Article

Should retail selling floors encourage English-only?

Whole Foods is reviewing its language policy after two Spanish-speaking workers said they were suspended for complaining about it.

June 11, 2013

The following is an excerpt from a recent conversation on RetailWire, reproduced here with kind permission.

Whole Foods Market last week indicated it was reviewing its employee language policy after two of its Spanish-speaking workers in New Mexico said they were suspended for complaining about it.

Whole Foods officials insisted that the employees at its Albuquerque store were suspended for "rude" behavior but the possible existence of an English-only language rule created a firestorm across the internet. The New Mexico League of United Latin American Citizens threatened a nationwide boycott of Whole Foods if changes weren't made within a week.

"I couldn't believe it," worker Bryan Baldizan told The Associated Press. "All we did was say we didn't believe the policy was fair. We only talk Spanish to each other about personal stuff, not work."

In a statement, Whole Foods claimed the overall incident was a misunderstanding and it does "not have 'no foreign languages spoken' policies in any of our stores." Still, it has a policy that English is its default language for "consistent communication, inclusion, and especially for safety and emergency situations."

The company issued the statement in both English and Spanish.

The statement added that the store's management launched a full investigation and concluded that the two workers were never told that they could not speak Spanish. Regardless, Whole Foods indicated it "will be looking at written guidelines across our multiple regions on this front to ensure clarity."

RetailWire BrainTrust comments:

This is a complicated question and goes far beyond what language should be spoken on the sales floor.

I live in Miami, and I don't speak Spanish. This means I can't really communicate with my gardener, cleaning lady, or half the people I run into on a daily basis.

The core question is really: "Should the U.S. adopt a national language?" My answer is a resounding yes. We have been forced into a position where we must provide bi-lingual education and signage (although down here, there are places where there's nothing bi- about it, it's all Spanish all the time).

Normally I'm considered pretty liberal, but on this one I am unambivalent. I want to preserve the English-speaking aspect of our culture. I think it's important. So yes, stores should have spoken language policies, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. - Paula Rosenblum, Managing Partner, RSR Research

There is no easy answer. There may be a rationale for two types of policies. On the one hand, there may be a policy for communication among employees to speak one language so that all internal company information can be made and understood by all employees. There may be another policy for communicating with customers that allows employees to use the language of the customer. There are certainly pros and cons to both approaches. Whatever company policy is used, employees cannot be discriminated against. - Camille P. Schuster, Ph.D., President, Global Collaborations, Inc.

Let's set Whole Foods aside for a moment. I believe they probably did have an "English only" rule—whether formal or informal, but we'll never know for sure. As the other panelists have indicated, this is a sticky question.

We live in a society which is becoming (at a minimum) bilingual and yet, unlike other multilingual societies, we have few standards for managing language. Clearly, associates speaking in a foreign language in front of an English-only speaking customer is often perceived as rude. At the same time, customers more comfortable in Spanish or another language—say Arabic here in Detroit—are often better served by bilingual employees. Of course, if an English-only speaker hears employees speaking to a customer in another language they can still be put off.

The best long-term solution to me is to make sure that Americans catch up to the rest of the world and become multilingual. That would solve a lot of problems, and not just at retail. - Ryan Mathews, Founder, ceo, Black Monk Consulting

Maybe I am a Pollyanna on this one, but let the free market decide. If a store chooses to allow employees to speak Pig Latin and it allows them to achieve their marketing, sales, financial goals—go team! If shoppers do not frequent that store in favor of one that "only" speaks their preferred language, then the owner has a choice to make (stay the course to destruction, or change). 

When I go to an ethnic restaurant, I want to hear the native tongue. Somehow, that is part of the experience for me. (Having Italian food served by someone named Skip or having a plate of Moo Goo Gai Pan brought to the table by Buffy makes it taste less authentic.) So, in some instances, shopping (or eating) is as much "theater" as anything else. I get real hesitant when we start to use phrases like, "they should," or "they need," or "they ought to." I trust the shopper to make decisions and businesses to adapt (or fail) on those merits (or basis). - David Zahn, Owner, ZAHN Consulting, LLC

(Photo by Seth Anderson.)