Whole Foods Attacks Photographers
My friend Carolyn is a dedicated journalist/blogger.When she turns vegan and does a post on all the non-nasty tasting vegan cheeses, she means business. So what does she do? Goes to Whole Foods to take a bunch of photos.
After a few minutes of snapping away at the non-dairy/dairy aisle, she’s yelled at for taking pickchas.
This is the truth! Union Square Whole Foods – 2 days ago.
Now while I understand that Whole Foods doesn’t want its competitors having photographic evidence of what they do right or wrong, the same can be done via a hidden camera or sharp catlike photographic memory.
So, come on Whole Foods, let a lotus bloom in full! The photos in question are included in her detailed study of vegan cheeses.
The only time I got yelled at while taking a photo was in Paris, France where a bookstore owner literally took me by my arms and threw me onto the sidewalk. She was a mean one.
Whole Foods is entirely within their rights to not allow photographs to be taken in their stores without prior consent. The store employee who "yelled" at your friend may not have made the best choice in how to handle the situation. That, however, is a problem for Whole Foods management to address in their employee training.
As a blogger, your friend is a journalist, and should expect that subjects of her work will not always be willing to be a part of the story. That is the right of those she writes about. Accept it and move on.
I agree that they can do whatever they please. But I also feel that at this point in the game, it’s not like anyone trying to steal ideas or secrets hasn’t already done so.