People Can’t Agree If This Guy’s Plan To Punish Whole Foods For Asking $5 Donations Is Genius Or Toxic
In 2018, Amazon paid $0 in U.S. federal income tax on $11 billion in profits. The company also received a $129 million tax rebate from the federal government. Which some people aren’t too happy about. Kevin Robinson is one of them. And he wants to make the company regret it. One way or the other.
Recently, Kevin made a Facebook post, describing how he went about it. In just a little over a week, it has received over 46K reactions and 43K shares. However, probably the most interesting responses to the viral text are the comments. People are talking about corporate greed, who’s responsible for it and what part the employees play in all of this.
More info: Facebook
Image credits: Portal Abras
Truth of Fiction were able to contact the Whole Foods in Redwood City, the area where Robinson lives, to see if the store was hosting a food drive. An employee did confirm that the store was collecting donations of food items for local charities, and that shoppers were also able to make a monetary donation at checkout.
However, the claim in the post that others could also move items not purchased into the donations area because it’s “a zero-risk maneuver, as you haven’t stolen anything, simply placed items in a different location in the store” is quite complicated. For starters, different stores have different loss prevention policies. Secondly, laws may vary between jurisdictions in the same states or across states, making it hard to determine whether this action is actually a crime or not.
As for Amazon’s low tax bill, one could trace its roots to the Republican tax cuts of 2017, carryforward losses from years when the company was not profitable, tax credits for massive investments in research and development and stock-based employee compensation.
“Amazon pays all the taxes we are required to pay in the U.S. and every country where we operate, including paying $2.6 billion in corporate tax and reporting $3.4 billion in tax expense over the last three years,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
The viral post started a heated discussion and while some were praising him as a hero
Other’s were saying this could seriously harm the employees
While there were some that suggested boycotting the store altogether
Please keep in mind you can always say NO. Don't get angry at cashiers for asking , they are required to ask or risk losing that 5 cent increase at end of the year or worse their job. Cashiers don't want to ask you for donations more than you want to be asked.
Notice, he did NOT say he was Shopping at Whole Foods but simply "there". I highly doubt he does his shopping at Amazon's stores and then turns around, while Still in the store, and Thrashes them. He went there specifically to do exactly what he did
This guy was still in whole foods filling Bezos' pocket. If you are going to brag about your principles, then at least stick to them.
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Read all of the words in the article (in order. Very important) before commenting.
Over 33% of Amazon employees are on welfare or use food stamps.
Same for Walmart
Amazon is one of the highest paying employers in Indiana.
That doesn't say much for Indiana businesses...
22 upvotes (currently) for something that is factually inaccurate.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
In Arizona. Check your facts.
This isn't going to have an impact on Bezos at all. It will be a problem for the minimum wage workers. When inventory numbers are suddenly off, that's when employees start losing their jobs. Whether it's stockers or cashiers accused of theft or managers for failing at loss prevention. If you have an issue to the corporate head or parent company of a business, don't shop there. But stop taking your issues out on the low wage workers!
Oh well ... good intention ... bad performance ... innocent people may be punished for his actions, like some of the comments pointed out. In the end, this is pretty pointless. A system failing to enable everyone to live on his own, in one of the most advanced countries this world has ever seen is to blame - and billionaires who don't share a reasonable amount of their wealth are to blame, but not in this way. Vote with your purse - every single day! Decide how far you wanna go, make sure you CAN go that far - and keep it, as it's a principle, free of nearly every exception (the decision never to kill anyone may be compromisable when your life is put in question - that kind of exception). But don't get people in trouble who neither cause the problem nor profit from it!
Not sure, how things are at Whole foods but when I worked at wholefoods, which was several years before Amazon took over WFM. Wholefoods use to hold 5% day, which is giving 5% of profit for the day from that particular store to one select LOCAL charity or nonprofit. Charity organization is determined by vetting of applications they receive for these funds from LOCAL charities. Every store can choose the charity they would give. 5% day was held several times a year. In addition to, regular donation asking at registers which was for completely different charity. Whole foods also donated any returned items that does not require refrigeration and was unopened. If the item comes for outside of store, does not matter how long it was out. You could just walk out and turn right back around to return that item. That item went to local food pantry.
Wow...so edgy, not.
Did Amazon pay any state / local tax in 2017 or 2018? Yes. Over 1 billion dollars.
Also 1.5B in Payroll tax
Ugh! I wish 1.) people would stop the "Jeff Bezos is evil crap", if you ran the world's most profitable company, you would expect to be paid accordingly; 2.) put their money where their mouth is, if people are so unhappy with Bezos and Amazon and Whole Foods, why are they shopping there? Isn't there a Target or Wal-Mart or local grocer where they live; 3.) most of all, I wish that all the doggies in the world will get kind and loving homes.
To be fair, the same people who hate Bezos certainly will not be wanting to turn around and support Walmart for obvious reasons.
Which is why I gave the "local grocer" option.
Did he say he was shopping there?? I think Not
What a trashy opinion
More concerned about dogs than people. SMH
Bravo, Erin.....marry me!
Protip: When the store asks you for donations they may be pooling them and taking the write-off. They usually don't give tax receipts and certainly some of them are unaccountable or bogus charities. Make your own (larger) donation privately and take the write-off yourself.
How about since he has such an ethical issue with Whole Foods, he doesn't shop there. Go somewhere cheaper and and give the money saved to those less fortunate... no? Then stop being a self righteous ass
I don't use Amazon, period. I made a purchase back in 1999 and all was well. A few years ago I was asked to order a special toy on Amazon as a Christmas present. I found, selected and tried to buy the toy, but my credit card info was years out of date. I attempted to enter my current credit card data but the site would not accept it. So, fine I went to another site and got the toy. But to this day, if I go to the Amazon site to read a review, I still get a notification that there is an item in my cart. It will remain there forever until the end of Amazon.
Genius. I would like to contribute the non-recyclable insulated plastic bags also, which Whole Foods delivery comes in now. I used them once when I was sick and received four bags for less than 10 items. Wasteful packaging which I can't bring myself to throw out, are not recyclable, and I have no other practical use for!
Has everyone forgotten that Bezos donated almost 100M to charity? Also in addition to payroll taxes that Amazon pays which is roughly 7.75% of all payroll. Average Amazon employee makes $30K per year. This takes into account part time employees as well. With 650,000 employees, Amazon pays $1,511,250,000 in payroll taxes. For those bad with numbers, thats 1.5 BILLION. Now focusing on income taxes, they get a break because they do 3 major things as an alternative. 1) R&D. 2) Invest in PP&E 3) Employee Stock compensation. The first 2 are why we have amazon products and the convenience of Prime. The 3rd is HUGE. Stock compensation basically gives every employee a guarantee that if they stay with the company until retirement and grow with the company, they are set for retirement. They dont even have to worry. Its essentially like my job where I get 15% of my salary thrown in a 401K every year at NO COST TO ME. People dont realize this and just see Amazon as an evil empire.
I agree. In Indiana, Amazon is one of the highest paying employers for workers without an advanced degree. In addition to the jobs created and taxes paid, they donate TRUCK LOADS of goods to local food banks. I have been volunteering in a food bank when an Amazon truck rolled up and deposited pallets of food, clothing and electronics as a donation. The employees of the food bank said they get at least one trailer a week from Amazon.
But the mob with their victim/oppression mentality just thinks Amazon is evil. But if you think about it, if your local county office came to you and said "you can either pay property taxes or we can let you put that money towards updating your house".... you are going to update your house. Anyone who thinks that Amazon is evil for choosing R&D over paying taxes is naive and childish.
There's always got to be people who will pick fault with anything. The man is right to have done that for reasons of principal. Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, is a grade A c***.
wow donate $100M to charity out of your own pocket, get called a cunt by an online troll. Still trying to find the people who think your opinion is more valuable than the money Bezos has donated to charity.
The problem is it'll hurt and punish the wrong people and certainly not Jeff Bezos
The opposite of bravery isn't Cowardice. It's Conformity.
Why are so many people so quick to trash the HERO? He NEVER claimed he shops there. But Everyone Assumes because he went there, he stopped as well! Honestly though, what a very stupid assumption to make. He went there to make a point, and he sure did, but too many Americans are firmly keeping their heads in the ground. Sad
The only people who suffer here are the staff. This achieves nothing other than make poorly paid over worked peoples day even worse.
May it trend like fire. Rock on Robin Hood.
I feel like a lot of you never enjoyed Robin Hood as a child.
Or just DON'T shop at Whole Foods altogether
I go for toxic
It's providing an opportunity for people to do something good and feel good about it. He is a self-righteous POS. Don't like them? Shop elsewhere.
Essentially you can do this at any giant corporate store. They all ask for donations and never say they'll match dollar for dollar, because likely they don't.
I get it you only get rich as you are a stingy b!|€#
How does this work? The shop has a place to deposit stuff inside? Before the cashiers? Sounds strange, someone local please explain.
The donation bin is generally after the cash registers e.g. you're supposed to pay for the items first. I haven't been in a Whole Foods lately but that's how most supermarkets are set up.
The main feed headline is wrong. Bezos does not ask you to give him $5. That suggests he is the one who ends up with it in the end. Update: as I wrote this and then went back to the main feed, that line was gone. Kudos to BP for fixing that.
Like this idiot was actually dumping armfuls of food in any bins. He probably put a very small package of sesame crackers in one bin and then decided he had to pat himself on the back for the rest of the day.
After he did that he bought himself a kale salad and a lettuce smoothie and some sort of vegan wrap or something.
It needs to be attacked in all fronts: by not buying there, by putting things in the donations bins, by motivating workers to fight for what is just.
I've always thought that businesses that require the purchase of a product before a donation is made, whether it be goods or money, are essentially practicing extortion. You know the type. "For every item sold, we will donate $1". I just think it's kinda shitty....
The guy not only shows how Trump's tax laws are working out great for big companies, he also shows why everyone should stop making the biggest A-hole even richer. But we all know that no one will stop buying plastic useless items from Amazon, or t-shirts with "Arbeit Macht Frei" printed on them.
Dude these were bipartisan tax laws from Obama era....
They sell shirts with an "Arbeit macht frei" print on???
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
if you dont think that food in the donation boxes doesn't go right back on the shelf to be sold again ....you may be delusional
You could make good money by being able to prove this and blackmail the companies doing it. Or you can also be benevolent and prove it and be a local news story hero. It's a win-win and since I'm sure you have the evidence to back up this claim I suggest you go for it!
They cant. Inventory and Costing Utilities would not balance. They wouldnt be able to balance a month in the ledger. Not a chance this happens because its screaming for an audit.
This comment has been deleted.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Why blame amazon..McDonald's does the same for the ronald mc d houses..begging customers for their spare change...
It's not the same because McDonalds asks for donations that go directly to a great charity they themselves happen to front. Whole Foods want you to purchase their goods at full price, giving Whole Foods the profit, then donate the food. McDonalds doesn't ask you to buy a Big Mac first.
First - that. Second - there'S always two sides to everything, or more, never less. Stuff is flawed at amazon ... other stuff isn't, also at amazon. In the end, it's the customer's decision, all around the world, that make any company do what they do. The massive power customers have, however, seems to be least visible to customers themselves... ... just look at the growth in the vegan/vegetarian sections ... which are like 10 % or so in total (in germany it is like 10 % and 1 %), but state certain demands, and stores react to these demands. They'd do the same for every kind of demand (I don't mean this to be about veganism itself, it's just something that makes this obvious). Whatever is flawed about amazon, is something the customers either want that way or have a lack of interest in knowing how it is. Same for every company, at least the ones above garage size.
Please keep in mind you can always say NO. Don't get angry at cashiers for asking , they are required to ask or risk losing that 5 cent increase at end of the year or worse their job. Cashiers don't want to ask you for donations more than you want to be asked.
Notice, he did NOT say he was Shopping at Whole Foods but simply "there". I highly doubt he does his shopping at Amazon's stores and then turns around, while Still in the store, and Thrashes them. He went there specifically to do exactly what he did
This guy was still in whole foods filling Bezos' pocket. If you are going to brag about your principles, then at least stick to them.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Read all of the words in the article (in order. Very important) before commenting.
Over 33% of Amazon employees are on welfare or use food stamps.
Same for Walmart
Amazon is one of the highest paying employers in Indiana.
That doesn't say much for Indiana businesses...
22 upvotes (currently) for something that is factually inaccurate.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
In Arizona. Check your facts.
This isn't going to have an impact on Bezos at all. It will be a problem for the minimum wage workers. When inventory numbers are suddenly off, that's when employees start losing their jobs. Whether it's stockers or cashiers accused of theft or managers for failing at loss prevention. If you have an issue to the corporate head or parent company of a business, don't shop there. But stop taking your issues out on the low wage workers!
Oh well ... good intention ... bad performance ... innocent people may be punished for his actions, like some of the comments pointed out. In the end, this is pretty pointless. A system failing to enable everyone to live on his own, in one of the most advanced countries this world has ever seen is to blame - and billionaires who don't share a reasonable amount of their wealth are to blame, but not in this way. Vote with your purse - every single day! Decide how far you wanna go, make sure you CAN go that far - and keep it, as it's a principle, free of nearly every exception (the decision never to kill anyone may be compromisable when your life is put in question - that kind of exception). But don't get people in trouble who neither cause the problem nor profit from it!
Not sure, how things are at Whole foods but when I worked at wholefoods, which was several years before Amazon took over WFM. Wholefoods use to hold 5% day, which is giving 5% of profit for the day from that particular store to one select LOCAL charity or nonprofit. Charity organization is determined by vetting of applications they receive for these funds from LOCAL charities. Every store can choose the charity they would give. 5% day was held several times a year. In addition to, regular donation asking at registers which was for completely different charity. Whole foods also donated any returned items that does not require refrigeration and was unopened. If the item comes for outside of store, does not matter how long it was out. You could just walk out and turn right back around to return that item. That item went to local food pantry.
Wow...so edgy, not.
Did Amazon pay any state / local tax in 2017 or 2018? Yes. Over 1 billion dollars.
Also 1.5B in Payroll tax
Ugh! I wish 1.) people would stop the "Jeff Bezos is evil crap", if you ran the world's most profitable company, you would expect to be paid accordingly; 2.) put their money where their mouth is, if people are so unhappy with Bezos and Amazon and Whole Foods, why are they shopping there? Isn't there a Target or Wal-Mart or local grocer where they live; 3.) most of all, I wish that all the doggies in the world will get kind and loving homes.
To be fair, the same people who hate Bezos certainly will not be wanting to turn around and support Walmart for obvious reasons.
Which is why I gave the "local grocer" option.
Did he say he was shopping there?? I think Not
What a trashy opinion
More concerned about dogs than people. SMH
Bravo, Erin.....marry me!
Protip: When the store asks you for donations they may be pooling them and taking the write-off. They usually don't give tax receipts and certainly some of them are unaccountable or bogus charities. Make your own (larger) donation privately and take the write-off yourself.
How about since he has such an ethical issue with Whole Foods, he doesn't shop there. Go somewhere cheaper and and give the money saved to those less fortunate... no? Then stop being a self righteous ass
I don't use Amazon, period. I made a purchase back in 1999 and all was well. A few years ago I was asked to order a special toy on Amazon as a Christmas present. I found, selected and tried to buy the toy, but my credit card info was years out of date. I attempted to enter my current credit card data but the site would not accept it. So, fine I went to another site and got the toy. But to this day, if I go to the Amazon site to read a review, I still get a notification that there is an item in my cart. It will remain there forever until the end of Amazon.
Genius. I would like to contribute the non-recyclable insulated plastic bags also, which Whole Foods delivery comes in now. I used them once when I was sick and received four bags for less than 10 items. Wasteful packaging which I can't bring myself to throw out, are not recyclable, and I have no other practical use for!
Has everyone forgotten that Bezos donated almost 100M to charity? Also in addition to payroll taxes that Amazon pays which is roughly 7.75% of all payroll. Average Amazon employee makes $30K per year. This takes into account part time employees as well. With 650,000 employees, Amazon pays $1,511,250,000 in payroll taxes. For those bad with numbers, thats 1.5 BILLION. Now focusing on income taxes, they get a break because they do 3 major things as an alternative. 1) R&D. 2) Invest in PP&E 3) Employee Stock compensation. The first 2 are why we have amazon products and the convenience of Prime. The 3rd is HUGE. Stock compensation basically gives every employee a guarantee that if they stay with the company until retirement and grow with the company, they are set for retirement. They dont even have to worry. Its essentially like my job where I get 15% of my salary thrown in a 401K every year at NO COST TO ME. People dont realize this and just see Amazon as an evil empire.
I agree. In Indiana, Amazon is one of the highest paying employers for workers without an advanced degree. In addition to the jobs created and taxes paid, they donate TRUCK LOADS of goods to local food banks. I have been volunteering in a food bank when an Amazon truck rolled up and deposited pallets of food, clothing and electronics as a donation. The employees of the food bank said they get at least one trailer a week from Amazon.
But the mob with their victim/oppression mentality just thinks Amazon is evil. But if you think about it, if your local county office came to you and said "you can either pay property taxes or we can let you put that money towards updating your house".... you are going to update your house. Anyone who thinks that Amazon is evil for choosing R&D over paying taxes is naive and childish.
There's always got to be people who will pick fault with anything. The man is right to have done that for reasons of principal. Jeff Bezos, on the other hand, is a grade A c***.
wow donate $100M to charity out of your own pocket, get called a cunt by an online troll. Still trying to find the people who think your opinion is more valuable than the money Bezos has donated to charity.
The problem is it'll hurt and punish the wrong people and certainly not Jeff Bezos
The opposite of bravery isn't Cowardice. It's Conformity.
Why are so many people so quick to trash the HERO? He NEVER claimed he shops there. But Everyone Assumes because he went there, he stopped as well! Honestly though, what a very stupid assumption to make. He went there to make a point, and he sure did, but too many Americans are firmly keeping their heads in the ground. Sad
The only people who suffer here are the staff. This achieves nothing other than make poorly paid over worked peoples day even worse.
May it trend like fire. Rock on Robin Hood.
I feel like a lot of you never enjoyed Robin Hood as a child.
Or just DON'T shop at Whole Foods altogether
I go for toxic
It's providing an opportunity for people to do something good and feel good about it. He is a self-righteous POS. Don't like them? Shop elsewhere.
Essentially you can do this at any giant corporate store. They all ask for donations and never say they'll match dollar for dollar, because likely they don't.
I get it you only get rich as you are a stingy b!|€#
How does this work? The shop has a place to deposit stuff inside? Before the cashiers? Sounds strange, someone local please explain.
The donation bin is generally after the cash registers e.g. you're supposed to pay for the items first. I haven't been in a Whole Foods lately but that's how most supermarkets are set up.
The main feed headline is wrong. Bezos does not ask you to give him $5. That suggests he is the one who ends up with it in the end. Update: as I wrote this and then went back to the main feed, that line was gone. Kudos to BP for fixing that.
Like this idiot was actually dumping armfuls of food in any bins. He probably put a very small package of sesame crackers in one bin and then decided he had to pat himself on the back for the rest of the day.
After he did that he bought himself a kale salad and a lettuce smoothie and some sort of vegan wrap or something.
It needs to be attacked in all fronts: by not buying there, by putting things in the donations bins, by motivating workers to fight for what is just.
I've always thought that businesses that require the purchase of a product before a donation is made, whether it be goods or money, are essentially practicing extortion. You know the type. "For every item sold, we will donate $1". I just think it's kinda shitty....
The guy not only shows how Trump's tax laws are working out great for big companies, he also shows why everyone should stop making the biggest A-hole even richer. But we all know that no one will stop buying plastic useless items from Amazon, or t-shirts with "Arbeit Macht Frei" printed on them.
Dude these were bipartisan tax laws from Obama era....
They sell shirts with an "Arbeit macht frei" print on???
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
if you dont think that food in the donation boxes doesn't go right back on the shelf to be sold again ....you may be delusional
You could make good money by being able to prove this and blackmail the companies doing it. Or you can also be benevolent and prove it and be a local news story hero. It's a win-win and since I'm sure you have the evidence to back up this claim I suggest you go for it!
They cant. Inventory and Costing Utilities would not balance. They wouldnt be able to balance a month in the ledger. Not a chance this happens because its screaming for an audit.
This comment has been deleted.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Why blame amazon..McDonald's does the same for the ronald mc d houses..begging customers for their spare change...
It's not the same because McDonalds asks for donations that go directly to a great charity they themselves happen to front. Whole Foods want you to purchase their goods at full price, giving Whole Foods the profit, then donate the food. McDonalds doesn't ask you to buy a Big Mac first.
First - that. Second - there'S always two sides to everything, or more, never less. Stuff is flawed at amazon ... other stuff isn't, also at amazon. In the end, it's the customer's decision, all around the world, that make any company do what they do. The massive power customers have, however, seems to be least visible to customers themselves... ... just look at the growth in the vegan/vegetarian sections ... which are like 10 % or so in total (in germany it is like 10 % and 1 %), but state certain demands, and stores react to these demands. They'd do the same for every kind of demand (I don't mean this to be about veganism itself, it's just something that makes this obvious). Whatever is flawed about amazon, is something the customers either want that way or have a lack of interest in knowing how it is. Same for every company, at least the ones above garage size.