I am writing this on Selection Sunday 2024 and generally, I enjoy playing sports immensely more than watching them, but March Madness always gives me the opportunity to witness a Cinderella story in real time and that’s something that satisfies me to the core of my being! Maybe I see myself in the underdog story, or maybe I just have a bias against and a distrust of anything or anyone who has entrenched power, might and dominance. I have never heard anyone disagree with the famous claim that “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
The Importance of Your Health Freedoms
I knowingly run the risk of offending some people, but I am going to say that I have never seen such a corrupt world-wide power grab as we witnessed during the last few years of Covid hysteria. It is being said that the World Health Organization (W.H.O.), which is an arm of N.A.T.O. is trying to take away our health freedoms via some sort of “Pandemic Treaty” to be voted on by member nations of NATO in May. It’s an ever-changing document and is somehow tied with a 1,722-page piece of legislation that became law in our own country in December 2022 called the National Defense Authorization Act. This topic is so complicated that I don’t have room to detail it here, but I urge you to research it as it might pose an existential threat to our health freedoms and even the sovereignty of our own country. Ultimately, I hope that you inform yourself and make your voice heard with your government representatives. This might be the ultimate David versus Goliath showdown as we the people must defend our health freedoms by going to battle with the most powerful international forces on earth. I can't say that I fully understand the reasons for their desire for so much power and control but I know for sure that I don't trust any single organization with that much power.
Pilgrims and Politics?
As a general rule, I believe in staying laser focused on the mission of Pilgrims Market which is to “serve empower and delight our health-seeking customers” and to “empower, challenge and reward our team members.” There are two instances in which I believe that taking a political stand is necessary and it’s because these two topics are existentially linked to our ability to deliver on our mission statement. When I see political forces aiming to force medical procedures on our customers and our community without informed consent then I must speak up. When I see political forces aiming to censor the free speech of highly capable, intelligent and informed medical doctors, researchers and healers, then I must speak up. Please personally investigate it.
What about Trader Joes?
Oh yeah, that! I am sure that the title of my missive today had you thinking that I was talking about our looming show-down with Trader Joe’s who will soon open across the street. The symbolism from that remarkable bit of history detailed in the first book of Samuel definitely seems a fitting way to describe our fight against corporate-food-industry giants. That being said, Trader Joes has a limited amount of organic and non-g.m.o. products in their stores and I will never disparage anyone for selling foods that are healthy for people and planet. They also have many foods with ingredients that we don’t approve of. At the end of the day however, our store offers thousands of items that Trader Joes does not, and I don’t believe that they are trying to put us out of business. They recognize that Pilgrims is a destination for people who value their food, and they want to benefit from the traffic that we have spent 24 years creating. That’s fine with me. I think that Pilgrims will benefit from traffic they bring to the neighborhood as well. Recognizing that we do indeed compete on some levels, I am sure that their presence will motivate myself and the entire Pilgrims team to be even more innovative and passionate about bringing amazingly fresh and healthy foods to you and that ultimately, we will be a better store because of it. I would also like to thank all of you that have been making supportive statements about us online and to your friends as I know that this has been a controversial and popular topic of conversation.
Pilgrims Rewards Program
We return nearly $500,000 per year back to our most supportive customers. The problem with the current program, however, is that, outside of the quarterly coupons attached to this circular, only 25% of our customers really benefit from the current version of the program. Details are not finalized yet, but please know that we will be changing the program come July to create benefit for every customer. And if you are one of our top customers, please don’t worry. Your benefits will remain just as great!