There are times when a snow day should just be a let-it-go day. People tend to overreact in ways that could be avoided if everyone just chilled out and waited for the plows to do their work.

The folks at a Chicago Whole Foods store may be reconsidering a snow-related action that brought once-loyal customers into the snowy streets to protest an action taken against a working mom with a special-needs child. Such a scene was starkly at odds with the upscale grocer's carefully crafted image of good deeds and high-quality products and service.

In a nutshell (or snowball), here's what happened: Whole Foods employee Rhiannon Broschat stayed home on a snowy day because, she said, she couldn't find child care for her special needs son, whose school was closed due to the weather. When she called in the next day, she said, she was told she'd been fired for violating the company attendance policy.