Boycott Whole Foods

I used to work at the Staples office supply chain back in high school, and we were experiencing a tag-team bandit duo hitting all the stores in the area. The "shopper" would go up to the customer service desk and start hootin' and hollerin' about some sort of discrimination while the other would take a shopping cart over to the expensive goods, like ink and printers. When the employees would be distracted, #2 would bolt out the fire escape to a car waiting, toss in the loot, and take off. The "shopper" would act stunned, 'give up, and walk out.

The chain lost nearly $5,000 in a week from this.

I told my manager that, if this happened, I was going to head to the tech section fire exit and post there. Once I was satisfied that no one in tech was giving themselves a five finger discount, I'd go to the desk and, as the biggest guy (and often the only guy) on the shift, I would ensure the safety of my colleuges.

My boss told me that I should never forget that I was prohibited from making physical contact with a customer, no matter what. I reminded him that once they started stealing, they ain't no customer, and I was going to stop them. I also told him that, in the event of a robbery, I would take any action that was open to be to ensure no one, except the perp, got hurt.

I guess this went up to the regional manager, and I almost got "separated" as a liability, but instead I got a good talking to about following policy. Apparently, a similar company was sued some amount when a would-be robber tried to run and got tackled, but never made it out of the store. As such, they were still able to make the choice to pay before it became a crime leaving the premises, and the employee had committed assault and battery.

Well, from then on out, I promised to spear tackle the dirty crook right off the curb, just for flair, once he stepped two feet out the door.

If you've ever shopped at Whole Foods, aka Whole Paycheck, $346 is a head of lettuce and a beet.

I would have thought that the fact that the manager called for help means that it should fall on the manager. After all, the manager is responsible for implementing corporate policy, not the lower employees. But I'm sure the guys implementing the policy are beancounters, so common sense doesn't apply.

That said, Whole Foods' policy is correct, given the current laws: Unless they go strictly by law in how they apprehend a shoplifter, they will be sued and the shoplifter will get off scott free. And if the employee got hurt apprehending someone and there is no policy in place, they could sue their boss.

As I understand it, there's a series of steps the store has to take (observe the perp take the items, observe the perp conceal the items, confront the perp after he has left the building, etc) before they can act and then certain steps they have to take to actually apprehend the person. Employees would have to be properly trained to be reasonably certain that they could do it, and probably sign waivers in case they were hurt. Given that training all the employees this way is probably fairly expensive, I can't see how they're going to change this policy.

I sent a nastygram to the management from the web site; please do the same.

While this is awful, I think this is store policy. I have worked retail before, and they usually have a policy of just giving it up, and talking to the police later. Though the fact that he was a Marine should have made it different, because they know how to deal with bad guys.

My wife (Navy) and I (former Air Force) talked about this back when it hit the news... there's nothing wrong with Whole Foods' policy, and nothing wrong with what Mr. Schultz did.

The problem arises with the definition of the zipperhead shoplifter as a "customer".

Customers pay money for goods and services, this idiot didn't. And taking a point from Andrew's post above, he was clearly detained afterhe'd had an opportunity to pay.

Not everyone who walks into your store is actually a customer. People who spend long enough in retail know this... it's just not always foremost in your mind.

Let me throw some cold hard reality on this patriotic act. Unless you are willing to be killed in the act of saving a bag a groceries for a corporation that could care less about you, then you better think twice about getting close to a thief. If you are not carrying a handgun, then don't get within 25 feet of the bum. He can kill you. Then you will be dead. Dead is bad. Read below and tell me if you think this dead guy would do it again. It happened in Nashville about a week ago. A hardened criminal stole a purse and good samaritan was going to save the day. It cost him his life.

Police said 54-year-old Jerry McEwen, of Nashville, died at a hospital shortly after the incident about 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Police said the woman’s purse was stolen by a man in the parking lot after putting her groceries in her car. The man was described by police as black, in his mid-40s, wearing camouflage pants and shirt with dreadlocks in his hair.

McEwen saw what happened and chased the robber until the man turned on him and stabbed him in the chest.

“The suspect got into a older model SUV, possibly a Bronco II, two-tone in color, burgundy bottom and a silver top. It was driven by a woman. She is described as a white woman with sandy brown hair,” said Metro police spokeswoman Kristin Mumford.

The Kroger’s surveillance video caught some images of the robber. Kroger is offering a $10,000 reward for any information leading to a conviction of the robber.

Kroger surveillance image
Kroger surveillance image
Kroger surveillance video captured the accused attacker. More

Kroger also offered its condolences to the man’s family.

The 52-year-old Williams was granted parole from the state prison system in May, and is on supervised parole until 2013.

He was convicted in Hickman County in 1983 on a charge of assault with intent to murder, armed robbery and two weapons violations in Madison County. In 1984, he was convicted of assault with intent to murder in Hickman County.

Hudson is 36 and served prison time for a 1999 forgery conviction in Marshall County.

There is something very wrong with your society when thieves have more rights than employees.

Societies with such backwards values can't be healthy.

Nicholas, for that you can thank the liberals, the ACLU and all the ambulance chasers. Every move, as stupid as it is, is done as a CYA because of our overly litigious society. It's pretty disgusting.

Here's the link to send a comment about their "corporate policy":

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/contact/contact.html

Strict business decision here

Don't do multiple steps exactly right, perp wins in court costs you judgment , legal fees , plus staff time in court

Even worse if you somehow bust the wrong guy or goof it up

The loss is a tax write off, if losses pile up temporary hire visible guard staff till threat level goes back down

Whole Foods? Go to Wegmans!

The manager is a frigging clown to yell for help and then let the perp go. Then again, it sounds like the corporate policy is stupid, so the manager is making the only rational choices given the conditions. The stupidity lies in treating criminals like customers. And what if a real customer has a heart attack, or chokes on a tofu cube? Are the employees supposed to let him or her just flop around and die?

WF has some good chow, but from now on I'll be going to Wegmans.

And a Marine I know is married to a WF corporate staffer, so I'll pass this on if he hasn't seen it already.

I'd like to be on a jury where some scumbag shoplifter is suing either the store or the guy who tackled him. What the hell is the matter with these people, awarding money to dirtbag criminals?

"Schultz was fired because he violated a company policy prohibiting employees from having any physical contact with a customer."

NO... HE was FIRED for having physical contact with a SHOPLIFTER.

A SHOPLIFTER is not a CUSTOMER, you morons at Whole Foods.

A good citizen, yes. A smart one, no.

As someone stated above, my life is a helluva lot more valuable than a bag of groceries.

The problem is, what the h*ll kind of trial judge lets criminals go into court and sue for injuries caused by their lawbreaking. (Or higher courts reinstating such lawsuits) These things should be thrown out of court and their attorneys should be fined for frivolous lawsuits.

Good thing I don't shop at Whole Foods to begin with.

All,

I will admit up front a bias in this story. I am the "Marine of a WF corporate staffer" referenced by LtCol P below.

Here's a news flash for everyone: grocery shopping ain't combat. When you leave our beloved Corps, you get to play by a different set of rules, namely those of your employer and your local community. If Whole Foods has a stated corporate policy (and it does), and the employee (former Marine or not) violates that policy, he or she has opened themselves up for disciplinary action. This is where - in my opinion - the leadership and experience of the store management will hopefully kick in. If I were that manager, I would have probably given him a verbal warning - namely to "maintain good order and discipline" (anybody remember that phrase?), as well as to legally cover my employer by properly upholding the stated polcy. I would NOT have fired him, unless there were some other issues against him which the media or the employee failed to report. Nonetheless, the store manager - while going to an extreme punishment - was within his legal boundaries to do so. If this guy was fired because he was a former Marine, then I'd get word to the WFM CEO - trust me - and the gloves would be off. Take the fact that this guy is a former Marine out of it; would you be calling to boycott Whole Foods?

Finally, I think having that policy may be wholly logical in this sense: as an employer, you do not want to put your employees or other customers in peril over a freaking bag of groceries. Besides opening yourself up to legal issues ("Whole Foods customer killed in confrontation with cashier; family suing" doesn't look great), it is - after all - A BAG OF GROCERIES.

Want an example of how things can go wrong? How about San Antonio this morning:

Customer Killed Trying to Stop Ski Mask-Donning Thief During Convenience Store Hold-up http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=27014

Sorry, all. While I disagree with the severity of the punishment (with the limited information we all have as readers of the story), I do agree with the store policy.

Semper Fi,

Drifter 5

Just notified WF that my $100 per week is being spent elsewhere. I understand the policy and can't blame them for putting it in place, but agree with the previous post that a shoplifter shouldn't be considered a customer.