"WholeFoods" news and stories

In 2007, Whole Foods' controversial and colorful CEO, John Mackey, reduced his salary to $1 a year, and has continued to keep his salary low. The value of his total compensation (including bonuses), however, shot up from $33,831 in fiscal 2008 to $653,671, according to the Associated Press. (The large increase over last year's bonus is mainly the result of Mr. Mackey being paid out in 2009 for assets that were frozen in 2006 when he announced his salary reduction.)

Mackey donated the after-tax proceeds of his 2009 compensation -- $379,636 -- to Global Animal Partnership, an animal welfare group that's "committed to working collaboratively to improve the lives of farm animals," according to a statement on the organization's website. Wonder how Mackey chose the group? It turns out that he's on the board.

Whole Foods Market recalled organic raw hazelnuts on Saturday on fears they could be contaminated with salmonella.

The recall affects whole hazelnuts sold in bulk in California, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Washington. The hazelnuts, also called filberts, were sold in the store from Oct. 12 onward.

Whole Foods also recalled non-organic dry roasted hazelnuts sold in bulk in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington and non-organic raw hazelnuts sold in bulk in Oregon and Washington.

Black widow spider. Photo: Ian Waldie, Getty Images.

Talk about sour grapes!

Toronto resident Brett James was reaching into his refrigerator to grab his wife a snack when he found a black widow spider lurking under the bag of grapes he'd purchased at the local Whole Foods Market, the Toronto Star reports. He thinks the poisonous spider came in with the grapes.

"When I lifted the bag, the spider was underneath, just sitting on top of another bag in the refrigerator," James tells Slashfood. "I wasn't sure exactly what it was, and I had heard stories before, so something was in the back of my head that it could be serious."

He lifted the spider out of the fridge on a paper towel and put it in a plastic container. After poking around on the Internet, he said he identified it as a black widow, a spider whose venom can cause muscle cramps, tremor and chest pain.

After college, I took a job bussing tables at a very high-end restaurant attached to a very expensive country inn near my hometown. It was the kind of place where you had to stand with your arms spread at the beginning of a shift and submit to having the maitre d' inspect your cuffs and the knot in your tie (even women had to wear ties).

I'd been working there for a few weeks when I noticed that employees were throwing away massive platters of food from the wedding buffets that took place nearly every weekend afternoon -- I'm talking untouched trays of smoked salmon, artichoke hearts, blinis with caviar and mini lemon souffles. I also noticed that the wait staff would pour the remaining pitchers of fresh-squeezed orange juice straight down the sink after brunch. Finally, I asked the head waiter why we didn't just save the food to eat at employee mealtime.

"Because, if we allowed employees to eat leftover food, pretty soon you'd all be eating whatever you wanted straight out of the fridge," he told me sniffily.

What, like untrained dogs?! I gave my two weeks notice the next day.

I was reminded of that incident when I read this New York Times post, about a man fired from Whole Foods for trying to save and eat a tuna fish sandwich that was about to be thrown away. Whole Foods claimed that the man's behavior was "misconduct," which means, in addition to having lost his job, he'd be denied unemployment benefits. The man, Ralph Reece, challenged the misconduct ruling and won.

Good for him, I say. Not only is keeping employees from eating leftover food degrading and wasteful, the "misconduct" charges were, according to Reece's lawyer, souped up in order to save Whole Foods money for not having to pay unemployment. And this from a company that is supposed to be one of the best places in America to work!

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As anyone who has ever entered a Whole Foods knows, it is painfully easy to spend money in that store. I often walk in with budget-friendly list and a promise to myself not to impulse shop. However, the sight of the produce section lulls me into a fugue state that I don't snap out of until I'm paying for my purchases, horrified that I've taken such a big bite out of my checking account but unable to do anything to alter course.

It appears that the tightening economy is starting to hurt Whole Food's coffers, as they've issued a web coupon in the hopes of luring people back into their stores. If you spend at least $25, this coupon will save you $5. Not a bad deal at all. You can find the coupon here (don't try to print the image that accompanies this post, it's not the entire coupon).

[via Eat]

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