Walking amongst aisles of organic produce, biodegradable detergents and sustainable seafood, liberal-minded shoppers at America's largest natural foods merchant might assume the company's founder shares their ideals.
But fans of Whole Foods Market, a US counterpart to Waitrose, were stunned last week when the chain's founder and chief executive officer John Mackey came out firmly against Barack Obama and the Democrats' plan for universal healthcare, in an article on the staunchly conservative comment page of the Wall Street Journal.
Mackey's opposition to a "massive new healthcare entitlement" provoked outrage among granola crunchers who may never have noticed that he is a capitalist who built a company worth $3.9bn (£2.3bn) on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Many of the company's once-loyal shoppers have pledged to find alternate sources for free-range chicken, buffalo cheese and rutabaga, and some have called for Mackey's head.
"Whole Foods has built its brand around being the company that cares about what liberal progressive consumers care about," said Kristen Bonardi Rapp, a 34 year-old New York City writer who said she was drawn to the company's policies on the environment and ethical treatment of animals but now leads a boycott. "But when it comes down to Americans who need healthcare, all of a sudden it's every man for himself."
Last week, Mackey cited Margaret Thatcher to argue that the US government should not take on responsibility for extending healthcare to uninsured Americans. "While we clearly need healthcare reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new healthcare entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our healthcare system," he wrote.
Mackey, who began the company in 1980 with a single store in Texas, said that Americans have no intrinsic right to healthcare, as some liberal backers of Obama's plan purport. He also slagged on the British National Health Service, a favoured punching bag for US opponents of Obama's healthcare overhaul.
"Our Canadian and British employees express their benefit preferences very clearly—they want supplemental health-are dollars that they can control and spend themselves without permission from their governments," he wrote.
Whole Foods operates 270 stores in the US and UK.
In a statement on his blog, Mackey wrote that his piece was his own personal opinion and not the company's. He speculated the Journal piece's headline, which denounced "Obamacare" provoked much of the ire.
As the boycott takes shape, its organisers say they have yet to formulate clear goals.
"There is consensus that the company needs to make some gesture to re-earn the trust," said Steven Mikulencak, a 33-year old town planner.
In the meantime, as Mikulencak avoids the premium-priced chain, "We can save money in the process."