The Whole Foods Mega Buckwheat and Soy Bean grocery chain has decided that the cons outweigh the pros of being a socially conscious entity by basically becoming the poster child for retreating political correctness. How, you say?
By deciding that the big, bad conservative blog community should lead their marketing endeavors.
As the Huffington Post reports, on July 27, the food chain introduced a special promotion for the month of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims beginning Aug. 1, on their blog, Whole Story, which featured special recipes and product giveaways for the month, and also coincided with a new halal-certified product line in their stores.
While touted as being a pioneer in efforts to include Islamic-based marketing in their stores, some said the move was a bit risky.
And without fail, the campaign spurred a reaction from right-wing bloggers like Debbie Schlussel, whose blog entry titled “Anti-Israel Whole Foods Wishes You a Happy Ramadan,” marked the beginning of a controversy that ended with Whole Foods retreating under the scrutiny of Schlussel a self-proclaimed “expert” on radical Islam/Islamic terrorism, Fox News contributor and veritable jihadist quester, and those like her. Which is exactly what the coven of right-wing bloggers named Whole Foods in their commentary — “jihadist” and “anti-Israel.”
So what does the normally diverse, accepting, hippie-friendly company say in response? Tuesday, the Houston Press published a report wherein an internal Whole Foods email was exposed which said:
“It is probably best that we don’t specifically call out or ‘promote’ Ramadan … We should not highlight Ramadan in signage in our stores as that could be considered ‘Celebrating or promoting’ Ramadan.”
In addition, the email indicated that, “The misinterpretation has generated some negative feedback from a small segment of vocal and angry consumers and bloggers.”
No, the marketing generated negative feedback from a small segment of Tea-Partiers and Islamophobes. There is a difference.
Whole Foods has now found themselves facing backlash caused by this capitulating flip-flopping from others who took to their blogs and Twitter to voice their disappointment in the company, including author, Jill Carroll, who renamed the company “Whole Cowards” for showing such little resistance when a mere fraction of the consumer public dared express dismay (read: hatred) by their actions. Whole Foods has taken to their twitter feed to reset and disavow statements made internally claiming that it was an isolated response.
We are still carrying and promoting halal products for those that are celebrating Ramadan this month. We never sent a communication from our headquarters requesting stores take down signs or remove parts from this promotion. We have 12 different operating regions and unfortunately, one region reacted by sending out directions to promote halal and not specifically Ramadan after some negative online comments.
Is Schlussel, Anti-Islamic shill, and otherwise odious human being satisfied? No, not at all. Of course not.
What’s really happening here is that Whole Foods is upset that my articles on its anti-Israel Palestinian Terrorist Olive Oil promotion and partnership sending kids to HAMAS University have been gaining traction and making waves repeatedly in the two years since I posted them. And they are having a resurgence now. Whole Foods is losing pro-Israel and anti-terrorism customers. So, it’s making up this “bigot Schlussel made us cancel Ramadan in-store promotions we never planned in the first place” BS, in order to win sympathy and gloss over the real issue here, which is that Whole Foods is anti-Israel, helps fund terrorism through its Palestinian Olive Oil promotion.
What? Palestinian Terrorist Olive Oil promotion?! I just… I can’t even. That’s just too hilarious for words.
What do you think? Cowards or smart business?
