Archive for April, 2012

DUGGAN SISTERS TAKE ON “THE BIGGEST STINKER”: WHOLE FOODS MARKET

Friday, April 27th, 2012

I have resented having to write about this, but it seems I must. I think you, our treasured supporters, have a right to know why our products went from selling strong in Whole Foods Markets in a three-state radius (“flowing well” in WFM terminology) to being “discontinued and ineligible for reorder” on February 15, 2011.  Withdrawn under circumstances so mysterious that countless WFM staffers have turned to US for an explanation!

I wish I could say that the WFM decision was a shock, but it wasn’t. An all out offensive against the Duggan Sisters brand (and the Duggan Sisters personally) had been going so full throttle for so many months that it had felt inevitable for quite awhile. Of course, we wish we had beaten them to the punch; but what small family business in its right mind would close 18 accounts that it had dedicated itself to building for the better part of 17 months. Actually, the “better part” cannot be said of those months. Some of the worst experiences of verbal abuse, coordinated deceit, butt covering and all around misogynistic bull crap comes closer to the truth.

A neighbor who happens to be a lawyer and social worker who had her own experience with the WFM ethos when trying to defend the rights of a developmentally disabled WFM employee captured it spot on, we think, when she looked us straight in the eye and said, “They’re just a bunch of misogynistic PR*#%S, don’t you think?” We couldn’t agree more.

We would deeply appreciate you reading our account of our grassroots endeavor’s doomed encounter with Whole Foods. Please know that the Duggan Sisters are more committed than ever to bringing you the finest, healthiest, most environmentally responsible and lymphatically sound deodorant we know how to make. Whole Foods Market “doesn’t like us.” We believe you still do and so we continue to make our products and sell through the finest ethical retailers worldwide and direct from our little cottage, as well.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Stay tuned.

 

Mary Duggan  

Click here to read to the whole story of the Duggan Sisters doomed encounter with Whole Foods.

 

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Duggan Sisters Attacked by Whole Foods Thug

Friday, April 27th, 2012

By Mary Duggan

Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.

by William Congreve, The Mourning Bride, 1697

As a young woman I entered into a really sick marriage. Well educated, meaningfully employed and facing a red-hot future, I walked head long and innocent into an abyss that derailed me – heart and soul – for over 14 years.  I know from abuse. Exposure now to interpersonal toxins registers with me physically: a bitter, metallic taste fills my mouth; my solar plexus swells and painfully tightens. My reaction is visceral, insistent and king-sized. I have successfully healed on many levels from that experience and I have painstakingly steered clear of abusive relationships ever since. I never imagined that business partnerships could so easily replicate the abusive model I had so struggled to overcome. Boy, was I wrong.

Our first kiosk and a supportive team leader. High hopes on DAY ONE.

In March of 2011 the Duggan Sisters loaded our lifestinks® deodorant products into our first Whole Foods Market, led an inspiring and informative training session for the staff, and filled a kiosk with our treasured products; an environmentally responsible and lymphatically sound deodorant system that represented the combined efforts of the three of us for the better part of a decade. When the kiosk finally looked as perfect as we could possibly make it, I turned to a stunned Clare and said “I have to get out of here NOW. Please, get me out of here!” On what should have been one of the happiest and most fulfilling days of my career, I was having THE REACTION and I was having it strong.

I am so powerfully attuned to abusive energy that I knew in one day what it would take our company collectively 10 months and a lot of anguish to comprehend. Many the bride knows the feelings of doom I was experiencing. They know they are making a terrible mistake; but, for a myriad of reasons, they walk down the aisle anyways. My journey this time was down the grocery aisle; but surviving and recovering from marital abuse gave me the insights and frame of reference I needed to identify the same beast in a new role. (more…)

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