When Did Big Companies Turn Into Big Companies?
As a natural and somewhat hilarious result of the sixties values trickling up to the boardroom, our leading goody-goody megabrands are suddenly, and seemingly all at once, beset by crises of conscience. JetBlue is spraying mea culpas and defying its own industry’s lobbyists by hastily jerry-rigging a customer bill of rights. The weekend brought a soul-searching memo from Starbucks chairman Howard Schulz, bemoaning, of all things, the “commoditization” of his brainchild. (As we already noted, wasn’t that the whole point?) Today, to complete the trifecta, the Times is ringing the alarm over the perceived “straying” of Whole Foods.