Comments on: Taking on the FTC in a Corporate Blog

By: Easton Ellsworth

Easton Ellsworth — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 16:09:30 +0000

Very nice to see a CEO talking so openly and clearly on a corporate blog. Thanks for the story, Brad!

By: kip

kip — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 01:45:29 +0000

This is so lame. The FTC is going after these guys, why? They are grocey stores. Good luck on the monopoly charge when I cna go to (instert major box retailer here) and buy a myriad of comp products. Stupid. Such a political move by the politcially swayed FTC.

The real story should be some where else, not this.

By: James D Kirk

James D Kirk — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:16:48 +0000

Mackey, while he doesn’t post very often, does do a lot of good stuff with his blog. More CEO’s should probably not only read his stuff, but even learn something from it!

By: Mike Cote

Mike Cote — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:01:03 +0000

I find it ludicrous that the FTC is trying to block this deal. I liked the idea of Wild Oats finally getting to have a brand-new store right across the street from Whole Foods in Boulder.

That said, both those chains face a bigger threat from conventional grocers than from each other, as Mackey argues. If I want to buy a half-gallon of Silk, it’s right there at my neighborhood Safeway.

It’s good to see a CEO taking “transparency” to such a public level. The founder of our company, Pat Weisner, recently blogged about transparency as a management issue:
http://www.cobizmag.com/blogs.asp?action=blog&blog=1

By: bill

bill — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:53:22 +0000

From yesterday’s WSJ, Page A16, the article “Granola and Antitrust”,

“Maybe the FTC is responding to heat from Capitol Hill to show it’s on the job, but pandering to Congress has never made for good antitrust policy. Whole Foods says it will battle the FTC in court, and the case will make for some entertaining jujitsu as Mr. Mackey argues that his stores aren’t as unique as his marketing materials suggest, while the FTC pleads that the merger will make Whole Foods less unique and more expensive at the same time. Such are the absurdities of modern antitrust policy.”

Mackey is a great PR guy – public idealist and private libertarian, and got caught up trying to be all things to all people, but the bottom line is this is yet another absurd antitrust investigation. It would be a shame to see some local stores close here in Boulder (Boulder has I think 4 Wild Oats derived-stores serving local neighborhoods), but the market is moving fast enough to continue competition amongst the remining retailers.