Comments (7)

• Matt R.

  I shop at Whole Foods, as well as My Organic Market (MOMs), a competitor, along with neighborhood farmer's markets. There are plenty of smaller chains like MOMs popping up all around the country, giving consumers a greater choice of healthy food to choose from. Maybe all the litigation made Whole Foods more expensive, because I've been able to get better deals elsewhere.

  Published: June 2, 2009 11:05 AM

• Michael A. Clem

  It seems to me that the key point to monopolization isn't trying to find the actual number of competitors in a market or industry, but to look for barriers to entry. If it's easy, or at least relatively easy for a new business to compete with Whole foods, then no anti-trust action need be taken, even if Whole Foods was the only store that sold organic food products. But if they used that for their criteria, then the FTC (and the DOJ) would probably need to file lawsuits against numerous state and local governments, not to mention against the federal government itself, since creating effective barriers to entry is difficult for any organization outside of government.

  Published: June 2, 2009 11:35 AM

• S.M. Oliva

  I concur with your analysis of the Whole Foods case, of course, but the analysis is somewhat dated. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court's decision to deny the injunction, and subsequently Whole Foods was forced to give up several stores to an FTC-approved buyer. I recently discussed the D.C. Circuit's actions on the Mises Blog (http://blog.mises.org/archives/010028.asp).

  Published: June 2, 2009 11:52 AM

• axiomata

  Perhaps if Whole Foods founder John Mackey wants to stay out of the sights of the FTC he should not make a habit of admitting he is a libertarian and quoting Mises.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Mackey_(businessman)#Political_views

  Published: June 2, 2009 12:49 PM

• Jeremy

  What stops the government from immediately breaking up any innovating firm as a monopoly? If one single firm comes out with a new product or service that no one else offers don't they automatically own a 100% market share?

  Published: June 2, 2009 1:49 PM

• gene

  Around here we call "Whole Foods", whole paycheck!

  I worked in health food groceries thru college. There seemed to be one on every block. We marked up prices three times and yet competition kept prices not much above your standard grocery store, maybe twenty percent.

  You could start up a coop by calling up any wholesaler and telling them you would like to place an order. We did this with friends more than once.

  A few decades later, you have to mortgage your house to buy an organic pear. The "health food" stores are giant, big box chains with corresponding giant prices. What used to be bulk is contained in small, overpackaged containers.

  If you want to see the "free market" at work, go to a third world country where as poor as people may be, they can still afford to buy or sell their food. If you want to study a monopolized agricultural system, just go shopping in America.

  Published: June 2, 2009 1:56 PM

• Bennet Cecil

  This story demonstrate how the federal government focuses on a tiny market segment while allowing others to become "too big to fail." Why did GM get to add Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, Pontiac, Saab, Opel, Oldsmobile, Hummer, Saturn etc.
  The Sherman Anti-trust Act was not used to make each of these divisions compete as separate companies. They could have succeeded or failed individually with no danger to the market. The government allowed a dozen banks to monopolize the banking system and lose depositors' and taxpayers' money with huge amounts of leverage.

  The federal government is clearly the problem and not the solution. Regulation did not prevent the collapse of Fannie and Freddie. We will see more and more crony capitalism and statism as the federal government seizes large slices of the economy. High inflation, falling employment and a worthless dollar will eventually bring better politicians to power.

  Published: June 2, 2009 11:25 PM