Opinion
Mackey: Intellectuals Have Historically Been the Class Enemy of Business
“The intellectuals who've always been the class enemy of business. The genie got out of the bottle back in the Industrial Revolution, and there was about a, as Deidre McCloskey points out, another one of the great economists had a big impact on me. As she point…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mackey: Socialism has failed in all 41 attempts over 100 years
“Socialism has been tried 41 times in the last hundred years, and there are 41 failures.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Mackey: Unchecked progressivism will destroy modernism
“Because if progressivism is allowed to continue without being checked, it will destroy, it'll destroy modernism.”
Opinion
Mackey: Wild Oats copied Whole Foods and got far higher valuations
“Well, it's like, you know, while Oates copied Whole Foods and came along after at a far higher valuations than we ever got.”
Insight
Mackey: Capitalism is a force for good that drives human progress
“That capitalism is, is not a force for evil. Capitalism is a force for good. It's helping humanity to progress. And there might be bad actors in capitalism, just like they're bad actors in business or bad doctors, bad lawyers, bad politicians. But in general, …”
Insight
Mackey: Businesspeople Are Mostly Honest Due to Repeat-Game Incentives
“Most of the time, business people are fundamentally honest because they understand they're gonna have ongoing relationships.”
Insight
Mackey: US underperforms in healthcare and education due to over-regulation stifling innovation
“Where does America underperform competitively, internationally? We underperform in education and healthcare. The two that are most regulated have the least amount of innovation.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Mackey: Virtual learning and new school models may break education monopolies
“We may route around in education, because there's lots of innovations on the margin. I know of people starting new schools, for example, and, ah, we know that, that technology also allows us, through virtual learning, there's ways that the monopolies may be br…”
Insight
Mackey: Progressivism consists of social justice, environmentalism, and alternative religion branches
“Well, they tend to be progressives that are primarily social justice warriors, then there's environmental warriors, and then there's alternative religion. All of those are sort of branches of progressivism.”
Insight
Mackey: Cancel culture is evolutionary tribalism replacing physical violence
“The problem is we did evolve in tribes, and there's a tendency to love your own tribe, and you want to kill the other tribe. So we see that. Cancel cultures, like, We used to be able to just, we don't kill the other tribe. Now we cancel it. And so we see that …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mackey: The world has never been better by every historical measurement
“The world has never been better than it is right now by every historical measurement.”
Insight
Mackey: Businesses must pursue higher purpose and stakeholder alignment beyond profit
“Every business has the potential for a higher purpose that includes making money, but is not restricted to that. Number two, that all the stakeholders matter and they're interdependent, all the major stakeholders matter and they're interdependent with each oth…”
Assertion Partly supported
Mackey: Over 70% of American Adults Are Overweight and 42.5% Obese
“Over 70% of adult Americans are overweight, 42 and a half percent are obese, and the trend, and the average adult American has gained 27 pounds since COVID.”
Assertion Partly supported
Mackey: 80% of US Healthcare Spending Goes to Lifestyle-Related Chronic Diseases
“80% of what we spend on health care in America are for chronic diseases, Joe. Diseases that tie directly back into our diet and lifestyle.”
Assertion Supported
Mackey: Oak Investment Partners backed Whole Foods during early Sand Hill fundraising
“The ones in, we did go out to Sand Hill Road and I met with some, and actually one of those did invest in us Oak. Oak Investments, which their retail partner, Jerry Gallagher, was very interested in it.”
Disclosure
Mackey: Whole Foods sold 34% of the company for $4.5M
“And so we sold 34% of the company for a, for four and a half million.”
Assertion Supported
Mackey: First Whole Foods quickly became the highest-volume US natural foods store
“And that first Whole Foods market was, it quickly became the highest volume natural food store in the United States.”
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
Mackey: Bulk Foods Dropped to Under 1% of Whole Foods Sales
“The first Whole Foods we had was, we sold 20% of bulk foods, 30% produce, for example. Maybe 10% were animal foods, and the processed foods were relatively small. And yet that's what grew and grew and grew and grew until bulk now went from 20% of our sales to …”
Disclosure
Mackey: Whole Foods Predecessor Launched With $45,000 From Friends and Family
“Yeah, we were trying to raise 50, but all we could get was 45. That's all we could beg out our friends and family. And we said, let's give it a go.”
Assertion Supported
Mackey: Whole Foods went public four years after raising venture capital
“We'd gone, had a, we'd gone public just four years after the VC money, and Whole Foods was rocketing up and growing all over the United States, and he said that was the single biggest mistake he ever made as a VC investor.”
John Mackey