June 7, 2004
81 Year-Old Lady Banned From Whole Foods
Slices of chocolate cake and cheese: That's what Whole Foods says Beatrice Dyer tried to shoplift, prompting them to ban her from the TimeWarner Center store. However, 81 year-old Dyer tells the Post that guards accosted her before she could pay and forced her to sign a statement saying she'd never return to Whole Foods - and that she wouldn't be so crazy as to risk shoplifting for cake and cheese. Naturally, Whole Foods disagrees, calling Dyer's actions "willful concealment." The Dyers are suing for $5,000, unless WF lifts the Dyer embargo and apologizes.
Gothamist thinks there must be a videotape somewhere. We do know that TimeWarner Center guards have been on our ass about taking photographs. But saying someone would not shoplift very small ticket items does not seem to hold that much water, because lots of shoplifting seems to start out very small. But the ban seems extreme and shows that Whole Foods is no store to mess with. Court TV's full Winona Ryder shoplifting trial coverage and Rutger's shoplifting prevention notes.
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Whole Foods is evil ( http://www.wholeworkersunite.org/)and this is just another reason why. It's a place where yuppies can go and feel good about buying rainforest freindly coffee or whatever while not caring about the kid from the Bronx at the register making 6 bucks an hour.
I like to go in there everyonce in a while and ask what aisle the Velveeta and Marshmallow Fluff is in.
Screw them and everything they represent.
Hey -- I wonder if this is the very same old woman who I encountered at Whole Foods about a month ago. (warning: I'm a yuppie f*ck)
As I'm paying for my smoked wheatberry salad, an elderly woman was causing a stir at the register next to mine. Me and her cashier gave each other knowing smiles -- old people! -- and out of nowhere (!) she lets out a BLOOD CURDLING SCREAM that made the ENTIRE supermarket stop dead in their tracks. My ears were bleeding. And even though I saw her standing there before me, I was pretty sure that she had just dropped dead.
Turns out she had just wanted a fork, and I guess the crowds got to her. And also she was demented. The cashier told her to walk 10 paces over to get one, and she flipped. Maybe keeping the altecockers out of Whole Foods would be for their own good.
Shoplifting is nary a concern at FreshDirect...
Jonmc - damned if you do, damned if you don't, hunh?
So I buy eco-friendly rainforest coffee that uses non-exploited workers for a few dollars more at whole foods which pays its workers $6 an hour and I'm a yuppie indulging in sentimental self-satisfaction while apathetic to the plight of "kids from the Bronx." I shop at the local crap mart (Gristedies (sp), etc.) or the local Korean and buy regular coffee and I'm supporting the destruction of the rainforest, the enslavement of local peoples, price fixing, unsanitary shopping conditions, non-union labor practices, and the fact that they pay their "kids" $4 (or less) an hour.
As a knee-jerk liberal, I tire of knee-jerkier liberals seeing evil and an opportunity to boycott behind every shop window. Think before you post.
Whole foods has better selection and a more pleasant place in which to shop for which they charge more and pay many of their workers, who are more skilled, knowledgeable and certainly friendlier, higher rates than normal supermarket employees. The prices are marginally higher, so pay is marginally higher. I feel less guilty there than in Dagistino’s and other NYC shops. Whole Foods is no health store CoOp and no Westside Market, but its good enough.
And what is it about supermarkets that attracts the old batties? You’d think with all their years and the wisdom of age that they would have found a way to eat without shopping.
No one cared about me when I was making $3.25 schlepping groceries back in the day. Are we supposed to start feeling sorry for people who make minimum wage? I was glad I had a job and wasn't looking for any handouts.
p.s. - Whole Foods uses an "open financial system" that allows all employees to see what everyone makes. People are paid what they are worth which is the way it should be.
Two words: soylent green.
There was an interesting article in the NY Times Magazine this weekend about Whole Foods. If I recall correctly, the article stated that the average Whole Foods employee earns $29,000 a year. Of course no company is perfect. Whole Foods has some good practices (such as giving to charitable causes), but there is the issue of unionization (which is covered in the article).
I don't understand all the generalizations about "yuppies". People are not inherently evil (or good) because they have money (or a lack thereof). Some very wealthy people contribute a lot of time and money to very good causes and truly care about others.
Jonmc - damned if you do, damned if you don't, hunh?
More or less, yeah.
Besides, it's hard not to feel contempt for "social responsibility" that gets weepy over suffering far away, but could care less about it close to home. And changing the world through consumption is silly anyway.
So jonmc, are we better off shopping at Pathmark? The Key Food? Or are you just here to snipe?
I've never been in WholeFoods, but as I'm about to move into the Ansonia which is right next door to FairWay, I'm wondering if it too has it fair share of crazy old biddies. Well, since we're talking about the UWS, I guess it does.
I have a sneaking suspicion that WholeFoods is in the right on this. Old people think they can get away with that type of behaviour because people will feel sorry for them.
So jonmc, are we better off shopping at Pathmark? The Key Food? Or are you just here to snipe?
Shop wherever the hell you like. The point is that Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and the rest of those places stock-in-trade (along with upscale price appeal) is their warm and fuzzy, pseudo-globalist image. I'm just calling bullshit on it.
I live outside of US and have seen much of the world, from the very poor in Africa to the generally high living standards in parts of EU (much more sophisticated and refined than USA) and found there are always many sides to a situation...what this post did is that I'll make sure that I visit Whole Foods next time I'm in NYC.
jonmc - you were doing more than calling bullshit on the image that these stores try to portray. You were making a judgement on the ppl who shop there. Nothing inherently wrong in that but don't pretend you were being more innocuous than you were otherwise others will call your bullshit on that.
L, I am from the UK, have travelled extensively and worked in Eruope and Asia and have been living and working in NYC for the last 10 years. The one thing that I find consistently with many Europeans is this sometimes disguised (but usually not) disdain or even contempt for American culture/intelligence/values/whatever that seems to be pervasive regardless of whether the person has ever been to the US or not. I see the same kind of superior tone in your post and it is completely unfounded. Europeans do not have the monopoly on sophistication or whatever other standard you judge a nation by. When you have lived in other countries and over here for a few years you will see that hopefully.
The point is that Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and the rest of those places stock-in-trade (along with upscale price appeal) is their warm and fuzzy, pseudo-globalist image. I'm just calling bullshit on it.
This may be the image jonmc sees, but that doesn't mean it is the image anyone else sees. Anyone who thinks their view of the world is the only one is seriously bent.
To tell you all the truth... I work there and I really like it. The start out at way above min wage and offer gain sharing and much more. the benifits are so so but there are massive pluses. Sure in some departments there is high turn over but the room to advance is insaine. I've been there a few motnhs and I'm already applying for a higher position. I mean think about it, there are companies that have unions, work you harder and still have the same benifits and pay only a little more, example UPS. Then again there is the retail chain wet seal that starts at min wage nomatter what your experance. Whole foods starts at 8 and hour. UPS starts at 8.50 and is a hell of alot more fucked up. At whole foods you want to work hard because the money will DIRECTLLy come back. As far as that ladyif concerned I wouldn't dought that she was stealing. WE have people steal and eat product in the store right before our eyes. All this because we sample some things everything is a freee for all. Forget that! We even have people that are rude enought to just walk around eating our samples and making a meal out of them... I have never wanted to hit anyone more in my life until I've seen someone for the third time in ten mins take a hand full of sample... I'm very tempted to lace it with a laxitive... Anywho, I love whole foods it's where I can have fun doing what I love and that's cooking. Who need to pay for some culinary college when you can learn how to make it here? Anyone that isn't truely happy hasn't tried hard enough or shouldn't be working there. period.