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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Food Whole Foods Plays Dirty

Posted by Patrick Alan Coleman on Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 3:47 PM

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Whole Foods Market is in a battle with the Federal Trade Commission regarding whether it can proceed with a merger with now defunct Wild Oats (if you ask me it looks like it already has), and for some reason, New Seasons has been caught in the middle.

When Wild Oats was gobbled up by Whole Foods, the folks from New Seasons didn't have much to say about it. They've been dragged into the fight by attorneys from Whole Foods who have now subpoenaed sensitive business records from New Seasons. The documents requested include anything related to market research, plans for new stores, and analyses related to competition. Apparently, this is something Whole Foods can do because of the struggle with the FTC.

The whole thing isn't sitting well with New Season CEO, Brian Rohter who suggested, in a post on the New Seasons blog, that he may not obey the subpoena:

Of course I asked what would happen if we refused. The answer was that we could be held in contempt of court and subject to large fines or even jail time. In case anyone is planning on visiting me there, I really love doing the daily Oregonian crossword and also M&M Peanuts. (My wife Eileen doesn't think this is very funny.)

The battle has continued to play out on Portland Food and Drink.com, with Whole Foods releasing a statement that the documents would only be seen by attorneys and others on the legal team, and Rohter releasing a response in which he essentially calls "bullshit."

Will Rohter be hit with a fine for not complying? Will he land in jail? Whatever happens, he's the kind of bad-ass, local-loving CEO that I can get behind. Plus he runs a bevy of the friendliest stores in town!

 

Comments (8) RSS

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1
yay! what a badass. Thanks for covering this.
Posted by gabriel amadeus on December 3, 2008 at 5:11 PM · Report
2
I don't get it. Does New Seasons have ANYTHING to do with Whole Foods? Or is Whole foods just pulling the ultimate dick move? Seriously, I am clueless here.
Posted by Cory G on December 3, 2008 at 5:20 PM · Report
3
@thelastfewdays: That's precisely what New Seasons is trying to figure out: wtf do they have to do with it? It sounds like they're just using it as an excuse to nab a bunch of info from their competitor. So, yeah, dick move, Phantom Limb.
Posted by tk. on December 3, 2008 at 6:51 PM · Report
4
okay, little beirut, time to go show whole foods what we think of this... the peta folks eventually ran schumacher out of town. we can do the same to whole foods. make it rather unpleasant to shop there, you know...
Posted by Mikey Golightly on December 4, 2008 at 12:34 AM · Report
5
doesn't seem that anyone sees the real villain here; the Bush administration's FTC -- which allows HUGE mergers in other industries (e.g. there is only one satellite radio co. now) -- and is hassling wfm about the trivial wild oats purchase . . . the point being shown here IS that New Season's valid competition and has not suffered. ask why does the FTC even care?
Posted by gretta on December 4, 2008 at 6:47 AM · Report
6
I don't know that Sirius buying XM is such a good example considering there were only 2 satellite radio companies out there in the first place but screw Whole Foods. The boycott is on like donkey kong.
Posted by BlackedOut on December 4, 2008 at 7:45 AM · Report
7
So an Ok'd monopoly is not a good example? And the FTC should sue WFM then because you want to boycott them? The blogger must be a new season's employee, because your own 'logic' is irrational. I guess being predictably irrational leads to a non-fact-based worldview . . . the FTC is spending (a lot of) your tax dollars -- no concern there?
Posted by gretta on December 4, 2008 at 10:27 AM · Report
8
Note to self, never, ever shop at Whole Foods again (not that I did very often, but on that off chance I'm at 28th and Burnside......)
Posted by setya on December 4, 2008 at 2:16 PM · Report

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