www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/rachel_johnson/article1908935.ece
Sitemap From The Sunday Times June 10, 2007 The hippie shakedown By Rachel Johnson Perhaps it was because I failed to consult the US-owned Whole Foods Market in-house feng shui guru when it came to the timing of my first visit to its new 80,000 sq ft superstore. Perhaps it was because an area the size of Wembley stadium was full of pregnant women in smocky tops, cooing over organic babygros. Perhaps it was because the queues to pay were long and the prices were high. Perhaps it was because I was a total sucker for the create-your-own-muesli bar and the dewy displays of vibrant, wholesome, fresh things to put in my mouth. Perhaps it was because I was so enthralled by the woman who told me that if I made my own hummus from "blitzing" raw chickpea sprouts, lemon, olive oil and garlic in my Cuisinart, then I would be eating the dip "at the peak of its energy", that I bought three packs of raw sprouting pulses, which is three more packs of raw sprouting pulses than I've ever bought in my whole life. I admit it, I don't like Pret a Manger so much now it's in bed with McDonald's. I don't like the idea of Stony yoghurt (you know, the yoghurt on a mission that is going to save the planet, according to Gary Hirshberg, the CE-yo) so much as I did before I learnt that Groupe Danone owns four-fifths of his dairy company, whose no doubt delicious products include Consciously Caramel and Sustainably Strawberry. We're not going to save the planet if we buy more stuff, we're just going to make hippie capitalists even richer than they are already. Which is fine - and I'm really glad that it's Peter Simon, Richard Branson, Anita Roddick, Julian Metcalfe, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Ben and Jerry, and all the other beardie, sandal-wearing, kitchen-table, West Coast, dropout start-ups that are doing so well. These guys really do want to keep it funky, and walk the talk, and Ben and Jerry do give 75% of their pretax profit to their foundation, just as Gates is a certain candidate for sainthood. But however socially responsible these entrepreneurs remain as individuals, we can't pretend that, once a critical mass has been reached, and they go public, that their companies are that different from say, Wal-Mart or Tesco (especially now that Sir Terry (Leahy) is so competitive, I mean so green, that he is carbon-labelling and has copyrighted the Tesco Wholefoods brand). They are subject to the same shareholder pressure as Marks & Sparks, and the same tight corporate accounting laws - especially since the imposition of Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 in the US - as any other quoted company. Though the head guy, John Mackey, wears open-toed sandals and keeps chickens, and doesn't draw a salary, and has declared at his Texan ranch that he has enough money and his "deeper motivation is to try to do good in the world", he still wants to open 40 UK stores and take on the supermarkets. In fact, as he admits, he closed down Fresh & Wild, a popular if ridiculously chi-chi shop selling tofu tempura to yummy mummies and supermodels and concerned celebrities, to which most people walked, merely in order to drive custom towards his flagship store over a mile away on a busy, brand-outleted, high street. I don't call that "local, ethical, sustainable and humane", which are supposed to be Whole Foods corporate buzzwords. I don't call closing down a shop in order to guarantee footfall and traffic at another store evidence that the company cares about the two-part bottom line traditionally so dear to hippie capitalists (your balance sheet measures not just financial results but the degree to which the community's concerns dictate business decisions). But it would be wrong to say that - despite so much evidence - all the hippie capitalists sell out to big business in the end, and all they do is sow their wild oats and reap their harvest on Wall Street. Anything hip and attractive and fresh and cute is going to attract the flattering attentions of big business. Everyone - even pony-tailed rebels in Birkenstocks - has their price. And if we ethical shoppers really wanted to make a difference, and reject consumerism, big or small, we wouldn't go shopping at all. We'd move to the countryside, go off-grid, and raise our own livestock, and grow our own sprouting chickpeas, and write books about it, la Henry David Thoreau, which is what the really cutting-edge sustainable greenorexics are doing now. As I left Whole Foods, on foot, of course, and loaded with bags, I could feel the force, the chi that was flowing up and down the escalators, from the bread hall at the entrance past the coffee bar with not one but three mission statements (Respect for the Earth . Enjoyment in the Cup - which is quite a lot for one single espresso to live up to) down to produce and treatment hall in the basement, and reaching full strength as it rose to the first-floor oyster bar and sushi counter and pizza parlour and organic pub. I could feel the force as I read the motto on the walls, Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet - our vision reaches beyond food retailing. In fact, our deepest purpose as an organisation is helping support the health, wellbeing, and healing of both people - customers, team members, and business organisations in general - and the planet. For those of you who still can't tell your Ba Gua (a Chinese philosophy) from your Ba Zhai (a type of feng shui), this is the life force that facilitates the making of money and financial gain, naturally. Those of us who remain in the market economy, have to face it. These days counterculture and business culture are, as a quick trip to the cathedral of consumerism that is Whole Foods will confirm, one and the same thing.
Have your say For the record ben & Jerry are east coast sandal wearing hippies. William, Nashua, NH USA If you believe inherent evilness of corporations, you will necessarily be suspicious of this new hippie capitalism. Since any profit motive is evil, it stands to reason that any appearance of goodness is an illusion -- the devil cites scripture for his own purpose. But the author is wrong that hippie capitalists will eventually sell-out. They have already "sold out", because they don't believe in an intrinsic conflict between profit motive and morality. She is skeptical that a corporation can genuinely be committed to sustainability -- are we to suppose that they are actually committed to unsustainability? How does a collapsing ecosystem further the financial interests of a corporation? Hippie capitalism is nothing but the shedding of romanticized solutions and waking up to reality. Charles Glicken, Chicago, IL Once again boomers and wanna be hippies are suckered into the halcyon days that never were when mankind all held hands in peace and harmony and the world was a better more peaceful place. Those are the delusions of a drug addled misspent youth. Now that they have matured (some) and sold out at the alter of Capitalism after professing to never worry about material things while passing the bong at their ashram of choice, they are trying to assuage their guilt by "being responsible". The nursing home beckons boomers go into the white light. Lincoln, Washington DC, Do I detect the faintest whif of journalistic cuteness, the slightest taste of sour grapes? I live in Brittany, and would give at least one pair of battered Birkenstocks for a clean, progressive, well-stocked, fresh-smelling, innovative Wholefoods, instead of a smelly, out-of-stock, dirty Le Clerc, hippie capitalists or no. Thank goodness for weekly markets, out in the fresh air. But no, aren't the stall-holders just the tiniest bit like mini-hippie capitalists? I mean, organic (sometimes) or no, they are there to make a profit, non? KWilson, Dinan, France The Buzzword used in the write up,"hippie capitalist" is interesting, intrigue but more like a weasel word. So far so fine, with breed of honchos like Bill Gates, Anita Roddick , Steve Jobs and other such billionaires being categorised as "capitalists" but Richard Branson being one such personality who exudes a "hippie" touch. He is a visionary, a sharp-eyed yet swashbuckling person with astute and acumen towards busin...
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