Camera Phones, Cheese and Whole Foods
December 6th, 2007There has been a lot of talk about about the new Whole Foods blogging policy, which bans executives from blogging. This policy is a direct result of the CEO/Founder John Mackey’s unscrupulous thrashings of then competitor Wild Oats under an alias (”rahodeb”). For those of you who are not familiar with Whole Foods, it is a great grocery store, with a reputation for selling high-quality organic foods, and is a kind of hub for a lot of the “save the planet” types.
Former employee and marketing guru John Moore does a great job of keeping tabs on the culture behind Whole Foods and the latest developments, so I won’t go into more detail on the blog policy scandal. I am going to talk about a different policy, which to me is more shocking.
It just so happens, the closest grocery store for me personally is the Whole Foods flagship store, located just under their headquarters in Austin. This is probably one of the nicest grocery stores in the world and I shop there on a regular basis. Like Steve Rubel, and many others, I use my camera phone to assist in the shopping experience. I take pictures of products I like so I can remember them when I come back to the store. As I cruise the aisles, I usually try new foods in the product demonstration kiosks. If I like the product, and they offer a recipe, I will make use of my camera phone to make a qipit, so I know where to find it later. I am also doing my part to save a tree, even if it is only a sapling!
Click the thumbnail to see the recipe:
A while back, I was in the cheese section of the store. I tried a few cheeses and picked a mighty tasty French cheese called Gabietou (Pronounced gah-bee-ay-too). As a native Texan, I am a little language impaired. You’ve heard W speak right? “How can I possibly remember this French name that I cannot pronounce.” I ask myself. The answer for me is that I compensate for my impairment by using technology. In this case, my trusty LG EnV with a sweet 2 megapixel camera.
Much to my surprise, shortly after I took that very picture, I was sternly told, by someone on the Whole Foods staff, not to use my camera phone. The Whole Foods “team member” quoted a company policy that they do not allow pictures to be taken in the store.
I was truly shocked, as I was only using my camera phone to help me do my shopping. Wouldn’t this eventually lead to more sales by Whole Foods? So, what’s the problem?
After getting home, I went to the website to find this policy, but it was nowhere to be found. Next, I called the headquarters and was told this has been a policy for more than 10 years. Apparently, this policy is in place to keep competitors from photographing how they display their products.
Ok, this may have been sensible 10 years ago, but technology has evolved. If I am a competitor I would use a spy camera and record everything in the entire store and they would never know I was there. I wouldn’t pull out my camera phone in front of everyone and take pictures of the displays in plain sight.
In my opinion this policy is outdated, hurts customers and is bad business for Whole Foods. It really should be revised. What do you think? Has this ever happen to you? If so, please share your experience.
~ Conrad
December 7th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I hear ya Conrad. An irony exists with creating a store experience customers want to photograph but then, prohibiting it.
So why do retailers prohibit/discourage customers from taking photos? Two major reasons: Competitive Intent and Criminal Intent.
Curious businesspeople are always on the lookout for the next big thing and when they find one, they want to not everything about what makes that business special. So they visit and take lots lots of notes and try to take lots of pictures.
Theft for any retail business is a big issue and having front-line employees on the lookout for people snapping photos could help to reduce theft.
Months ago Seth Godin, big-time marketing thinker, wrote a post where he said that customers taking photos is part of the deal when a business deliver remarkable customer experiences.
So to you point Conrad, its about time for retailers to learn this lesson and solve for dissuading potential thieves with policies and activities other than prohibiting customers from taking photos.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
What are they thinking? I bring tourists to the flagship store all the time to show off. If people are going to copy they will copy a camera does little in that regard.
extremely outdated all it does is hurt them…
December 7th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
I had the same with Innocent’s ‘The Big Knit’ thing, they put smoothies with hats on only in Sainsbury’s stores here in the UK but the guards just gripped my shoulder when I wanted to take a picture of the shelf with smoothies on.
I don’t even have a professional camera, I don’t look like a terrorist either so boo to them, I reckon Innocent could have told them that it’s acceptable for people to take photos of the smoothie shelf only (not like those could be arranged in any different way) but sadly it’s up to stores and store managers alone to allow people to take photos or not.
December 7th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Neither of these Whole Foods policies seem very realistic or intelligent. I will be curious to see how quickly they change both of them.
December 7th, 2007 at 10:47 pm
I think they should just ban anyone who has a camera in their phone from shopping at their stores. That will leave them with four customers on the planet.
I am going to go photograph some fancy cheese now just cause it is naughty.
Alas, everyone on the planet should go to Whole Foods and photograph food. Pandemonium.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:04 pm
I usually respond to retail droids who cite “company policy” with a retort similar to: “It’s my personal policy not to listen to unthinking morons or shop at stores with moronic policies” and then I follow up by avoiding their store for at least a month (usually longer).
Yes, this ultimately just makes my life a little more difficult but some of us have principles and a backbone… and money we’ll be spending elsewhere. Some of us are people, not just consumers.
November 9th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Also, I note that there’s a Whole Foods logo and a couple of lines of text beneath, which are commonly a copyright notice or the like.
While you or I would see the “free advertising” benefit for Whole Foods (and the seemingly environmentally-positive effect [the engineer in me wonders what the environmental costs of the chemical batteries in your camera are in comparison to the costs of a small piece of paper]) wouldn’t Whole Foods likely have a policy prohibiting the reproduction of their recipes?
December 19th, 2008 at 10:14 pm
good resourse Anyway by sight very much it is pleasant to me