JASON RANTZ

Young workers won’t be able to keep up with Whole Foods

Sep 29, 2015, 5:19 PM | Updated: Sep 30, 2015, 10:17 am

Whole Foods is known as “Whole Paycheck” and now they’re doing something about it...

Whole Foods is known as "Whole Paycheck" and now they're doing something about it, but it's coming at the expense of some workers. (AP)

(AP)

Whole Foods is known as “Whole Paycheck” and now they’re doing something about it, but it’s coming at the expense of some workers.

About 1,500 workers will be laid off nationwide. That’s 1.6 percent of their workforce. The company is going to use the savings to bring down the cost of food and other goods being sold.

Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb said the food industry is undergoing a “tectonic shift” during the Fortune Brainstorm E conference.

“Part of the kind of evolution of the company we’re going through is to free up some money to invest in lower prices, marketing communication, and technology upgrades – so it was a very difficult day,” Robb said.

And it’s pretty important to understand this move in the greater context of workers, because at the end of the day, businesses are only interested in one thing: making a profit.

Even the most progressively-run businesses are concerned with making a profit, without it, they wouldn’t be in business.

“It’s exciting, because we’re seeing the world move towards a more sustainable place,” Robb explained.

And that costs money, too. Money they’d rather invest in things other than the people who aren’t worth the money they’re demanding.

“I think what you look at is how this world has changed with respect to what’s been accomplished and what’s still to go,” Robb said. “All the growth in the food industry now is on this side of the ledger. That’s double-digit growth in organics, double-digit growth in sustainable farming.

“What I see is a marketplace which is somewhere south of a billion – trillion dollar supermarket industry … There’s plenty of business to go get. We’re just going to need to make that evolution to go get it. We’re still growing 38 to 40 new stores a year. We continue to build out our new 365 brand which will open up in April.”

The amount of profit depends on the business. You’ve got small businesses trying to make a profit for their families. Then you have businesses like Whole Foods trying to make profit to expand. Whole Foods is expanding their brand, they’re opening stores all across the country, they’re creating these spin-off stores where it’s a bit cheaper &#8212 a store is opening soon in Bellevue.

It comes at a time where customers aren’t willing to pay much more for the product or service. You have a bunch of people who haven’t earned more money. They’re willing to change the laws to line their pockets.

They think they’re owed a wage where they’ll be comfortable. It’s a symptom of the entitlement complex that this generation suffers from. It’s a younger generation of social justice majors who are making this push, trying to save the day for the single mom with four kids working two jobs.

In reality, the minimum wage workers are 16 to 24 year olds making minimum wage because they lack the skills making them worth an investment from the company.

It’s this group of kids demanding more money because they’ve been coddled by parents their entire life into thinking they’re owed something and they’ve been propagandized by their radical professors into hating big, evil corporations.

These kids are driving this and it’s happening right here in Seattle, specifically, with the kids over at the University of Washington.

Terry Farrow, with a union on campus told KING 5, the recent adoption of a $15 minimum wage at UW is a win for students.

“Our union represents the RAs and the TAs but we also represent the readers, graders, and tutors on campus and many of them make minimum wage,” she said. “This was a huge win for sure.”

We’re teaching kids they shouldn’t earn a raise. We’re teaching kids to think their worth is higher than it is. We’re now pretending that some tutor in a student center is worth $15 an hour.

And you let it happen. We let it happen.

Every undeserved win for these students will end up butting heads with the business reality and these people are going to lose.

Jason Rantz on AM 770 KTTH
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Young workers won’t be able to keep up with Whole Foods