FTC Reveals CEO Of Upmarket Grocer Took To Web Forum To Slam Competition

Earlier this week, a story surfaced on the Net as one of the juicier bits of news (apart from all the corruption scandals and bouts of tax evasion and whatnot) to come out of the corporate world, and both journalists and bloggers were seen chomping at the bit.

The drama involves Whole Foods CEO John Mackey, a most unusual company head, and a rival, Wild Oats Market. Both purport themselves to be mid- to top-tier grocers. Yep, they sell food.

The term rival is used loosely here, as Wild Oats is hardly encroaching on Whole Foods’ share of the market, but that’s not really very much of an important point to press here. Instead, the issue being discussed is pansiness.

Yes, pansiness. It’s not a word you’ll find planted within the pages of Britannica or the OED, but that’s quite alright. The term nonetheless aptly describes Mr Mackey’s underhanded attacks, revealed by the US Federal Trade Commission, against Wild Oats (as well as other entities in the industry). Attacks carried out in chatrooms online. Under a pseudonym.

Like I said, pansiness.

Indeed. Mackey didn’t waste time at the company pulpit to state, among other things, that “The end is now underway for (Wild Oats),” and that “Whole Foods is systematically destroying their viability as a business – market by market, city by city.” No, he instead made his way, disguised as Yahoo! member “rahodeb” in a finance-oriented forum to slam Wild Oats regularly. At one point, as the FTC revealed, “rahodeb” opined that “Bankruptcy remains a distinct possibility (for Wild Oat) IMO if the business isn’t sold within the next few years.”

As a sort of damage control, Whole Foods distanced itself from Mackey stating the statements made in the chatroom in 2005 and 2006 were “personal…and not those of the company.” In comments posted on the Whole Foods website, Mackey defended his use of a pseudonym as fun and that some of the statements made in the forum occasionally did not represent his true views. In such instances he claims “simply [to have] played ‘devil’s advocate’ for the sheer fun of arguing.”

While it’s really not much of an issue that Mackey made such attacks – they are entirely commonplace in the corporate world today and have been for decades – the fact that the man went incognito on the Web makes him worthy of a fair amount of ridicule. As the schoolyard saying goes, “if you’re going to say something, say it to their faces.”

Appropriately enough, the futures of Whole Foods’ competitors appear quite rosy. The only party slated to be labeled a loser is Mr Mackey.

In classic back-against-the-wall fashion, the Whole Foods CEO has now “accused the FTC of distorting his private statements in order to portray him as excessively aggressive and bent on eliminating healthy competition.

He’s definitely all for “healthy.” The company’s proved that time and again over the years. But whether he’s for competition is definitely debatable.