. >> whole foods built tir brand on oering progessives, especially era value for their product, cut therinciples that mackey was espousi. make me think, this is not t company i thoughi was supporting. >> rorter: the group, started last friday, alreadyas 16 thsand members on facebook and is also spreading e word on twitte at first whole foods resnded that the op- was mackey's peonal view. but in a stateme today, the company says it branng expert robert passikoff says t emotional reaction to thc.e.o.'s op-ed will cost the company. >> these days, in is economy, a loyal customer c be worth ite a bit of money, if you even just extrapate out against e people who felt angry enough to list the names on the facebk boycott page and ltiply that out times their weeklyuys, that adds up to a lot of money. >> reporter: financial analys doubt the ise will derail the company's long term prospect manyhoppers, like erin gray, won't change their shoing habits. >> it'almost unamerican to boycott somethinsimply because you disaee with what they have to say, as long as what sobody saying is nooffensive then i don't se