I put in a 2 weeks notice (at which point my supervisors begged me to stay) and was given no ceremony on my last day. Glad to say that semester I got a 4.0 GPA. I transferred to a university a couple years later and I'm about to graduate with my engineering degree in the Spring. Screw you Whole Foods, you can definitely afford to treat your employees better. I'm so happy to hear that people have had enough and are starting to form unions.
The employee that gave you that advice to prioritize your education was an angel in disguise…it’s good to learn lessons early rather than when it’s too late and all you’re left with is regret…congratulations on your degree though!!!
I worked at Wholefoods in seattle from 2004 to 2008. During that time the company went public. I honestly think that it was a really good place to work then. I remember hearing amazonbought it and I was like...damn I bet it's gonna start sucking to work there
I was working in one in California when the purchase went through. I can tell you that the company had already changed to where most workers knew it would be worse but not really that different.
I worked at MOMs from 2013-2016, Rockville and Arlington. Unfortunately we started seeing a little of this philosophy start coming down in management. Not to the same level as described here, but yes, MOMs is the still the best of a bunch. I miss it sometimes, but unfortunately I needed a real job paying living wages.
As long as people are willing to work for money there will continue to be neglected workers. They solution should probably be to refuse to use money or spend as little money as possible until the money problem is solved.
I worked at fresh fields which was bought by whole foods. It was a great grocery store that had that family like feel, i was making 17/hr back in the late 1990s That work style, pay and camaraderie is long gone.
I worked at that location a few years ago, my heart goes out to these employees. None of this is an exaggeration, and frankly I think they’re being generous compared to how I would describe my time there. I have never worked a job that demands more of your moment-to-moment time. The expectation for transaction efficiency was absurd. The second you weren’t actively ringing, you were immediately tasked with busy work and verbally discouraged from conversing with other employees. It is a lonely, anti-social atmosphere. I frankly think the growing trend within Amazon of unreasonable productivity quotas for employees is to facilitate their inevitable transition into robot labor. They’ll be able to answer any pushback with “Our company can’t operate at scale any longer with human floor labor”, ignoring the fact that they scaled themselves into a dystopian nightmare and created the unreasonable expectations their customers have.
I used to work at Whole Foods in Vancouver Canada before. THE WORST experience. Toxic co-workers, toxic employers. McDonals where I worked during my high school times was way better.
I've had a Whole Foods store in my area for a few years but I've avoided it because of the bad vibe the place gave me, this tells me why that place has such a vibe.
Their palm pay bs creeps me out. They are clearly conditioning the masses for the coming system of technocratic control people like Bezos have in mind for us.
@@soninalphin2771 I'm so sick of this platform hiding comments. Hit the stupid newest tab if you want to see my other one I left. This one will probably get hidden too though.
Me too, I was fortunate to work during 2012 (when we still needed to see an ID for credit card purchases and some people still wrote checks) --- the vibe was granola and smiley. I couldn't hack memorizing all the produce numbers as a checker in a busy new store. I wasn't shown patience by the rich folk for me always slowing just to look at my produce cheat sheet, --that's what drove me out... Wow, now I know why they don't smile or have conversations like we did. 💗
As a customer, I miss the way Whole Foods used to feel. It was genuinely wholesome and friendly and the selection of items were better. The day they "upgraded" I felt the industrial atmosphere and stopped going. I found a small holistic health store that has the feel Whole Foods used to have. I go there now and support the small business.
As a former Whole Foods employee I can wholeheartedly say not a single lie was told here. Excellent work. I would have added that Amazon essentially bought Whole Foods for free. If I remember correctly they paid in cash and Amazon stock- the price of which rose post purchase to cover what they spent. The entire company has effectively turned into a data mining operation. I hope these guys win their contract.
i'm the guy that came up with weed 'em and reap. i published it on kvraudio where every producer/creative would have been at the time in a list of metathesis, such as "whack and blight," which this nation has failed to adopt as insightful quippage. that's my clever nicked by a twit.
Who even shops or works here anymore? Yeah i love paying $25 for a pint of peanut butter. Do me a favor and get everybody to mass quit across the country right after the union forms. Then walk acrosa the street nd get a.job at Trader Joes or Chick fil a. WTF people... "jeff bezoz so rich and predatory and oppressing WAH but nobody on planet earth can resist from ordering 20 things a day from Amazon. Quit the job and work for an institution that you like instead of improving their public image for them by getting better treatment. You'll be fired THE MINUTE they can replace you with a set of robot arms anyway. jeez
I think they allowed to Amazon buy whole food for the every reason whole foods promise to label the food that are artificial and GMO let that sink in.
well i appreciate the hard work you put in for the customers, a true american hero.
Hey did you know the NFL = WWE?
Also do me a favor and look up Jack Parsons for me, did you know NASA and Scientology are connected?
@@alexisguerrero7551what do you mean??
Any company that calls their employees "team members" is already trying to spin the BS.
Yep
Or “family.”
Maybe large corporations, I've worked at small business and its really different. At my current job they actually send bonus to everyone when profits come in.
Disney calls everyone “cast members”
"Team member" is old BS. Now it's "Associate"....like if you are part of their golf club.
I worked at an Amazon warehouse for a Christmas season. 12 hr shifts 6 days a week. It was actually fun, but they came to us every Thursday to show us our times. They kept saying we’re going to fire you if you don’t go faster. It was belittling demoralizing. Putting in 72 hrs per week. Never sick, always there…I was already fast.
After weeks of these Thursday scoldings, I told them you’re deflating my motivation. You never fire me, you just demoralize and demotivate me every week. If you keep doing this I will quit. (It goes both ways). He laughed. Next week he came by to break my spirit again, I walked away. He followed me all the way to break room yelling at me to stop.
I gathered my things from my locker and left the warehouse…
I swore I’d never buy anything thru Amazon again, and I haven’t. Total boycot.
Now I find out Amazon owns Wholefoods? And they abuse their employees there too??? Well then,
NO MORE WHOLE FOODS!
Based
Good for you!
You stood up for yourself and Amazon lost out on having a chanceto employ such a hard working person. BRAVO!
I hope more people take your lead!
Amazon/Jeff Bezos also bought Zappos shoes.
Jeff doesn't care if you quit. The model is based on exploiting people until they break. You quit, then they hire the next person and do it to them.
The fool who was yelling at you is also being exploited, he's just too dumb to realize it because he thinks if he internalizes the oppression, they'll pat his head like a good boy and let him into the club. You quitting just hurts his metrics, the same way they yell at you about yours.
I love how this generation is exposing all the greed and gaslighting. Technology is allowing transparency and its needed
Exactly why they’re getting rid of TikTok smh
Yea if Twitter didn’t get bought by Elon and TikTok ban having a backup. We’d lose huge power of info sharing.
Sound like only slackers complaining
Actually, technology is the problem, not the solution.
@Shelley-j2y it depends on context, in situations like these its a solution. It can be a problem in other ways, but that's not what's being addressed here.
Whole Foods sucks since being bought by Amazon
Absolutely!
No more christmas decorations or even music.
Don't think I've shopped there since then.
@@SirDydimus86 same here.
Yes!
Standing in solidarity with the Whole Foods workers!
Whole Foods quality has declined. I’d rather spend money supporting local grocery stores, farmers markets and bakeries.
Amen! Support Local Farmers! 🙌
I agree. I was happy spending a little more for some fruit that wasn’t damaged, yet now I am just spending more. It is difficult to find independent grocery stores or food markets. The closest I have seen in my area are international markets. It would be nice to have specialty grocery stores like in Europe (ie. fish markets, bread shops, and bakeries in a centralized downtown).
@@Kenneth.j105 I live in LA. What are these “local grocery stores” you speak of :(
@@arayan83079I live in a larger suburb of Tennessee, we also don’t have anything even remotely resembling a “local grocery store”. We have a seasonal outdoor farmers market that only happens on weekends, it is located in the downtown area where parking on the weekends will cost at minimum $20/hr.
I agree, definitely not the same.
A friend of mine worked for Whole Foods before and after Amazon bought it. He said that things were worse after Amazon bought the franchise. It went from a hip and healthy supermarket to a mindless and soulless machine. He's a supervisor at a small supermarket now, and he's actually happier.
As a customer that is so true. I definitely noticed that. I don't shop there as much as I used to due to a lot of these changes including being rushed at the register. F*@k that!
I have not shopped there ever since the plandemic. I also go to smaller local stores near my house.
Same experience here. The main difference I noticed was before employees had more time for learning about products and talking to customers, after the switch there was no time for either of those things mostly because of the switch to prime and having to keep up with all these scans to keep the online inventory updated
yes, that's when I stopped going there too
We have been a Whole Foods customer since the early 90’s around the US and fortunate to live in lots of great cities; having a Whole Foods nearby was a very important criteria in deciding where to live. It breaks my heart to see how Amazon has destroyed a great American company. The employees used to be so happy and we knew many by name. Our local Whole Foods market closed the restaurant and now it’s an Amazon depot. The employees seem so sad compared to employees at Publix and Fresh Market. Thanks for highlighting this issue, I hope they get the support for a union.
John Mackey knew what would happen when he sold it to Bezos. I cannot blame him. Whole Foods was a groundbreaking company and without it many of the wonderful natural products we enjoy would never have been developed, due to lack of market access.
What did you expect when Amazon bought the company? Amazon warehouse was so bad that a worker (older man in his sixties) had a heart attack and passed away, everyone that witnessed this was told to immediately go back to work and a sheet was draped over the man's body on the floor and you had to walk around it to pick orders!
@@TenaB-j2l.?.......that's what they did in german camps during llW....
@@cjjohnson4231 I worked there for 18 years and loved my job ( and genuinely did not want or feel the need for a union) until Amazon came along. I quit three years ago.
Excellent journalism. Keep holding these companies accountable
wont happen.. robots are already replacing pickers... thousands of people per state picking fulltime will be a robot from 1 of 3 companies now... by 2026.
robots will replace pickers.. i know it well
Accountable for what?
@@dertythegrower eventually, robots will replace surgeons as well. It’s destined.
@@karahon2191exploiting labor.
Just off the top of my head.
Every CEO says the same shit about "open doors" having a "direct connection" to employees. It is always bullshit.
NO business wants to "create positive change for the world." When a company gets as big as Amazon, they want to keep things status quo. What does "positive change" even mean? 'Positive' is SO subjective.
open door is just so they can single you out after
Door is open to tell on yourself and you'll become directly connected to the unemployment line. ;)
The only time I ever got to talk with my company's CEO was when I worked RT doing BHIS with minors. They did what they called "focus groups" trying to figure out why our facility was having so many issues. When I told him about a recent (at the time) situation when I was held against my will by my supervisor as a client escaped and tried to force her way to me after I was barred by management from having any contact with her (long, incredibly stupid story short, even psych has no self-awareness or concept of confirmation bias even after evidence is provided), causing Romeo and Juliet syndrome to manifest, the only time he showed any emotion or registered what I said was when I repeated satements from another staff and inadvertently implied they cussed in front of this client. CEOs aren't even human.
If you have a concern, address it during a meeting with other employees. If a member of management tries to stop you and wants to discuss it later, remind them of the open door policy and continue in front of everyone else.
Good luck to all WF and Amazon workers in their efforts to organize. You guys are a huge collective bargaining unit. Own your power!
SHE GOT A CONCUSSION!!! and then had to keep working!!! WTF! THAT IS DISGUSTING WHOLE FOODS MANAGEMENT!!
I worked with her she used to get dizzy on the shift.
I eat there today. I live around the corner. Ima see if I recognize anyone for next time.
Guess you never experienced it so it must be untrue, huh?
It really falls on her direct manager not really corporate. Everyone knows what it’s like to have an asshole manager but we all also know that a nice manager would let you sit out.
@@maulvillalagarda2243 corporate could have better first aide training. personally I think that more people should take a first aide class or CPR training. that could be something that they are in control over.
Anyone who says these people don’t deserve a union needs a wake up call. Every worker deserves to live and work with dignity. Solidarity forever.
Unions can help but they should also be looked upon with suspicion because they are sometimes used to take over successful people's businesses.
Have they ever NOT become corrupt just like any other large institution? People missing the real point here and that is that all value is being sucked out of money so fast that EVEN THE LARGEST evil corporations cant keep up with it and are revealed to be abusing people when theyre trying to keep up with the plummeting value of the dollar. Not sure when wages were literallly not the VERY LAST thing to rise in response to inflation, in my lifetime at least, but i'd really love to hear about it.... seriously like all the backbreaking work these people do and.... ok...welll give you guys a 25 cent raise every 8 months with this new contract.Wow.. that's a GREAT START. Literally $2 a day? SUCKERS. Start your own thing, move out of the toxic city, find the people who have hearts and minds. Or you serve the rich and their ridiculous whims indefinately. Pretty sure we all know that deep down guys
Anybody includes Bezos and Musk. They're trying to cripple unions by getting the NLRB declared unconstitutional by trump judges.
A union isn't going to fix this
@@SK-fq1by3977 a union isn’t the end all be all. It’s going to take years of change and different thinking from our society when it comes to our relationship with work. A union is a good start in my opinion so long as both sides are willing to play ball.
Corporate greed and technology will be the death of society.
Zero companies care about your health and well being.
Exactly, lol they could be any Corp and it’s the same, this is nothing insightful nor new. My question would be how much do you think you should make stocking shelves, etc, these job require almost nothing to do. Should they be paid more sure but let’s get realistic too.
@@AmergedinA jobs value isn’t defined by how difficult it is, rather the amount of money that it brings to the company. And besides that, the best paying jobs in the world require little to no labor and are held by people who did nothing to deserve them outside of being born to the right family.
I don’t expect companies to care about me personally. I don’t care about them either. But I expect them to pay well, offer good benefits, and treat me with dignity and respect.
@@quikkdraww Eloquent, no lies were told and I share the sentiment but I am just curious as to what that number would be? What is the new minimum wage in 2024 in a world where millions are not made in a life time but in hours. What is the worth of the least of us per hour of life? And will they agree to it… or continue to horde. Your tone feels as though you mistake my curiosity for a position.
A company cannot care. Companies are not people. It's the people in the company who can care but they're not allowed when everything and everyone is beholden to shareholders
And the ones that kinda do actually don’t care until you’re at the breaking point. And they only care at that point because they might need to replace you.
“Work faster faster faster!!”
Why is Amazon so obsessed with speed? You’re already a successful company. All this does is make me want to buy my stuff elsewhere. Sadly, we are in an oligopoly where all these major supermarkets treat their staff horribly
It really doesn't make sense with Whole Foods... You shop at stores like that for quality and a good experience. Not to be rushed.
It really doesn't make sense with Whole Foods... You shop at stores like that for quality and a good experience. Not to be rushed.
@@gcs8889Amazon is still surprised they burnt through so many employees but still won't do anything about it. Stupid short term gains
It’s because it is no longer about the workers or even the customers - it’s all about the shareholders.
Unfortunately the top is full psychopaths and they enjoy making others miserable. This is the reason there is no other reason.
Slavery wasn't abolished....they slapped a new name on it ... corporations
Facts and casted the net wider
Doesn’t Jeff Bezos make a million dollars every 10 minutes?
This is very much in line with the way the Soviets treated workers.
You are correct
Mmmm not really. These people aren’t held against their will and forced to work at corporations. It’s a choice.
As a former union member at AT&T, I can appreciate the benefits I had due to the members who fought before me. Best wishes to you all demanding BASIC pay & rights.
Walmart needs an enormous accountability check too.
AMEN!!!!
None of their prices are consistent!
You can find the exact same products at Walmart for considerably less than at Whole foods.
@@this_isntmynamenot true, unless you buy slop that has processed oils and food dyes lol.
The Black Community Has Started Boycotting Walmart Since Thanksgiving Because they tried to roll back their DEI Program ! Everyone Should!
I work in wholefoods Napa ,ca and I can 1000% agree . This company has gone to hell in a hand basket . They silence the team members when we bring up immoral behavior. The pay is unfair. We are now just soulless robots rushing to meet demands . Thank you for shedding light on this issue
exactly, 30+ of my coworkers and i were verbally assaulted and bullied by our manager and assistant manager on the front end for years. when we went to store leadership to complain, absolutely NOTHING happened. if anything, we got in trouble for bring it up. it’s disgusting
There comes a time when workers have to unionize to have any power at all. Good for the Philadelphia Whole Foods workers!
there comes a time when we have to realize expecting every company's employees to unionize separately is unfeasible.
companies need to be forced to act morally through regulation.
even if every company in america unionized, new ones would pop up that find a way to prevent unions, and that would allow them to generate profit quicker, which would get them more shareholders, and eventually they would take over the market and all employees/customers would be forced to use them instead.
we're already all part of a union, it's called the united states. yet we voted to let the corporations decide the rules, and we have no power to stop them.
I agree. We need more laws protecting workers. None of us should have to leave our basic human rights at the home when we work through the door of a corporation.
@@ohiasdxfcghbljokasdjhnfvaw4ehr Generally, the Republicans don't want to allow unions. The Repubs have the majority in many states and they also gerrymander to get their way with our votes.
@@bzh7648we have shop unions in the UK... As a whole they do what the supermarkets say... They help in individual cases, but as far as big decisions nope. I know how stressful this way of working is, as I've been in this situation from a bad employer. It made me really ill, these companies are psychopaths.
@@ohiasdxfcghbljokasdjhnfvaw4ehr
Reagan destroyed the country when he allowed corporations to run over people.
As consumers we need to spend our dollars wisely if we want to live in a fair and equitable world. If workers want a union and the corporation fights it I won’t shop there any more. Corporations are not for the people. They only care about profit, period. That’s why our dollars can be quite powerful if, we the people, stick together.
Folks wouldn't boycott Amazon back when they fired Chris Smalls, who went on to lead the Amazon worker's union. They sure as hell aren't gonna stop shopping at WF. When eating high-quality food that is raised right matters to you, your only supermarket choices in this area are WF, Sprouts or Fresh Market. No one will get the yuppies to boycott WF.
If the choice is between Wal-Mart, Target, Wild Oats, Whole Foods, and Kroger.....
.. which evil do you choose? What makes them better than the rest? (Hint: they are all the same)
@@chernobyl169 The bottom line for me is that is there's no place else where I can get what I need, I'll shop at the place that I know has it. Which would be WF. I boycotted Amazon for 2 yrs. during Covid, but I might have been the only one in my group.
The biggest problem with that is everyone has to eat. So unless you're going to grow all your own food, it's not that feasible to boycott grocery stores for most people.
I stopped shopping there as soon as bezos bought it. I'm sick of these rich f*ks. They ruin everything they touch, most of all human lives.
I believe these type of companies need to be regulated. This horrible modern slavery needs to end. The owners are billionaires meanwhile the workers, with no benefits, need two or three jobs to survive. Where is the justice here?
exactly
It existed once. It was called a union.
@@murphthesurf3409 unions are very corruptable, they arent a be all end all solution unfortunately
@@mujerfenix444 laws protecting workers are better than unions but we can clean up corruption in unions just as we can clean up corruption in government.
I've never used Amazon. When Bezos took over Whole Foods, I switched to the two smaller albeit local stores that were further from where I live.
You're lucky you're able to do that. I shop local when I can. Those business owners generally care about the community they're in.
Good for you! I would do the same if I were there which thankfully I am not.
Whoa!! You’re the only other person I’ve ran into that hasn’t subscribed to the local business killer bozo show… *high five*
Never been to Amazon or whole foods. Now I see no need to give them my business in the future either. Love the small business grocery stores, shops, flea markets and farmers' roadside stands. Grateful for those places 🙏
My son calls me a conspiracy theorist because we don’t shop Amazon in this house any more. It is what it is. 😂
Worked at Whole Foods while in college and for about a year and a half after graduating. They didn't train me on the register until three weeks after I started, so I collected baskets for eight hours each day. COVID hit right after I graduated, and I worked through the thick of it. One of the worst experiences of my life. They refused to acknowledge that COVID was even a thing at first and wouldn't let employees wear masks because they didn't want to 'start a panic'. Corporate raised wages by a dollar for about six months so people wouldn't riot and then dropped it. Had enough one day, walked out and never went back.
The people I worked with were some of the most hardworking, kindest people you'd ever meet. It's disgusting how poorly corporate treats everyone. We had to take anti-union training modules, which were framed as 'we think you don't need a union because we care about our employees' needs.' I can only imagine how much worse it's gotten since I left.
Man it sounds like it got worse even from when I quit to when you started. Then you'd talk to the real old-timers, the people who'd been there over a decade, and they'd describe a completely different company.
@@hockeygrrlmuseProlly cause they got bought by Amazon after them
Amazon needs a union!! Unionize, Unionize, Unionize, Unionize!!
Please stop calling warehouses "fulfillment centers." No one gets any fulfillment from being there.
Word-fu
English buddy
Your fulfillment is getting paid, employers are not there to hold your hand and coddle you.
@@bdegrds Enjoy the taste of boot leather?
Well... they fulfill your food needs. But I get where you're coming from. They love using different words for something that already exists and make it look as if it was something different or friendlier but it's a linguistic façade. It has a specific name but I forgot what it was called. It's used on News and by big corporations in general.
Former employee here. Everything they are saying is accurate. I only last 6 months to there. My idea of what it would be before I started was totally shattered, and I was treated poorly by management when I brought up issues concerning my safety. They refused to address it and treated me like I was lying. I quit two weeks later.
Good for you
Yall are ridiculous😂😂 I’ve been a butchers apprentice there for 2 years now. A great job while in school and great work environment in general
I worked at Whole Foods in the prepared foods team for about two months before quitting. I was constantly told by higher-ups that the Amazon buyout had not changed things, but it was so obvious that it had changed everything. The only people who had been there longer than 6 months were people who had been working there since before Amazon took over. One manager who had worked for Whole Foods since the 1980s proclaimed that when he started he made $7 an hour. I put that into an inflation calculator and realized that meant he had been making more money as a teenager with no experience than I was making there as someone with over a year of experience in stock keeping a prestigious culinary school and two years in the food industry. I quit after I was berated over the phone by someone who was not my manager for not coming in despite the fact that I had never been scheduled on that day of the week before and no one informed me that I had been scheduled.
I worked at Amazon in the data department and yes, they track everything to the millisecond. I built reports on it.
Good job building the reports I guess
Glad you had a job, someone has to do the collating etc. I know you weren't probably part of the policy making but your knowledge (given anonymously if you like) would go a long way to helping those still stuck working under that scrutiny. Not everyone has to strike or be on the picket line -- the knowledge you have can be your way of helping 🤞💜
Because that's totally normal behavior to desire millisecond data on people...
(sarcasm, I presume) 😁@@williamyoung9401
Crazy how the guy at the bottom always expects top dollar for not having any skills!
Whole foods is a typical company that hates its employees
It didnt used to be. I knew employees who worked there before and during the Amazon purchase and it used to be a great place they enjoyed working at.
It's like there's something inherit in companies that makes them hate workers... Hm.
I knew a guy who worked there until the Amazon buyout and his entire RANK as a supervisor was eliminated. He wasn't laid off, because then Amazon would have had to pay Unemployment, so they invented ridiculous reasons to write-up everyone in the company who shared that rank, forcing them to quit or be fired for "incompetence." Jeff Bezos is a saint. (sarcasm)
I worked there for 5 years in the 90s. It used to be a great place to work.
I am definitely Republican and right wing, no doubt about it but my dad has worked at a local grocery store chain in St Louis for 45 years, and is in the UFCW Union. I remember going on strike with him back in 03, that was a wild time. He still works a few days a week, but has great benefits and a pension. He feels if he completely retires, he will lose purpose in his life. I am all for workers getting better pay and benefits from companies who can afford it. I'm a trucker and the teamsters used to be a massive union, covering most truckers, but sadly a major company closed a couple years ago called Yellow Roadway Carriers (YRC freight) , which was union, and a lot of what killed that company was excessive demands from the teamsters that the company just couldn't afford. Towards the end, they had one of the worst fleets in the road. I think the decision to unionize needs to be made on a company by company basis. Just because your company has great profits and a ton of employees doesn't mean working conditions will improve because they choose to go union. You might even be risking your own livelihood because companies who are very much against unionizing might just close the location in question just to avoid setting a precedent for the rest of the company, leaving everyone worse off especially the community.
Wow I have a friend who has been a Supervisor for Whole Foods for years. I now understand all the complaining I have heard from him over the years.
Amazon as a whole is solely all about the numbers
Soul-less
lived it at many of their positions.. since 2011
they also steal wholesale sources.. i was top laptop seller for apple 2011 and got magically asked after 2 sales, give up the source or account frozen
@@dertythegrowerLooks like somebody didn't bring their negotiating gun to the negotiating table.
For you to save they have to cut. 🎉
DON'T SHOP THERE. BOYCOTT!
Enough people need to do it. Most of us only know how to blindly consume while saying "I only care about me and mine". That rugged mindset is what got us here.
I have never shopped there and after this video I never will.
I stopped shopping there over 5 years ago. The food isn't real😢
Right. I'll never go into one again...ever.
I work in healthcare: Believe me they squeeze me all they can… ain’t just grocery stores
No reason to frame this as a uniquely Whole Foods problem, although it’s certainly exacerbated by Amazon ownership. The entire system of Western capitalism is falling down this hole. You are no longer an investable person as a worker, you are a soulless commodity to be used and discarded.
🎯
Yep, Walmart kept saying how I did the work of 4 people but when I finished my first year there during Covid as an essential worker they gave me a 20 cent “raise” while groceries bought at Walmart went up 25%. The 10% WM associate discount doesn’t apply to grocery items…
Walmart felt the emptiness on black Friday and guess what? It can happen again but this time more often.
My store had a bi-weekly auditor that always said he were never good enough. Then one day they gave us a pizza party to say we were the only store in Illinois to reach their standards.
Lol. Pizza party. Classic.
What an extravagant reward for best in state. Sorry they suck.
That pizza party was paid out of the wages they kept from workers. What a lame way to pretend to reward good employees. I'm sure that helped everyone with their bills.
Pizza Party becoming a "rightful" trigger.
They'll get rid of you first before they EVER consider a raise.
Don't they take metrics at the stores before setting standards?
Heeeeeelll no! Can't believe I interviewed there, I dodged a bullet.
This video just made me aware of something I do and have done which I didn't think was a big deal but now I know it is. I am a senior disabled person (legally blind/Deaf) and when I shop at W or WF or wherever, I can NEVER find someone to assist me if I need to find something or read something for me (another thing they've done cutting employees to service the floor). So I ask the online shopper person who is always present now. Not thinking they are being surveilled or even have a time quota. They of course are very nice and do assist me (I have yet to meet one who refuses) but it never dawned on me that I am cutting into their squeezed time making their job that much more stressed. I really despise what corporations have done to our world (and the politicians who give them the power to do whatever they want). I'm old enough to remember pre-1980's shopping and it was a whole different world where customers and workers had a symbiosis relationship that was wonderful. Corporations drive was to make customers happy, profit came from that.
The drive for increa$ing profit is putting pressure on the bottom row of workers in the organization. Its funny that the 'boot' always squeezes down like that. I wander if there is another way?
@@darkbit1001 LOL. How about the "boot" kicking upward into the ass of the bosses. But personally I am trying to be more conscience of how I act and respond to the worker. Always assume there is a reason. Esp. not take things personally and they may have a very good reason they can't help.But then I wouldn't be so frustrated to start off with if businesses would hire more staff so I don't have to spend an 1/2 hr hunting for someone....esp. ones who speak English (Walmart being the worst offenders).
As a former worker there (before the era of the online shopping person) I can say that whether or not you interrupted their timed work, they would never have fulfilled their quota anyway. While I was there, the shifts went from "hectic but if you hustle you can get everything on the checklist" to "you will never get all the things done that are required of you." At least I could connect with the occasional customer like you who was polite, kind, and didn't take my servitude for granted.
So that’s why it went from happy hippies to super grumpy people who hate their jobs. Whole Foods is not fun any longer.😕
Hippies? I’ve never seen “hippies” working at Whole Foods and I was there in early 2000’s. Hippies don’t work at grocery stores
Whole foods was always for upper class snobby hipsters
The sheer GREED of these companies is truly repulsive.
Whole Foods was a terrible employer fifteen years ago when they were an independent competitor to Wild Oats in the still-budding natural and organic food market. All that imagery of being the healthy future was disguising the same corporate culture of worker exploitation you get at Wal-Mart.
no such thing as a good corporation.
I remember wild oats while living in sobe 2007 to 2011.. are they still around?!?
I shop at Walmart often, for years. I don't see the workers killing themselves. I see them doing their jobs at a normal pace. Sometimes I see them stopping and having a chat amongst themselves and a laugh. I've never seen a supervisor walk up and scold them for their speed or chatting with a fellow employee. I shop in NJ and Pa. Walmarts. They even employ disabled workers at the front doors as greeters and receipt checkers. BTW, these jobs are not necessarily meant to be jobs you take to support a family by yourself.
Surprised you feel that way: I worked for Whole Foods in Houston in 2014 and loved it. I guess we had very different experiences.
@@macc240038you need to watch the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price. I watched it in 2008. Have been to Walmart only a handful of times since, and only because I was visiting towns where it was my only option. Walmart was crappy 20 years and continues to be that way today.
I used to work in produce and I remember this had this made in house product called 'Spa Water'. I would watch them in the back fill bottles of tap water from the same sink used to clean dishes and put a mint leaf and a few slices of cucumber in the bottle and sell it for $5.99. The crazy thing is people would actually buy it. I wanted to tell customers the truth but I was afraid of losing my job.
Diabolical
When I worked in the cut fruit department we would take the rotting moldy fruit that was spoiling off the shelves re cut it and sell it as cut fruit packages. It was gross and it felt dishonest I didn't stay there very long, They called it "minimizing waste"
I remember the spa water thing. They'd put anything in there... I saw asparagus a few times.
The implication on the customer end was that it was spring water; the fact it was just out of the tap isn't surprising though.
@@Van-nk4eecutting of fruit that has imperfections isn’t a Whole Foods thing all grocery stores do that if you go to Albertsons or krogers or even Aldi their cut fruit is food that has been cut around. The reason is that the food is edible the parts cut are not but the entire fruit doesn’t need to be tossed. Customers are paying for the labor spent to cut fruit if it was a whole fruit you’d be paying that price. Even in a bag of oranges or blueberries you’ll be bound to eventually get some that are spoiled or have imperfections.
How much were you getting paid to be scared to lose that job? I’m assuming not much. How unemployable are you that you’re scared to lose a minimal-paying job?
I know life is tough and I’m broke af too but I just don’t understand people being scared of losing their highly replaceable job.
Ex Whole Foods employee here. Big rant coming lol. I didn’t work there long, because I just couldn’t deal with there bs. Employees are all working our ass off to get everything done, but we’re constantly “short staffed” simply because management refuses to hire more employees.
As soon as you don’t hit the unrealistic production goals, you’re chastised or threatened. In training they taught us to focus on helping customers, as soon as I started working, my managers basically said stop helping customers to hit your production goals.
The worst part was the scheduling. I told them I could work either a morning, afternoon, or night shift. They decided to schedule me for all 3 and switch up. I’d get off work at midnight and come back to work at 6 am the next day. When I complained, they said that since my shift technically ended at 10, it fit the 8 hr gap that is mandated. I had to stay 2 hrs after close because we were “short staffed”.
When I decided to leave, my coworkers advised me not to tell my managers ahead of time because they would fire me right before the deadline for the Christmas bonus. If that’s not the pettiest thing I’ve heard, I don’t know what is.
All of this happened in just 4 months. I can’t imagine the crap that people go through working there for years.
What Christmas bonus?? I’ve worked at WF for over 10 years and never got one, and don’t know anyone that did.
@@Sellsangel that was back in the days of gain sharing
@@GrlRock Oh those were the days!! I worked here during gainsharing but don’t ever remember a Xmas bonus. Would be nice though!!
I work at Whole Foods and Amazon is all about metrics. Every time the CEO starts spouting off customers love this or that, he is flat out distorting the crap us workers have to deal with.
UNION YES!!!
I stand with the workers!
The greed of CEOs and shareholders destroy companies, instead of providing quality products and good jobs.
Shareholders? But...Amazon doesn't pay dividends. 🤔🧐🤔
The corporate monopolies are getting more consolidated and richer, while the rest of us work harder and get less.
The union ain’t going to do shit for the Whole Foods employees except take a chunk out of their paycheck.
Good luck to you guys on getting your union!
When Amazon bought Whole Foods, it turned into A-Whole Foods.
Yep, I'm adopting this too,
--and now after learning-- not gonna buy there again. I used to work there 2012, and it was fun and chill. (though I couldn't afford to shop there). I wondered why my vibes felt rejected try to make a cashier smile during my rare visit the "whole paycheck," ...was like a twilight zone feeling.
Wow, If Trader Joe's would just stop using Canola and Seed oils in products they'd be perfection!
That young man is so right about the open door policy. WOW I’ve never thought of it like that. Stay together and fight together, we are more than them and we will win
Agreed. We have a tough road ahead. People who are committed to dismantling the government have just been re-elected. Why do you think Elon and Bezos are buddies right now?
Everyone in these companies MUST UNIONIZE🌞
Support your local co-op
Not an option for most. My community's new food co-op took ten years to get off of the ground, and we will see if it can succeed. I only shop there. So grateful. The staff and customers know each other by name. It is a community. Do support yours if you have that option.
I have local farmers markets but they're extremely expensive.
99% of people can not afford it, which is actually the goal.
Squeeze everybody dry, and you have what we have now.
Actual fascism, not the "omg trump is a fascist" like actual fascism where companies and the government are working as one.
@@JimboSlice-t5i i mean he is a fascist theres no denying that fact , companies and the government are working as one can be fascist as well.
@@zannis5441 You don't know what fascism is, and that's extremely apparent.
Take your brain damage elsewhere.
Yes and remember you can shop without being a co-op member
Red flag: a corporation calling you a "team member"
Boycotting Whole Foods for good now. I’m sick of these corrupt corporations.
Boycotts aren't enough. Lift.
Whole Foods has been ruined by Amazon. The one in our neighborhood used to be a friendly, community hub, it was closed and then turned into a Whole Foods with walk out technology with cameras everywhere. It was CREEPY. They recently took out all the cameras and tried to make it a “regular “ Whole Foods. It’s still a shell of what it used to be. Happy that we have unionized grocery stores, Trader Joe’s and local grocers as other options. Kudos to the workers who are advocating to have a respect, a livable wage , safe working conditions, healthcare and fair working hours.
This is America in a nutshell.
In a nuts hell.
The very unfortunate truth most, even including in this video, fail to realize. They're gonna keep squeezing us until we burst.
@@lboogy4704 They see us as cattle, less than human because we don't walk, talk, and act like these rich jerks.
America has lost its way. It’s no longer about the workers and customers - it’s all about the shareholders.
@@TulipIris7244always about shareholder return, it’s disgusting.
I went to Whole Foods once, wasn't impressed. Their products are available at other stores for half the price. Big Rip Off
As a former Whole Foods customer, I can confirm the decline the employees are talking about. I was amazed when Whole Foods opened their flagship store in El Segundo, CA years ago. But since Amazon took over its faded to nothing more than an expensive supermarket. I only go there now for the occasional unique ingredient that they might carry.
I hope you guys get a union. I want to shop where workers are paid and happy. I feel very uncomfortable shopping these days. I think online shopping allows us to ignore the face of the real workers. Same as eating modern meat. It doesn't look a thing like the animal and is transformed in ways that obfuscate the fact someone slaughtered a living animal so we could pleasure ourselves. If we can do that in mass it's no wonder people like Jeff can just crap on his employees. 😢
Shop at Sprouts
💯💯💯 carol j adams refers to the eating of animal flesh in this way that you describe 'the absent referent'
Sad & dehumanizing. Really glad this video was made so people are treated humanely like we all should ❤
This is exactly why I never buy anything at whole foods or from amazon.
Where do you buy from?
@@TimeFlies-d8bthere is a whole world outside of Amazon/Whole Foods.
@@1975brett this whole world is also messed up
@@TimeFlies-d8byes…yes it is and again whole world aside from Whole Foods Sprouts is growing and amazing I have bought one thing from Amazon in the past year and some there are stores all around you and there are companies that make those goods to be sold on Amazon. Amazon just barely got into being the one to produce its own goods.
Boycott Amazon, I use eBay
I worked at WFM from 2020-2021. I'm very glad there is someone telling this story
This is blown way out of proportion. The goals are not requirements. No one is getting fired for not meeting goals. People need to remember there is a worker shortage right now, so the power is in workers' hands.
I seriously cannot fathom these people and their complaints. My husband has worked at WF, in multiple departments, for over 16 years. The pay is decent, the benefits are decent, and all of these testimonials sound like total bs. Produce guys whining about lifting boxes?? 😂😂 Riiiight. Because they don't tell you when you're applying that lifting up to 50 pounds will be required, lol.
This is just nonsense.
@@katashley1031you can’t fathom the fact these people work well over 40 hours and are not being paid a livable wage? good for you and your husband but that is clearly not the case for a lot of workers at wf.
@ashleyc5257 yeah, because you know more about a company you don't work for than people who have worked there for 16 years, in multiple states, lol. Sit down, girl.
This is not blown out proportion at all. If anything the WF experience is being underreported here.
@ECW555 false. In fact, I suspect these are paid actors. Nothing in our 16 years experience working at WF in multiple states matches this nonsense one iota.
The USA MUST be Unionized.
Business MUST be regulated.
Business MUST not be the Government.
I am definitely Republican and right wing, no doubt about it but my dad has worked at a local grocery store chain in St Louis for 45 years, and is in the UFCW Union. I remember going on strike with him back in 03, that was a wild time. He still works a few days a week, but has great benefits and a pension. He feels if he completely retires, he will lose purpose in his life. I am all for workers getting better pay and benefits from companies who can afford it. I'm a trucker and the teamsters used to be a massive union, covering most truckers, but sadly a major company closed a couple years ago called Yellow Roadway Carriers (YRC freight) , which was union, and a lot of what killed that company was excessive demands from the teamsters that the company just couldn't afford. Towards the end, they had one of the worst fleets in the road. I think the decision to unionize needs to be made on a company by company basis. Just because your company has great profits and a ton of employees doesn't mean working conditions will improve because they choose to go union. You might even be risking your own livelihood because companies who are very much against unionizing might just close the location in question just to avoid setting a precedent for the rest of the company, leaving everyone worse off especially the community.
Hell no. Have you ever worled for a union
Do it
@@ayeitsshane806 ...do tell. Why is your comment is "hec naw"? 🤔
Well because many older unions have turned in to their own version of a mini corporation. Everybody's getting their back rubbed at the top everywhere.
Literally every single business since Covid. Profits have gotten used to skeletal crews. And when I worked as a MIT/AGM in the grocery stores (another chain) we were already seeing the management philosophy of “if you get everything done in a day, you’re not pushing hard enough”, as one of my store managers said.
But still, it’s everywhere. In doctors offices, hospitals. Have you ever walked into a Walgreens before? There’s like one person in the whole store.
As someone working in healthcare, i agree. God forbid you go over your 40 hrs because you’re trying to get as many patients coordinated or the assistance they need navigating care. “F the patients if it means we have to pay you more because we’re too greedy and spineless to properly staff our hospitals” shareholders or some bizworm
This is a theme. Money is the focus, not human welfare. We are treated like robots in every industry in some facet.
I am sometimes in WF office buildings for work and wanted to point out that their higher level computer office workers (idk what those titles are) seem very happy with their pay and benefits, as well as the "company culture". I am not singing their praises, just pointing out this is also a class issue. Lower paid & "lower skilled" (as they are referred to despite often having plenty of skills and experience) workers are deprioritized and exploited almost everywhere in this country and it is a huge problem.
Precisely. The issue isn't with corporate. It is their customer facing workers who actually fulfill orders and supply and sell goods in stores. This dynamic is especially common in biotech.
I was a software engineer for Amazon for a few years, there is an issue with the work culture in corporate: they abuse the employees but pay them high enough to not only accept the abuse but pass it on down the line to the frontline workers.
They also love hiring people on work visas since they are much less likely to leave for fear of being deported, this keeps the working conditions down and creates a culture of fear and cruelty.
They had irresponsible hiring practices (competing for headcount with other big tech for no real reason) which led to unnecessary layoffs throughout the company a couple years ago. They claim they need to “be more lean” despite rising profits. If they had profit then they didn’t need to lay off anyone and they don’t need to underpay and squeeze frontliners until they get hurt physically and mentally.
They have a program that is ostensibly meant to train warehouse associates and other frontliners to get into the tech part of the business - we had one on our team, she was a hard worker - but guess who was first to get laid off… the one who spent years with the company and followed all the rules to move up only to be kicked down again, she didn’t even get her old frontline job back
People are judged by the way they treat the poor. Who would you like to see succeed someone who helps the poor or another who is cruel to the poor?
The perks are nice in the offices but honestly the job security is not. The company cut 1/3 of its regions recently where do you think those regional or global jobs went?
I worked at Whole Foods in 2010, way before Amazon took over. We were constantly made to watch videos about how to handle abusive customers. They didn’t help. Worst customers by far of any retail job I ever worked. And insane levels of micromanagement.
How sad. Whole Foods used to top the lists of best companies to work for before Amazon came along.
I am so fucking sick and tired of capitalisation and corporatization of EVERYTHING on a major scale. When does it end?
@@BurnabyBoyZippy when people stop buying stuff.
Is the messiah consolidating power?
When the planet is a burning husk.
It ends when people realise they have to stop spending their money at publicly listed companies.
Aww hush you air head . They can go get a new job. This is what reality would be like with yall socialist society mut head. If you don't like it then just go. Why do people sit and cry in misery
The convenience culture is breaking people. The class factor is not even a surprise.
I cried inside when Amazon took over Whole Foods.
Good luck, guys. You're fighting for more than yourselves. God bless you.
"Amazon-owned" explains it all
I shop at Whole Foods in Philly. Its very clear the employees are not happy and the turnover is very high..
As a former WFM employee, I can testify that the policies that "support" employees are actually inhibitive. I was cut hours just under full-time, even when I was employed full time, so management could save budget and not offer benefits. Tbh I'm not sure what this company has in mind than making customers feel giddy for shopping while the company and customers alike treat the employees as less thans. The products offered are not all organic anymore and customers want and need now all the time due to the high expectations the company is now branded as. This is not a "white glove treatment" supermarket, yall... Fortunately, I had many coworkers who appreciated one another and were constantly trying to give one another motivation while we were under stress every second to be perfect and coordinated... someone has to understand this. Sarcasm and good energy goes so far until you've completed used a person. 🙏🏻 I really hope things change for my former coworkers!
We need to make the rich bend the knee to OUR demands.
Well, boycott Whole Foods. They are not the only game in town. Kroger also has a bad reputation.
Just stop buying their s@@t. It's not a big philosophy.
The French have ideas
@@RayPointerChannel Honestly, I wonder what groceries aren't scummy. I avoid Kroger, Whole Foods, and (of course Walmart). Who's left other than regional shops? I tend towards Meijer, but it's only in the Midwest and I even sideeye it there too, since just because I haven't heard much bad, doesn't mean it's not there.
@@RayPointerChannel "Why are they not eating the rich?" - Lrrr from Omicron Persei 8.
I'm a regular whole foods guy and had a good feeling in former years esp when John was at the helm. Hopefully they can evolve into a symbol of health that our society desperately needs nowadays. Need loving employees to get there too!
Imagine having "ethically sourced" and "cruelty free" stickers everywhere while the literal staff around you is being abused 🤦🏾♀️
Great point!
Going 3 years now without giving Amazon a penny. I don't have an Amazon account anymore, and spend the 10 extra minutes to go to a small family grocery store.
I know it's tough peeps and the convenience is nice but these companies treat people like trash and we need to make these companies hurt.
Try living somewhere where all the small grocery stores have been run out of the city... There are are lot of places where people don't have that luxury😢
there are no small family grocery stores by me, and that’s the reality for millions of Americans. we don’t use chains because we’re lazy and can’t do a ten minute trip to the store. that is a lie that you’ve just made up and believe. we use chains because that’s all we have. it is not a sign of moral inferiority.
@suoutubez19 this wasn't an attack against people who don't have options, more of if you have options try to use them.
Do you have small kids?
@@snickerdoodles787 yes I do 2 kids, and I weld as a full time job and do 3d modeling as a part time job.
I watch the dedicated Whole Foods employees conscientiously using all their intelligence and energy, hour after hour, attending to the needs of customers in a polite, friendly and helpful way. They should be rewarded. The stock holders are stealing what should be theirs. I'm living without Whole Foods as long as there are Co-Ops, and on-line shopping like VitaCost and iHerb, and a little help from the major grocery chains.
Well, I guess it's a good thing that I can't afford to shop there 😂
We have found many items much cheaper at Whole Foods compared to our local Meijer stores. You just have to compare prices, but that gets tedious.
There are a few things that are reasonably priced, but you have to pick and choose.
the people that can dont give a fuck about workers rights
"...and since there's no place to go...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..."
Being poor is not good or helpful either. It's hard to boycott or have a choice if people are poor.
I've seen comments say they know Temu or Walmart is bad but they didn't have a choice but to shop there because they were poor.
That’s the USA now . When u r told to not spend more than a couple of minutes with patients as a new nurse when asked what to do the head nurse that teaches us say just walk out while they are talking! This is the good ole USA!
Wow, nurses feel like the angels in hospitals... When my brother was coding, one nurse said "he can still hear you" while also his temperature dropped and we all put our bodies on top of him before they brought blankets. Then my father scolded him to come back. and he did. You are all Angels on Earth. Thank you for being a nurse. 💗
Every single worker needs to walk out now!
Nobody should be allowed to treat their workers this way!
#boycottwholefoods
I worked in a factory in the late 1970's in New Bedford, MA. I did "piece work" and this system sounds like the factory that I worked in. Had to raise my hand in order to get the floor managers attention to "ask" if I can use the bathroom. After a while, I learned to increase my production so they knew my number were up in order to freely go to the bathroom. Made a lot of other workers angry that I could bypass the manager. I also made @ $375.00 a week back then and was able to buy my first car and save money while still living with my parents. The wages today are not in alignment with the cost of living today. It is criminal to see these MEGA corporations siphon off money from the bottom to line their pockets and shelter their assets overseas.
This is 100% the experience of Whole Foods. After Amazon bought it, Whole Foods and the culture was literally eviscerated. The people I enjoyed talking to for YEARS- are no longer working there. Amazon has literally destroyed the brand. CUSTOMERS SEE IT AND FEEL IT TOO.
It's not Whole Foods anymore; it's Amazon Foods...
Whole foods was unprofitable because the workers didn't work. I used to go in and they would be lounging around.
@ 100% accurate. This is the same dehumanizing approach people like Musk and Ramaswamy will attempt to drive into literally every business and interpersonal interaction we have. It’s like forcing a form of autistic interaction onto the entirety of US society. This will lead to deeper erosion of human culture. Bezos, Musk and their ilk must be stopped.
@ and now we have a sh*tty version of Walmart where the shelves often go unstocked and the employees are disconnected from customers. Whole Foods used to have a positive vibe and a friendly environment - now it is a sad, dystopian desert staffed by people who aren’t even remotely connected to the people who shop there.
Definitely. The atmosphere is depressing and dead. It’s the sort of place that makes you feel bad just for existing.
I worked for E-Commerce at Whole Foods in 2021 while also going to community college. During my entire employment, I was often put on 4 am shifts, despite constantly asking that I not be because it was affecting my health. It would change to more normal hours for a week then go back to 4 am shifts every shift like a few days later because a COMPUTER, not a person, was scheduling my shifts based on an algorithm. It used to be kind of a fun job where you did normal grocery shopping in a cart and went to a backroom to package everything and could even socialize with coworkers. But everything changed when management decided that wasn't efficient enough, so they started making us use these hard to manage double decker carts that were such a PAIN. They were so much harder to move around than a regular shopping cart and you had to try to predict how many bags you needed before you went out on the floor. So if you made a miscalculation, you're screwed for your time. Also, because I'm tall and the carts were shorter than shopping carts, I had to bend down more and started getting low back pain for the first time in my life (those things are not ergonomic AT ALL). Because you had to bag on the cart, this also took out the social element of bagging in the back room and made me feel more sort of sad that I couldn't really talk to people anymore. My last straw was when it started interfering with my education. I was originally a temporary summer employee that was supposed to leave when school started, but was asked to stay and became part time. However, this meant I went from working a manageable 16-20 hrs/week in the summer to 32+ while also being a full time student, working at 4 AM every day and gradually experiencing more pain every day. Mind you, my supervisors KNEW I was in college, and I feel like I was resented for it. I had to miss class because of work. When I went to my supervisor to complain about getting scheduled during class, my supervisor said "that's not my problem, find someone else to cover your shift" but I couldn't, so I had no choice but to miss class. It was like it was SO inconvenient for them that I had other commitments and was even scolded once for having to change my availability. Eventually an older coworker came up to me and said that they dropped out of school because they worked 50 hrs/wk at a job and that they regretted it, and they didn't want me to make the same mistake and said that I should prioritize my education. That was kind of a wake up call that I didn't want to risk my education for this barely-above-minimum-wage job that frankly treated me like shit, so I put in a 2 weeks notice (at which point my supervisors begged me to stay) and was given no ceremony on my last day. Glad to say that semester I got a 4.0 GPA. I transferred to a university a couple years later and I'm about to graduate with my engineering degree in the Spring. Screw you Whole Foods, you can definitely afford to treat your employees better. I'm so happy to hear that people have had enough and are starting to form unions.
The employee that gave you that advice to prioritize your education was an angel in disguise…it’s good to learn lessons early rather than when it’s too late and all you’re left with is regret…congratulations on your degree though!!!
I worked at Wholefoods in seattle from 2004 to 2008. During that time the company went public. I honestly think that it was a really good place to work then. I remember hearing amazonbought it and I was like...damn I bet it's gonna start sucking to work there
I was working in one in California when the purchase went through. I can tell you that the company had already changed to where most workers knew it would be worse but not really that different.
I stopped shopping at Whole Foods when it was taken over by Amazon. I knew it would never be a good atmosphere after that happened.
Tears from a 1st world worker in an upscale grocery market..
Seriously. These are nuts, lol. Whine, whine, whine
😂
The Whole Foods stores in Hawaii are sad. Employees look stressed and unhappy. I feel sorry for them.
It is not just Whole Foods or Amazon but almost every retail service
They deserve a union 💯. Just like Amazon.
I stopped going there. I go to mom's organic instead where they treat their workers like human beings and they have better products. better prices.
I worked at MOMs from 2013-2016, Rockville and Arlington.
Unfortunately we started seeing a little of this philosophy start coming down in management. Not to the same level as described here, but yes, MOMs is the still the best of a bunch. I miss it sometimes, but unfortunately I needed a real job paying living wages.
As long as people are willing to work for money there will continue to be neglected workers. They solution should probably be to refuse to use money or spend as little money as possible until the money problem is solved.
I worked at fresh fields which was bought by whole foods. It was a great grocery store that had that family like feel, i was making 17/hr back in the late 1990s That work style, pay and camaraderie is long gone.
I worked at that location a few years ago, my heart goes out to these employees. None of this is an exaggeration, and frankly I think they’re being generous compared to how I would describe my time there. I have never worked a job that demands more of your moment-to-moment time. The expectation for transaction efficiency was absurd. The second you weren’t actively ringing, you were immediately tasked with busy work and verbally discouraged from conversing with other employees. It is a lonely, anti-social atmosphere.
I frankly think the growing trend within Amazon of unreasonable productivity quotas for employees is to facilitate their inevitable transition into robot labor. They’ll be able to answer any pushback with “Our company can’t operate at scale any longer with human floor labor”, ignoring the fact that they scaled themselves into a dystopian nightmare and created the unreasonable expectations their customers have.
I used to work at Whole Foods in Vancouver Canada before. THE WORST experience. Toxic co-workers, toxic employers. McDonals where I worked during my high school times was way better.
Oh, and it has nothing to do with them being bought by Amazon, by the way. This was happening way back in the days.
Whole Foods is like a cult. @@aselle1709
I've had a Whole Foods store in my area for a few years but I've avoided it because of the bad vibe the place gave me, this tells me why that place has such a vibe.
Agreed, same experience
Their palm pay bs creeps me out. They are clearly conditioning the masses for the coming system of technocratic control people like Bezos have in mind for us.
Bro me too! I've only been in a Whole Foods a few times, but yeah it creeped me out.
@@soninalphin2771 I'm so sick of this platform hiding comments. Hit the stupid newest tab if you want to see my other one I left. This one will probably get hidden too though.
Me too, I was fortunate to work during 2012 (when we still needed to see an ID for credit card purchases and some people still wrote checks) --- the vibe was granola and smiley. I couldn't hack memorizing all the produce numbers as a checker in a busy new store. I wasn't shown patience by the rich folk for me always slowing just to look at my produce cheat sheet, --that's what drove me out...
Wow, now I know why they don't smile or have conversations like we did. 💗
As a customer, I miss the way Whole Foods used to feel. It was genuinely wholesome and friendly and the selection of items were better. The day they "upgraded" I felt the industrial atmosphere and stopped going. I found a small holistic health store that has the feel Whole Foods used to have. I go there now and support the small business.
This is why I absolutely refused to work for Amazon in 2020 and onward, because I knew I was only gonna be a number
It feels almost inescapable inevitable these days. I hate it. I don't know what would remedy it, it's ruining all of our lives collectively
@@quarry_24True; it's ruining everything everywhere. Wherever you're at now, fight the good fight there, because nowhere is safe.
You are probably just training AI for a robot to take over.
Everyone is just a number everywhere.
I only worked there for a day and had to leave on how much I realized the trainer didn't know how to train me safely to do the position