Centerfield

If I were on the Whole Foods Board I would fire him. At once. If the Board doesn't replacement him, what they are saying to the world is that they do not really care all that much about unethical (not to mention quite possibly illegal) behavior.

In addition to saying it to the world, they say it explicitly to their employees -- which is just asking to have people go over the line. I don't know the grocery business well enough to know what the possibilities are for bribing suppliers, etc. But if Mackey isn't fired, I will be totally unsurprised to discover a couple years down the road that Whole Foods has something like that happening. Not to mention people cooking the books, etc.

Whole Foods is packed all the time they are open in the Time Warner building. Amazing the amount of Indians. Food quality is good except a few months back someone found worms in the Sushi. WF is not cheap and appears to cater to the Upper Middle Class. They also sell alot of products besides food. Maybe the bottom line will be how much the stockholders have made. Combine Fresh Direct with WF? Now there's an idea.....

P.S. Wj, don't you need to show your insurance company W-2 for your wife? Isn't there a minimum number of hours per week (20) that is required to have her as your other employee? So doesn't the taxes lost on her salary offset the gain on your insurance? Here in NYC they are pretty strict about proving the nature of that second employee. Isn't worker comp required for her as well? And if your wife has another real job, doesn't that run into problems with the number of hours she is supposedly working for you? Other than this problem, your remarks were on target. 50% off an individual plan by going small business with two employees. Decent dental and optical coverage for about $75 more per person per month.

As an employee, perhaps a W-2 would be required. But what we did was form an LLC and include her as a partner. Partners don't have to work particular (or even any, although she does) hours. Just be included in the filing of the LLC tax forms and include the income on their own individual tax forms.

As for problems with another job, as long as someone is working the hours and doing the job they are being paid for, and doesn't have any conflicts of interest, a second job generally won't be a problem. There are a few circumstances where a job will include a condition of no other employment, but they are rare. Also, some companies ask that you check with them, so they can confirm the lack of conflicts, before taking outside employment. (That's especially true of banks or brokerages, where a business relationship or conflict is more likely.) But in my experience, getting approval is relatively routine.