I just signed up and registered on the Whole Foods Forum, posted a thread under their "Food Politics" area, and it was deleted! Threads are being deleted or locked so that no opinions can be posted on their forum.
As a PR professional I can tell you this much, really bad mistake to not only put the editorial in the WSJ, epic failure to then go ahead and delete threads posted by people who are upset with your actions.
UPDATE: I just ventured over to the Food Politics forum and EVERY single thread denouncing the editorial by Mackey has been deleted.
UPDATE II: I did get through to a live person by calling their main number and not pushing any buttons (the voice says stay on the line for an operator).
The woman I talked to was VERY NICE and said that the calls are all coming in against the editorial, keep the CALLS coming because they are counting them (and the poor woman on the line was disgusted with the editorial as well, and from what I could tell was not a happy employee.)
NUMBER to CALL: 512.477.4455
More...
UPDATE III: The center does not hold at the WF forum lol EVERY topic now has numerous threads on the editorial. If WF had nust let the ONE thread that was continue to allow comments none of this would be happening.
Wow...epic, simply epic failure. Call, write, distribute and boycott whole foods.
The thread I posted basically stated that I would never shop at the Whole Foods that is being built near me, and that I would make sure to spread the word far and wide that Whole Foods is NOT consumer friendly.
So, if you have a few minutes, sign up over at Whole Foods, post a new thread in their "Food Politics" section, post a few comments on other threads and remind Whole Foods that deleting the threads is going to end up being as big a story as the editorial.
Also, please make sure to let everyone you know about both issues with Whole Foods: their CEO and the fact that they are deleting any discussion on their forum.
So, we not only have the CEO of Whole Foods exposing himself and alienating his customer base, but now we have them using totalitarian methods in trying to control freedom of speech, and this from a CEO that was using the constitution to tell us what rights we have, funny how he forgot Freedom of Speech (or was that just something he doesn't like?)
Now I am even MORE mad, and will get out even more information on what Whole Foods is about.
Take action, let people know because this story can clearly help us win the health care battle.