Whole Foods Market Ethical Issues

The incident escalated on Twitter when a consumer tweeted a picture of pre-peeled oranges wrapped in plastic sold at Whole Foods, sarcastically criticizing the supermarket for wasting the plastic on the oranges that mother nature couldn’t

“find a way to cover” otherwise, highlighting and condemning how a business can negatively influence society by deteriorating the environment.

Although Whole Foods Market pulled the product down after apologizing and explaining that it was just an experiment with a seasonal product as “customers love the convenience that their cut product offers”, it didn’t stop a Twitter debate from happening, showcasing how society can positively influence a businesses’ behavior.

Some people condemned it was unethical of

b) Ethical implications related to this case:

Whole Foods Market’s core values include “satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers” as well as “practicing and advancing environmental stewardship”. Whole

Foods claimed that the pre-peeled oranges were aimed at customers who appreciated the convenience, but it seems that they are satisfying their consumers’ needs at the expense of the environment, as they are not only producing more waste, but also potentially wasting food, as the pre-peeled oranges would rot faster.

They are able to act on one of their core values, but contradicting themselves on another core value, making one wonder whether these core values are really at the heart of all their operations and management, or just another marketing practice to be manipulated whenever needed so as to differentiate from other competitors.

This brings forth the question of what makes a fair balance between satisfying one’s personal benefits and carrying out collective commitment towards our environment as a consumer? Although we are pre-occupied by our busy lives and want to save time, we should not forget our responsibility in being a good corporate citizen

Although Whole Foods has already apologized and pulled the product off their shelves, they should do more to satisfy those consumers who voiced out that they needed these pre-peeled oranges due to their disability. They could produce a few pre-peeled oranges and then use the discarded orange peels as fertilizers, so as to minimize the impact on the environment. Also, Whole Foods should prevent such an incident from happening again, not only for oranges, but also for other fruit and even other products. They should evaluate how they can minimize food packaging and do thorough marketing research before conducting “experiments” to test their hypothesis of what the consumers really need and want.

One could argue that fundamentally society is to blame as Whole Foods was only trying to satisfy consumers’ needs to make more profit – which is any corporation’s end-goal. It is the society who has shaped these needs, as people’s emphasis on speed and convenience has encouraged supermarkets to introduce pre-packaged and processed food, such as pre-cut vegetables or shredded cheese. Even if that is true, some smart consumers have started questioning this norm and already