My buddy worked there for several years. One day he was working before opening, and started feeling effects of low blood sugar (he's diabetic) so he grabbed a bottle of OJ off the shelf and drank it. When store opened, he took the empty bottle to a register to pay for it. Cashier was an assistant manager who got upset he drank it without purchasing it, even tho it was medically necessary, store was closed, and he immediately paid for the item upon opening. He got written up, then fired. He eventually sued for wrongful termination, got a settlement.
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).
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.
quit your jobs and try roofing...or plumbing....or installing carpet....or framing a house...or pouring concrete driveways...all very reasonable, highly paid, easy...I mean, easy jobs that require little to no effort.....That's just my opinion....
@ all very loable jobs but that is not the point. For example Amazon pays their managers with their own stock which is taxed at 40% and paid in 4 installments during the year. This is the only way they get a wage increase. Is usually about .50 cts per/hr when you get the final amount and they work 12 hrs days on salary
@@witchesarcana542the point the other commenter is making is that there are options for everyone to walk away. The amount of money Amazon is pouring into automation at a dollar for dollar tax break tells me these stories will be a forgotten part of their company history soon.
I can imagine. I'm a seasoned dumpster diver and the waste is unconscionable. The Whole Foods near me has a compactor so you can't even see how much they're throwing out, but I know it's a lot. Shame on them.
Your store didn’t have a food bank pick up food? We had one come every morning when I worked at WFM. To think of all the food we donated every day going to waste makes me really sad- and we were one of the smallest stores in the company. I can’t imagine a bigger store throwing out even as much as we donated every day.
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.
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?
I so appreciate this generation. They have created the “age of transparency” our young people are our brightest and smartest. You guys are our future and I pray that you continue to deconstruct this mess you’ve been handed.
True…I have been seeing that for quite a long time. I am grateful that my state government is really encouraging and supporting small businesses. I hope every state does that!!
It's already too late. The damage was already one back when people supported evil wal.mart, then evil amazon & now go look around & tell me how many local small bizes are left. This was all planned to bring down all companies worldwide. You know the entire economy is being destroyed, right? I can't even place hiring ads for freelancers anymore & I've been hiring since 2004. Every single freelance job site has banned me for either speaking the Truth, refusing to register a business which I never had to ever before, this is all new, or not obeying their slave demands that I ONLY communicate with my own staff outside of their site, again all new since the war started, or they started jacking up the fees so I can't afford it. Oh, and evil FB has stopped me from being able to join or post in groups for all sorts of jobs, even local ones. I'll repeat, this ALL started after the war started in March 2020. Once the scam,demic died down, the evils went onto stage (who knows) to bring down all online businesses unless they are ones the evils own or control.
I bought NOTHING from Amazon this year. My total spend was just under $5K and NONE of it went to Amazon this year. Instead, I spent hundreds with local businesses, putting cash directly into the hands of the real live artisans.
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
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.
i know someone who worked at meats there for 5yrs, kept thinking things would change. they had to fight for a $1 yearly raise, saw so much food waste! The disrespect that managment showed them was unbearable. Like shift ending at 9pm but leaving at 11pm because no one would clean up their station, random employee disprespect, soaking wet feet, 15 min lunch break. Oh the worst was them trying NOT to pay for their cut limb on the blade during work hours which led to stiches & the doctor demanding a week off. This person was so done with life and literally hated everything. after quitting, i watched this person grow into someone who is appreciated and respected at their new job. they make 3x they did at wholefoods & WANT to work.
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.
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.
“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
I'm not surprised at this ugly corporate crap. I stopped going to Whole Paycheck years ago after Amazon bought it because the change was really obvious. The virtue signaling is disgusting. I do feel sorry for the employees. I hope they unionize! Thank you to those in this video who spoke out.
We noticed our wonderful, happy customer and employee-centric Whole Foods changed dramatically when the Amazon corporate mind-bend took over. We rarely shop at Whole Foods now. It is sad. And employees that once enjoyed their work as helpful, knowledgable and friendly employees now carry the drudge factor. Positivity and encouragement CRUSHED.
@@johnpymn9869No, because at some point a person can only spend do much money. And to destroy thousands of people's lives so I can add another BILLION in profits is insane when you're already making BILLIONS.
I work in e-commerce and everything they say about that department is absolutely true. My co workers and I struggle to even catch our breathes sometimes. we are being rushed and pushed to finish orders within the the time frame but sometimes it’s just physically impossible from getting stopped by customers to having to pause your order to drop off a customers order to big crowds in the store. I use to love working in that department but all of these expectations are insane.
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.
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.
Thank you so much for letting us know! I rarely shop at Whole Foods, but I will go out of my way to avoid it now. I'll let my family and friends know too. Terrible, terrible how they treat employees at WF and Amazon.
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.
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 🙏
This made me emotional. I used to work at Whole Foods for 4 years, during the pandemic. It was brutal. I’m so proud of the TMs who are organizing. I wish them the best, and I will cry such happy tears when I hear of the first successful Whole Foods union.
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.
One of my store managers pulled my coworker into the office when she started wearing a mask during COVID, closed the door, and tried to intimidate her to not wear it because of “how it would look to the customers.”
Don't make union gods possible again. Make proper working conditions for the worker and the work. They are One. Democracy doesn't work well at all. We still prefer form over function. Immature but old species we are.
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.
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.
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 left Whole Foods a month ago. It is the best decision I have ever made. Whole Foods changed when it was bought by Amazon. Instead of being about people, Whole Foods changed to being about metrics and numbers. Team Member were very happy and fulfilled and made a career out of Whole Foods before Amazon’s acquisition. People were proud to work for Whole Foods. I said to my Team Members that Whole Foods is the Saks of Grocery stores and it really was. Now Team Members are paid such a low wage that they truly don’t care about Whole Foods or what it means to be a part of such a company that cared about people. The turnover rate is so high, it is embarrassing. Management is told by higher managers to care only about metrics and numbers. The last straw for me was when they started lowering the benefits for Full Time Team Members, it was disappointing. Team Members are expected to meet all metrics regardless of how short staffed the team is. Now Whole Foods feels like a glorified warehouse work place. You can see it written all over the Team Members faces. I am glad I left.
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 learned long ago that when a corporation calls their employees "Team or team members" they are setting them up for abuse by feigning a two way loyalty that does not and never will exist. If I'm your employee, treat me well and I will reciprocate with honest work for pay. That's it. I don't need you, the corporation pretending to be my friend.
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.
I am an empath. I realize when you have a corporation that cares about no one what I am about to say doesn't matter. However from a societal perspective it does. You have elderly and lonely, widowed people, and people who hate to leave their house because the world feels unsafe. However they have to eat. They WILL go to the grocery store. Sometimes the only interaction they have with humanity for that week will be talking to the cashier or someone working in the aisle. More and more we are becoming dehumanized widgets or a box on a spreadsheet. I am a fifties child and remember my dad having a weekly conversation with the butcher and staying up to date on his life and the life of the cashier. People KNEW each other at the grocery store. At the very least they touched base on the weekly personal news. Technology is wonderful in many ways, but it has not made us more humane or even promote basic decency.
Exactly, but if you try to say this to anyone, you're told that it's cutting into profits. That's all that matters now. And, of course, lonely & elderly no longer matter as far as today's society is concerned.
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.
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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…
I don't mind being a "soulless commodity" while working a job that is truly productive, especially if the product is absolutely essential. The working conditions should be optimal to perform the task, if the conditions can be controlled. The worker and the work is One. After the work, I am Me and only Me.
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.
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?
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.
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!
@@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.
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.
@@Jeff-mn2ws yeah, but the problem is that these fools drank the Kool-Aid and put the wolf in the WH. So good luck with any efforts to protect employees and consumers. We’re phucked.
Whole Foods used to be a (high) standard...I shows in more than a few ways that it HAS GONE DOWNHILL SINCE AQUIRED MY BEZOS!!! I go there very rarely anymore.
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?
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!
I applied at Whole Foods when I was 23. I wanted to be a cashier, but she only offered me a job bagging groceries. I declined and got a nanny job paying much more. The manager at Whole Foods got mad at me, called me, and snapped at me for taking a better pay job. 😒
In all honesty I'm not sure anyone starts as a cashier. Source: Long ago I worked for a supermarket where I grew up, in Hawaii, called Foodland. I was a bagger and the word was, over time I'd get training to be a cashier. I believed this because the people I got to know there had started the same way I did, as baggers. That's kind of how supermarkets do things.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
This is part and parcel why MANY, not all but many, corporations want immigrants, either illegal or legal, to do this kind of work: less pay, no complaining, work faster, et al. This is mental , emotional, and physical abuse. Kudos to the workers/whistleblowers for having none of this abuse any longer. Unionize.
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. 😢
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.
Witnessed a coworker go into epileptic seizure in the kitchen one day. It was early morning and prior to store opening. He hit his head on an oven as he collapsed and bled literally everywhere. We administered aid until paramedics showed up. And watched them wheel away someone we thought was dying. Rather than address the issue and allow traumatized staff to go home… they quickly hosed down the area (including bits of his teeth) and opened the store like nothing happened. No one spoke of it again. And somehow he returned to work soon after. That’s when I left.
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.
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 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.
My buddy worked there for several years. One day he was working before opening, and started feeling effects of low blood sugar (he's diabetic) so he grabbed a bottle of OJ off the shelf and drank it. When store opened, he took the empty bottle to a register to pay for it. Cashier was an assistant manager who got upset he drank it without purchasing it, even tho it was medically necessary, store was closed, and he immediately paid for the item upon opening. He got written up, then fired. He eventually sued for wrongful termination, got a settlement.
bruh, you know how bad they stepped in it if they settled.
Wow! If he didn’t pay for it on his own then what ?
If he settled that means he could've won.
Good for him !! 💪🏽
@@meyou5789 Whole Foods settled. Well ove $10k (I don't know the actual #). My boy had them by the short ones.
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.
In my humble opinion an essential worker is worth more than a manager. Respect.
There ought to be a law!
With more responsibility comes bigger pay. I'm not saying that workers shouldn't get paid more, only pointing out the obvious.
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 :(
I agree, definitely not the same.
Me too. I support my healthy local food store Walmart. Their food is so healthy, it remains unchanged 3 months after buying it.
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.
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!
This is true for the ENTIRE Amazon corporation. YOU ARE the conveyor belt
quit your jobs and try roofing...or plumbing....or installing carpet....or framing a house...or pouring concrete driveways...all very reasonable, highly paid, easy...I mean, easy jobs that require little to no effort.....That's just my opinion....
@ all very loable jobs but that is not the point. For example Amazon pays their managers with their own stock which is taxed at 40% and paid in 4 installments during the year. This is the only way they get a wage increase. Is usually about .50 cts per/hr when you get the final amount and they work 12 hrs days on salary
@@witchesarcana542the point the other commenter is making is that there are options for everyone to walk away. The amount of money Amazon is pouring into automation at a dollar for dollar tax break tells me these stories will be a forgotten part of their company history soon.
Yes as Amazon worker, they will work you. They are not lying about the speed.
I literally quit after one shift. It’s exhausting work for little to no pay. The amount of food they waste instead of donating is horrifying.
I can imagine. I'm a seasoned dumpster diver and the waste is unconscionable. The Whole Foods near me has a compactor so you can't even see how much they're throwing out, but I know it's a lot. Shame on them.
Your store didn’t have a food bank pick up food? We had one come every morning when I worked at WFM. To think of all the food we donated every day going to waste makes me really sad- and we were one of the smallest stores in the company. I can’t imagine a bigger store throwing out even as much as we donated every day.
Apparently they worried abt getting sued, so they prefer to dump it 😕
Same lmao😂😂 I quit because I couldn't use earphones, like not even one in. Fuck that
@@Trem0rrrr WTF?
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.
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??
I so appreciate this generation. They have created the “age of transparency” our young people are our brightest and smartest. You guys are our future and I pray that you continue to deconstruct this mess you’ve been handed.
We need to support our local small businesses
True…I have been seeing that for quite a long time. I am grateful that my state government is really encouraging and supporting small businesses. I hope every state does that!!
It's already too late.
The damage was already one back when people supported evil wal.mart, then evil amazon & now go look around & tell me how many local small bizes are left.
This was all planned to bring down all companies worldwide.
You know the entire economy is being destroyed, right?
I can't even place hiring ads for freelancers anymore & I've been hiring since 2004. Every single freelance job site has banned me for either speaking the Truth, refusing to register a business which I never had to ever before, this is all new, or not obeying their slave demands that I ONLY communicate with my own staff outside of their site, again all new since the war started, or they started jacking up the fees so I can't afford it.
Oh, and evil FB has stopped me from being able to join or post in groups for all sorts of jobs, even local ones.
I'll repeat, this ALL started after the war started in March 2020.
Once the scam,demic died down, the evils went onto stage (who knows) to bring down all online businesses unless they are ones the evils own or control.
I bought NOTHING from Amazon this year. My total spend was just under $5K and NONE of it went to Amazon this year. Instead, I spent hundreds with local businesses, putting cash directly into the hands of the real live artisans.
@@meggarstang6761THANK YOU 🙏🏽
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
100%
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.
i know someone who worked at meats there for 5yrs, kept thinking things would change. they had to fight for a $1 yearly raise, saw so much food waste! The disrespect that managment showed them was unbearable. Like shift ending at 9pm but leaving at 11pm because no one would clean up their station, random employee disprespect, soaking wet feet, 15 min lunch break. Oh the worst was them trying NOT to pay for their cut limb on the blade during work hours which led to stiches & the doctor demanding a week off. This person was so done with life and literally hated everything. after quitting, i watched this person grow into someone who is appreciated and respected at their new job. they make 3x they did at wholefoods & WANT to work.
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.
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.
Boycotting Whole Foods for good now. I’m sick of these corrupt corporations.
Boycotts aren't enough. Lift.
@@jercos too many people ready to snitch for a quick payday that they’ll never receive. Boycotting is just fine.
Yeah, good luck.
Boycotting them for what?! For requiring people actually to work?
How is it corrupt
Whole Foods used to be my favorite store. Once Amazon acquired them, it was never the same.
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.
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.
“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.
I'm not surprised at this ugly corporate crap. I stopped going to Whole Paycheck years ago after Amazon bought it because the change was really obvious. The virtue signaling is disgusting. I do feel sorry for the employees. I hope they unionize! Thank you to those in this video who spoke out.
We noticed our wonderful, happy customer and employee-centric Whole Foods changed dramatically when the Amazon corporate mind-bend took over. We rarely shop at Whole Foods now. It is sad. And employees that once enjoyed their work as helpful, knowledgable and friendly employees now carry the drudge factor. Positivity and encouragement CRUSHED.
Yes!! The one in Cincinnati too!
Yes!!!!
Money is what matters. We are just numbers
I hate shopping at places where you can feel the employees misery.
I’m so proud of these people for not only speaking up to shed light on this horrible treatment but also for standing up and fighting back.
Corporate greed and technology will be the death of society.
The death of life on Earth and Earth itself!
Come on Jeff Bezos only makes $7.99 million an hour GIVE HIM A BREAK!!!
ALREADY IS AND THEY DON’T CARE
Its AMERICA bro,, companies are in business to MAKE MONEY. If it was your business you would have the SAME mentality.
@@johnpymn9869No, because at some point a person can only spend do much money. And to destroy thousands of people's lives so I can add another BILLION in profits is insane when you're already making BILLIONS.
I work in e-commerce and everything they say about that department is absolutely true. My co workers and I struggle to even catch our breathes sometimes. we are being rushed and pushed to finish orders within the the time frame but sometimes it’s just physically impossible from getting stopped by customers to having to pause your order to drop off a customers order to big crowds in the store. I use to love working in that department but all of these expectations are insane.
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.
What, you are smarter than Donald Trump? NO ONE IS!!!!
Come on Jeff Bezos only makes $7.99 million an hour GIVE HIM A BREAK!!!
AT&T CWA Local 9421 all day UNIONS WORK!
Walmart needs an enormous accountability check too.
AMEN!!!!
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!
@@this_isntmyname and even lesser at actual farmer's market & produce stands outside of gas stations
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.
Thank you so much for letting us know! I rarely shop at Whole Foods, but I will go out of my way to avoid it now. I'll let my family and friends know too. Terrible, terrible how they treat employees at WF and Amazon.
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.
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. 😂
Red flag: a corporation calling you a "team member"
YOU GUYS snd GALS at Whole Foods are SO AMAZING!!!! Thank YOU ALL for Your Service.❤
This made me emotional. I used to work at Whole Foods for 4 years, during the pandemic. It was brutal. I’m so proud of the TMs who are organizing. I wish them the best, and I will cry such happy tears when I hear of the first successful Whole Foods union.
Today's version of sweatshops
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
One of my store managers pulled my coworker into the office when she started wearing a mask during COVID, closed the door, and tried to intimidate her to not wear it because of “how it would look to the customers.”
Don't make union gods possible again. Make proper working conditions for the worker and the work. They are One.
Democracy doesn't work well at all. We still prefer form over function. Immature but old species we are.
The sheer GREED of these companies is truly repulsive.
Disagreeing with you, I don’t understand why people keep working for shitty people and or companies
@ That’s the whole point…sh***y companies shouldn’t be permitted to operate this way.
you do realize corporations exist to make money, right?
@ I have zero issues with profit. I take much offense to greed.
@@michaelyolch79 can you define greed?
I will no longer shop at Whole Foods, even though I always shop in person. Good luck unionizing!
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.
Good luck to all WF and Amazon workers in their efforts to organize. You guys are a huge collective bargaining unit. Own your power!
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.
This is disgusting to here. I’m sick of corporations being evil
Standing in solidarity with the Whole Foods workers!
What, you are smarter than Donald Trump? NO ONE IS!!!!
@@gregoryM8105 you mean you’d rather support a dictator than your fellow man? That shows how smart you are!
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!
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. 🎉
I left Whole Foods a month ago. It is the best decision I have ever made. Whole Foods changed when it was bought by Amazon. Instead of being about people, Whole Foods changed to being about metrics and numbers. Team Member were very happy and fulfilled and made a career out of Whole Foods before Amazon’s acquisition. People were proud to work for Whole Foods. I said to my Team Members that Whole Foods is the Saks of Grocery stores and it really was. Now Team Members are paid such a low wage that they truly don’t care about Whole Foods or what it means to be a part of such a company that cared about people. The turnover rate is so high, it is embarrassing. Management is told by higher managers to care only about metrics and numbers. The last straw for me was when they started lowering the benefits for Full Time Team Members, it was disappointing. Team Members are expected to meet all metrics regardless of how short staffed the team is. Now Whole Foods feels like a glorified warehouse work place. You can see it written all over the Team Members faces. I am glad I left.
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 cried the day I heard Amazon bought wholefood
I learned long ago that when a corporation calls their employees "Team or team members" they are setting them up for abuse by feigning a two way loyalty that does not and never will exist.
If I'm your employee, treat me well and I will reciprocate with honest work for pay.
That's it. I don't need you, the corporation pretending to be my friend.
Another, in an office environment, is when they convert you to salaried from being hourly. That's a setup for abuse like not paying for overtime!!
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.
🔴➡️ when you arrive at store, go to customer service ask them to page /corral the manager or dept manager to help you or bring someone with you
I am an empath. I realize when you have a corporation that cares about no one what I am about to say doesn't matter. However from a societal perspective it does. You have elderly and lonely, widowed people, and people who hate to leave their house because the world feels unsafe. However they have to eat. They WILL go to the grocery store. Sometimes the only interaction they have with humanity for that week will be talking to the cashier or someone working in the aisle. More and more we are becoming dehumanized widgets or a box on a spreadsheet. I am a fifties child and remember my dad having a weekly conversation with the butcher and staying up to date on his life and the life of the cashier. People KNEW each other at the grocery store. At the very least they touched base on the weekly personal news. Technology is wonderful in many ways, but it has not made us more humane or even promote basic decency.
Exactly, but if you try to say this to anyone, you're told that it's cutting into profits. That's all that matters now. And, of course, lonely & elderly no longer matter as far as today's society is concerned.
So that’s why it went from happy hippies to super grumpy people who hate their jobs. Whole Foods is not fun any longer.😕
Whole foods was always for upper class snobby hipsters
It still smells like hippy farts, so it hasn't changed that much.
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?
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.
last time i went there was 2 years ago with my mom and it was the worst grocery shopping experience i’ve ever had
So disgusting! The super rich DON’T care. Only 1 cares and that is God, Being, Spirit. NEVER believe a corporation cares.
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
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.
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.
This going to be the future of employment. Wait till these rich people enforce A I
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.
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.
I don't mind being a "soulless commodity" while working a job that is truly productive, especially if the product is absolutely essential. The working conditions should be optimal to perform the task, if the conditions can be controlled. The worker and the work is One.
After the work, I am Me and only Me.
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.
I used to love Whole Foods and Amazon. But now I'm seeing all the damage that this is doing.
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.
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?
I work in healthcare: Believe me they squeeze me all they can… ain’t just grocery stores
Thank you!! Hospitals are greedy too!
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.
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!
I worked at WFM from 2020-2021. I'm very glad there is someone telling this story
Thanks 🙏
The greed of corporations is beyond comprehension!
I have no respect for these vampires.
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
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
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.
Now I know why the personal shoppers are racing around like oblivious crackheads
Sad & dehumanizing. Really glad this video was made so people are treated humanely like we all should ❤
The convenience culture is breaking people. The class factor is not even a surprise.
Amazon needs a union!! Unionize, Unionize, Unionize, Unionize!!
If you try to create a union they'll just fire you
@@Jeff-mn2ws yeah, but the problem is that these fools drank the Kool-Aid and put the wolf in the WH. So good luck with any efforts to protect employees and consumers. We’re phucked.
Whole Foods used to be a (high) standard...I shows in more than a few ways that it HAS GONE DOWNHILL SINCE AQUIRED MY BEZOS!!! I go there very rarely anymore.
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?
Imagine having "ethically sourced" and "cruelty free" stickers everywhere while the literal staff around you is being abused 🤦🏾♀️
Great point!
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!
I applied at Whole Foods when I was 23. I wanted to be a cashier, but she only offered me a job bagging groceries. I declined and got a nanny job paying much more. The manager at Whole Foods got mad at me, called me, and snapped at me for taking a better pay job. 😒
Abuse at its finest. I’m surprised you didn’t report the manager
In all honesty I'm not sure anyone starts as a cashier. Source: Long ago I worked for a supermarket where I grew up, in Hawaii, called Foodland. I was a bagger and the word was, over time I'd get training to be a cashier. I believed this because the people I got to know there had started the same way I did, as baggers. That's kind of how supermarkets do things.
Wait.....what....awesome for you but WTF 😳
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
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 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
Whole food is so expensive. You have to be rich to shop there.
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.
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.
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.
Hope you found something better
This is part and parcel why MANY, not all but many, corporations want immigrants, either illegal or legal, to do this kind of work: less pay, no complaining, work faster, et al. This is mental , emotional, and physical abuse.
Kudos to the workers/whistleblowers for having none of this abuse any longer. Unionize.
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'
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.
write your Congressman
"Amazon-owned" explains it all
Witnessed a coworker go into epileptic seizure in the kitchen one day.
It was early morning and prior to store opening.
He hit his head on an oven as he collapsed and bled literally everywhere.
We administered aid until paramedics showed up.
And watched them wheel away someone we thought was dying.
Rather than address the issue and allow traumatized staff to go home… they quickly hosed down the area (including bits of his teeth) and opened the store like nothing happened.
No one spoke of it again.
And somehow he returned to work soon after.
That’s when I left.
Good luck, guys. You're fighting for more than yourselves. God bless you.
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.
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. 💗
“Surveillance is so intense I can’t breathe.”
MONITORED “By the second”
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.