In I can’t believe I missed this news, Whole Foods is offering a special new discount to employees but only if you’re skinny enough.
According to a letter first leaked to Gawker a popular gossip blog, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey says the new and voluntary program is a good way to motivate employees to embrace good health. Employees will get a larger discount on Whole Foods products if they meet “Specific criteria related to significant health measures.”
According to Whole Foods, the program which is now viewable to the general public at their website, is called the The Team Member Healthy Discount Incentive “Offers increased discounts for full- and part-time Team Members (enrolled in the company’s medical plan) who do not use nicotine products and satisfy certain healthy biometric criteria for blood pressure, total cholesterol (or LDL) levels and Body Mass Index (BMI). Team Members already receive a 20 percent discount on purchases at Whole Foods Market stores as an employment benefit, but now, those who voluntarily opt to participate in the incentive plan could receive up to an additional 10 percent discount.”
The main problem with using BMI as a health marker is that it’s not always an accurate measure of physical health. For example, height + muscle mass or being an athelte could affect your BMI in a way that appears unhealthy, even though you are perfectly healthy.
My biggest problem with this program though is stated nice and clear in a piece at AOL, “There’s the irony that controlling discounts based on health means that fresh, natural, nutritious food becomes less accessible to those same staffers who evaluations apparently suggest they’d need it the most.” True that!
I’m all for people watching what they eat, I’m all for American weighing a whole lot less, but I’m just not sure this is the most effective way to go about it; it seems a little public to me, which could be non-beneficial for people with body image issues. Then again, Whole Foods has been smart enough to climb to the leader space when it comes to organic and natural groceries, so maybe they’re on to something. Plus on the good side of the coin, it’s not as if people shouldn’t eat better. It’s nice that Whole Foods put an actual team member program in place instead of just saying – “get thin!”
Oh, and if you’re wondering if you are thin enough to make the cut check out this Whole Foods BMI calculator.
What do you think? Would you step on a semi-public scale for a better Whole Foods discount?
[image via Whole Foods]
Post from: Blisstree