Whole Foods co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey said it’s a complaint he hears all the time: the food at his stores is too expensive.
But if you think that’s true, Mackey said, you can always shop somewhere else.
“If people think we’re too expensive or the quality’s not very good or the services aren’t good… they have plenty of alternatives in the marketplace,” Mackey said this morning during an appearance on KQED’s Forum. “We don’t make everybody happy. But who does?
“We do have a $12 billion business, so somebody likes us.”
The cost of shopping at Whole Foods was one of many topics discussed during an hour-long Forum interview with Mackey this morning. The interview is generating heated conversation online, as shown by the dozens of comments on the Forum website. During the discussion Mackey also talked about his free-market business philosophies as well as criticism over his comment on NPR comparing President Obama’s health care overhaul to fascism. He expressed regrets for using that word.