Capitalism is a great system for innovations to occur. Constant competition between companies tends to produce the greatest product for the cheapest price. As a result of the public usually gets the best possible product. However with constant pressure to improve the quality of the product, companies constantly have to make tough decisions. The latest company to deal with this problem is Whole-Foods.
Whole-Foods is an organic foods supermarket that has 431 stores throughout the US, UK, and Canada. Whole-Foods also has around 91,000 employees. Earlier this week Whole-Foods announced that it would cut 1,500 jobs over the next 8 weeks. This comes as a result of the increased competition from other supermarkets like Kroger and Safeway. Kroger and Safeway have started to offer the same organic foods found at Whole-Foods but for a lot cheaper. Whole-Foods believes that if it cuts 1,500 jobs, they can then lower the price of their goods so it can once again compete with Kroger and Safeway. The reaction to Whole-Foods cutting 1,500 jobs has been mixed. People have generally looked at this decision through the eyes of a Utilitarian or a Deontologist…show more content… There are however, two types of Utilitarianism. There is Act Utilitarianism and Rule Utilitarianism. Act Utilitarianism believes that any action that produces more good than harm, it is the moral thing to do. While Rule Utilitarianism believes that any action that does not breaking the law and produces more good than harm, is the moral thing to do. In this circumstance however, since Whole-Foods isn’t breaking and laws, both an Act and Rule Utilitarian would agree that laying off 1,500 people would be the right thing to do. Their justification for their decision would be: making millions of people’s daily groceries cheaper, has a bigger positive impact then the negative impact of laying of 1500