stories:
The Ten
10 Reasons Why Whole Foods Is Annoying
For example: carob-glazed doughnut holes
By Lessley Anderson
1. Not Your Bag, Baby. If I buy an apple and an Odwalla and stick it in my purse, why don’t I get the five-cent bring-your-own-bag credit? My purse is a bag! Also: Don’t make me feel guilty because I want a credit instead of making a donation.
2. Deer in the Headlights. I ran in for a last-minute purchase. I was immediately hit with bright lights, air conditioning cranked up, seven-foot displays of chocolate, aisles that seemed to be a series of blind corners. Around me, zombied-out shoppers shuffled past in a narcotic haze. I fled and recalled the book Coercion, by Douglas Rushkoff, in which he talks about the moment when you enter a shopping mall and are suddenly stunned into paralysis. That state of zonked-out vulnerability, called the Gruen Transfer after an Austrian architect, is sought out by marketers so they can more easily “transfer” their messages. Drop by Whole Foods for flax seed oil and mind control!
3. Cheesy Nostalgia. Was it my imagination, or did Whole Foods used to give out free cheese samples?
4. Carob-Glazed Doughnut Holes. Macaroni and cheese, teriyaki wings, “Two-Bite Pecan Tarts” in a plastic tub, and prepackaged chicken quesadillas are very, very, very bad for you. Yes, even if they contain organic ingredients. It’s hard to buy Whole Foods’ we-love-healthy-eating shtick when a lot of its profits are made off stuff like this.
5. Cultural Literacy 101. On one visit, the guy at the smoothie counter seemed stuck in some kind of smoothie cultural backwater—his mind was blown when I asked him to blend espresso, chocolate, and a frozen banana into a drink. Then a hippie checker asked me if my Flying Burrito Brothers shirt was from a restaurant. I told him it was a seminal rock band from the ’70s.
6. Farmer John Doe. CEO John Mackey told writer Michael Pollan last year, in response to Pollan’s critique of Whole Foods favoring industrial organics, that the company was evaluating a “multi-tiered system for rating organic farms and meat producers.” It was supposed to create more transparency so we’d see what farm that tomato came from exactly. Still waiting.
7. The Biggest Disappointment Ever. When the Cupertino, California, Whole Foods opened, it was billed as the “biggest ever!” in the Bay Area. Yay, big! Just like all the people in the store, and the cars in the lot. Walking around the giant store tired me so much I had to buy the largest cupcake I’d ever seen from the bakery counter—it had a frosted bumblebee of prehistoric proportions on top. When I bit into the cupcake, I nearly croaked. Dry interior, gummy frosting, no buttery flavor or chocolate bite. I could barely carry the thing to the trash without throwing out my back.
8. Hide-and-Seek. CHOW’s test kitchen needed $100 worth of El Rey chocolate, for some make-your-own candy bars it was testing. Whole Foods had it—great! And the staff assured us that they’d have it next week too. They didn’t. When they finally restocked, the chocolate was all spoiled with white bloom and couldn’t be tempered.
9. Kumbay-Nah. What retailer wouldn’t want its store to have that vibrant, warm buzz of community? People stay, they buy. When one of the San Francisco Whole Foods opened, it had a DJ on site, but that didn’t work out so well. There’s still a coffee bar, pizza grill, and massage chair, though—all of which are empty. Maybe try a needle exchange?
10. Old Bean. What was a package of tofu with a three-month-past-expiration date doing on the shelf?
CHOW’s The Ten column appears every Tuesday.
Lessley Anderson is senior editor at CHOW.
Not more expensive? Maybe not for crackers, but egads, the fish counter is a joke. Why would I pay $25/lb for, say, swordfish, when Fairway has equally high quality fish for half the price?
since when can't you temper chocolate that has bloomed?? We used to do it all the time in culinary school....
The rest of this is more than a little silly - one person's experience with a cupcake - and expecting 5 cents back on the purchase of an apple? Really? That's the best you can do in explaining why Whole Foods is annoying? Come on...
Alice, I could swear I've read that certain types of bloomed chocolate cannot be retempered, though I believe most bloomed chocolate can be successfully retempered. Am I totally off?
But totally agreed on your second point. That's all they got? My biggest pet peeves are the high prices, and that I find a lot of their prepared foods to be unpalatable.
Also there's something else I can't quite put my finger on; I think the cynic in me finds something distasteful in fostering and commercializing a sort of New Agey, food/health as a fashion statement type of vibe. I kind of feel like the staff and clientele are judging me in a holier-than-thou and foodier-than-thou way. Can't quite explain it, but it bugs me.
But who am I to complain? They have beautiful produce.
Has anyone seen this news report? Whole Paycheck sells veggies grown in China as organic, even though they aren't! They are evil! I just go to the local farmers market for my produce.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0508...
Most of these are asinine, just plain wrong or both. #6 though, is right on.
I read the Pollan/Mackey exchange with great interest when it happened. To date, I've seen zero progress from Whole Foods on Mackey's promise.
My pet peeve about the Long island Whole Feeds near me is that it is near impossible to get the price per pound for most cheeses without picking up a piece and scanning the label for tiny print. Except that the best cheeses are kept in a very nice glass vault, with no prices posted at all, you have to ask and hope the clerk is nearby to unlock them. Really miss Fresh Fields, which this store used to be.
Re point 2: cf. Don Delillo, White Noise.
Re point 6: went to hear Mackey speak at NYU a few weeks ago, and they have actually come with a system for rating meat producers. However, it's a shitty system as it prioritizes things like "access to outside" above "no mutilation"! I'm not one of those people who hates Whole Foods: it's the only place I can find certain items (like panko without trans fats) but that pissed me off.
My "Why Whole Foods Is Annoying":
1) They're more expensive than the locally owned co-op that they replaced.
2) They're more pretentious than the locally owned co-op that they replaced.
Great and meaningful comments. I am a life-long WF critic but that said, have shopped there many, many times. They often provide certain things that no one else around them does. (See DC and Venice, CA.) Granted, they're easy to criticize when you hold a higher bar for yourself but there are clear manipulations of that mission. What does "conventionally" grown mean to your typical consumer? Prepped foods and HMR are now an industry standard, but it's often not healthy, not made from the best quality and is as howie said, unpalatable. They placed a local artists section in the Venice on,e but the meat still comes from NZ or Australia. When I lived in Sonoma the local markets carried FOUR BRANDS of local, grass fed beef. WTF! There's no excuse.
My only guess, is that they really don't give a shoe. It's a publicly traded, for-profit business—recall the CEO's stock-manipulation scam? They're expanding too fast and pay too little, hence the under-educated teams. My advice is, join the local co-op or CSA, cook for yourself, patronize local shops and make WF work harder for our dollars.
OMG, thanks so much for writing about Whole Foods. I used to shops at Mrs. Gooches in Thousand Oaks, CA. I was a new mommy and going there was the highlight of my day (almost 20 years ago)! It was soooo good. Then I moved to Dallas, TX (God help me) and the whole foods supermarket thing was just getting going. I would go to the one in Plano and feel normal again.
OK - bringing it up to date.
Now live in Italy. Yes, great food, just came from my local weekly market. Smallish, fun and happy people. Totally unlike the Whole Foods I go to in NYC (Union Square). Nobody there seems happy. Everyone, including the checkers are stonyfaced and so snobby. No one smiles or even tries to chat on line. The first time I went there and saw the line/check out system I was floored. Why wasn't anyone laughing at this!! Too big.
Ok - well thanks for the smile.
Laura
Trader Joe's is much more annoying than WF -- cutesy names, unnecessary packaging, and barely anything that's not pre-made convenience food.
Fortunately there are no Whole Foods in Québec (I don't know whether there are any elsewhere in Canada). Seems like an extreme example of "corporate organics".
Slagging "big" people is in very poor taste. Imagine if the author should experience a bout of weight gain in the menopause. It happens, eh?
Laura, I also have a lovely market to shop at nerby (Marché Jean-Talon). I have lived in Italy, and while there are more weekly markets and more real food, alas overprocessed crap is making inroads there too.
The first time I ever returned something to a grocery store, it was a container of Valrhona dark chocolate buttons from the Shadyside (Pittsburgh, PA) Whole Foods. They didn't look right, but I brought them home anyway--maybe they had just gotten dinged up when they were being meted out to the container. I ate a button to test them and actually spat the thing out--it was so bloomy it tasted like ash.
Alice Q, though I am a skillful cook, there are some techniques that are beyond my ability, and tempering chocolate is one of them, particularly when I was planning to eat the chocolate as is. I don't think it's wrong to expect fresh, quality merchandise that I can use straight out of the package from a store that calls itself Whole Foods.
how about reason #11. The troubles with cheese...
Ever gone to a WF and found a classic cheese (and expensive cheese) treated poorly - with lots of plastic wrap and direct hot overhead lights?? In my local WF, the highlighted cheese is usually piled up near a mound of fruit - perhaps for appearances. And does that cheese warm up? You betcha. After a day or so, it looks great too. Ask about it and the cheese person says - it's OK, it's hard (well not always and even so) or perhaps they say nothing at all. Sometimes they say it's OK , we take it in at night or we cover it or ... whatever... the solution... I shop elsewhere for cheese.
oh, when asked why they don't use a cheese spade to break parmesan - they say it's too much trouble... well at $18/lb (current price) it darn well shouldn't be. Want custom cut cheese wrapped in something other than plastic? well, they do try to accommodate... but don't always have appropriate wrap...
no biggie for a mass supermarket chain... but at WF prices... we do expect more...
What an awful article. Did you have fun slagging Whole Foods?
I don't love it -- I find the one WFM in Orange County overwhelming -- but it is a resource for things unavailable elsewhere (such as buffalo steak). And somehow I manage to get through the store without having to spend $5 on a cupcake so I can whinge about it to the Internet. My biggest problem with WFM is frankly the prices -- and I have no compunction, if I am there on a Saturday morning, about telling people that those "local, organic apples" at $2.99 a pound can be got at the Irvine farmers' market down the road for a third of the price.
As for the "big people" and the "big cars" -- let's just leave that with "people who live in glass houses". I'm sure you don't live a 100% sustainable, green, carbon-neutral, perfectly-healthy lifestyle, so do us all a favour and belt up, eh?
That was the most ridiculous article. So little of substance there. Only one of the issues were legitimate, specifically, #6.
The rest of it just made you look like a complaining fool who feels they are the coolest thing ever made, who feels the need to judge a 16 year for not knowing about an obscure rock band from several decades before they were born.
Way to be judgmental and closed minded. It really heightens your hip factor. It must be exhausting to be as hip as you.
re: #11. Cheese was just an example here. At my local WF, the hot foods table is often not hot (lukewarm much of the time if that), the refrigeration units are in desparate need of cleaning (product covering grates can hide a lot), we get expired date codes on high volume products, etc...
It's understood that this may not be your experience at your local store... your local market may be well run... however,...
The store in my town has had poor management (subjective admittedly) for years... nothing changes... these are housekeeping issues more than not... and could be fixed... but alas...
I smiled when I saw the title to this article. I agree about the blind corners. At my Whole Foods in the suburbs of Philly it is very hard to steer a cart when they are busy. I also agree with Laura about the atmosphere, it's not a happy place for sure although the last time I was there the cashier was sweet. I'm not sure what it is with most of the people, they seem to be taking themselves too seriously or something. Customers and employees I mean. Also the employees seem to stand around and stare at customers a lot. I notice these things because I consider myself a tourist there, just passing through to get produce or baked goods. Anyway it is not a relaxing fun place to go. I liked the crack about big cars because people have control over what size car they drive, but I'm not sure a crack about big people belongs on chowhound at all, that was jarring. Overall an enjoyable read, and now I'm making up my own top ten list. When I'm done I'm calling Letterman. :)
I agree with the problems with cheese. They are handled badly. Often, the cut and plastic wrapped cheeses have that refrigerator smell and taste. Now that's a crime at $15 a pound!
It's not at one shop either. I've experienced this in WLA, DC, NYC, Sebastopol, NO, even at their flagship in Austin. I think either they cut the cheese to early (yeah, yuk yuk) or there's just not fast enough turnover. Whatever, I'll stick to the factory shrink-wrapped or buy me cheese elsewhere.
This article is utterly moronic. I want my three and a half minutes back.
Nada.
>What an awful article.
>That was the most ridiculous article.
>This article is utterly moronic.
>
agreed. at least this author didnt suggest deaing with the
high prices at WFM by "taking souvenirs" ...
http://www.chow.com/stories/11297
[which was probably the dumbest article i've read here.]
The article may be a bit picky, but accurate nonetheless (at least as far as my weekly trips are concerned).
The prepared food is pretty bad (what do they do with an entire counter full of cooked meat anyway, you cant serve that after 1-2 days max)
There are two products we buy there weekly and if they run out (which has been the current situation all month) finding someone who can provide an actual answer other than "i'll tell the buyer" is impossible.
The produce is flown in from all over the world and I must say I have never tasted any of it that I would rate better than average. Sure, it looks amazing, but if the taste is bland and it had to be flown in from Peru, what's the point?
The bakery department is now a joke, they have 2-3 great items, but overall the quality has fallen off.
Overall, the service is still very solid, but there is a noticeable decline from the past.
(from my experiences with the Edgewater, NJ whole foods and occasional trips to union square)
hilarious, I hate Whole Foods, and avoid it as much as I avoid going to a McDonald's.
For those of you in Los Angeles, Super King markets (Orange Co. LA & Altadena) gives samples upon request on all cheeses AND deli meats...no open displays, lots of Eastern European specialties...produce is commercial but very, very reasonable, virtually no plastic packaging (well, salad mix in bags, etc) and good meat and fish choices.
I used to enjoy Wild Oats (bought out by WF), haven't tried the new WF on Arroyo in Pasadena..
In Atlanta, Whole Foods bought out what was essentially a gourmet grocery. While those locations retain the old name, Harry's Farmer's Market, in the interest of being healthy and wholesome, they have slowly discontinued many of the items I used to purchase (ranging from Hebrew National deli mustard to more recently Citterio salami's. The variety and quality of the produce has declined as well (you can't buy a decent tomato ever it seems). However, there seems to be more and more room for prepared dishes!
re: cupcakes, their bakery is really bad. everything is pretty and tasteless, which makes it more of a disappointment biting in. I agree it's an annoying big store experience, coercion-style.
Again, I don't think it's news to anyone that a for-profit corporation is doing what other for-profit corporations do. But that said, WF raised the bar for themselves by choosing and marketing themselves as a social responsible business. We just say, put your money where your mouth is. Don't use deception, smoke and mirrors to sell the same products you can get at a Ralphs. (Which btw, along with Albertsons, Pavillions, etc. are all getting better, party because of what WF has done.) They claim to be leader, which they are in many aspects. Just don't drop the ball because the quantity of your stores is now more important the quality of your experience.
It's this type of sh*t I'm talking about: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008...
The whole article can be summarized:
"Whaaaa...Whaaaa!! Nothing in the world can possibly meet my expectations. Every store should only sell exactly what I deem worthy and only allow people as cool as me to shop there! Whaa!!"
Last year I went to work for WF and boy was I disappointed. All they care about is the bottom line $$$$$$. They don't give a rat's a** about their employees. My manager was actually abusive in front of customers, as well. I worked in prepared foods and believe me you wouldn't want to know what was going on in the back. YUCK! They actually had me doing things that I wasn't hired to do and ended up disabled. Haven't been back in 8 months. I go to my local farmers markets and locally owned markets to shop where I am treated well and the prices are fair. Also, the same people are always working. WF has a huge turn over. They don't care.
An overpriced disappointment anymore. I was in the Portland, Maine store weeks ago only to have a dried out "blueberry" muffin that was tossed after a few bites of berryless sucro-carbo cake.
We in the Collegeville, PA area anxiously await our new Wegman's under construction on Rt. 29. Now THERE'S a supermarket!
I also worked for Whole Foods (for 5 years) as a team leader at one of their distribution centers. A couple of times that I went to the store as a customer, I had bad experiences and mentioned it to my boss but nothing was really done. TIl this day, I do not shop at WF because it doesn't have a friendly atmosphere. Everyone there, workers and customers seem unhappy.
Fairway kicks the stuffing out of whole foods... still free samples, and when I want to try a cheese I haven't bought before, I can get a taste before deciding. Produce is better, protein is cheaper and just as good, and they are actually supporting the local communities in areas with lousy job opportunities.
I'm referring to Fairway Market in Red Hook, Brooklyn, FWIW. I've never spent more than the occasional trip through Whole Foods, and can't honestly appreciate what the special point of it is.
Here in Portland we have a truly LOCAL place called New Seasons which is light years ahead of WF. Fortunately it has contained the proliferation or WF outlets to only about five.
The last straw for me: they were out of an advertised item. I asked for a rain check and they refused, saying it wasn't their policy. Perhaps so. But it is also against Oregon law. It's called Bait & Switch.
Not to challenge your hipster cred, but The Flying Burrito Brothers were as much a country band as a rock band.
In Vancouver, BC, Whole Foods recently took over a local chain of superior quality natural food stores called Capers Community Markets.
Vancouverites had enjoyed many years of calm, honest, intelligent customer service, reasonable prices, dozens of on-site baked goods made from scratch with mostly organic/high quality ingredients (and ingredient lists posted with each item), a clean, logical, attractive interior and quality evident throughout. After 14 years of almost shopping there, I cannot recall a single bad experience (and I'm critical).
But Whole Foods has managed to cheapen every aspect of the Capers markets in a few short months. Cheap ingredients were substituted for the wholesome ones, (though ingredients lists weren't updated), vegetarian foods were moved to mingle with meats, huge garish posters were hung from the ceilings, product displays are continually springing up in walking areas,
Two things that strike me most are that the almost complete turnover of staff and amount of plastic products and product containers EVERYWHERE I turn there.
The site-made dishes are now twice as salty, the salad bar is messy and dirty. Cheap, artificial mixtures have replaced some of the fresh, raw salad ingredients. There was a stunning increase in BMI in the new staff vs. the Capers staff. There's a hypertense vibe there, the staff intelligence level has dropped dramatically - I don't have the patience to recount the problems I've had with two simple product inquiries since the takeover.
I don't understand how they've grown their business so well, it's not pleasant to shop at Whole Foods and I have only been there twice in the past 2 months, whereas I used to shop at Capers nearly daily. A number of friends and neighbours have given up on WF recently and luckily we have another chain of similar stores to fall back on, though their baked goods aren't in the same league as the old Capers ones were.
My husband and I now refer to WF as A55-Whole Foods, because their greed is palpable.
I generally disliked this article, but I especially took issue with #4. I think we're all pretty well in the know about doughnut holes and what not being bad for us. I'm thrilled that Whole Foods offers organic / natural versions of these products, though, because even though they're sugar or calorie bombs, some of us have health conditions that necessitate avoiding certain ingredients that would be impossible to do with the regular supermarket versions of these products. I have an autoimmune disease that's triggered by many chemicals, and it's really nice to have the option of buying doughnut holes and prepared foods that I can enjoy on occasion.
The Richmond area got a WF last month as well as a Trader Joe's, which kind of surprised me since the Ukrop's chain has a pretty firm hold on the area as far as reasonably upscale grocery shopping goes. I'd been to WF previously in the DC area and San Francisco so I knew somewhat what to expect. If you insist on organic or grass-fed meat this is really the only place to get a decent selection--Richmond has a "farmer's market" which supposedly has meat vendors but I've been there five times at different times of the year and have never seen one. Otherwise they compare to Ukrop's and do beat their prices on some things, but since the place is 22 miles from my house it's not worth a weekly trip.
Yeah, much of it's true, but I still shop there. They're friendly, they staff the darn registers, I can get pretty much anything I need there (which isn't true at the local co-op), most of it's pretty good and at least somewhat checked out by somebody for nasty substances, and they don't preach at me, which is more annoying than most of these minor matters. And berating a young person for not knowing who the Flying Burrito Brothers are is pretty poor.
Hi Lessley,
My name is David Lannon and I am president of whole foods in Northern California. If you would like to meet and have a cup of coffee, I would love to discuss how we can improve our stores.
For everyone who commented on this article if you have any individual issues you would like to see addressed please send me an e-mail at david.lannon@wholefoods.com. take care-David
Hi Lessley-
I think Whole Foods ROCKS!!!!!!!!!
Hi Lessley-
I think Whole Foods ROCKS!!!!!!!!!
Hey now, have you REALLY compared prices? I just finished my Business degree at a state University and did a price comparision project. Our group really tried to bash Whole Foods, but our results wouldn't let us. First of all, thier 365 products are priced about 30% less than the Safeway Organics products, and we compared item to item, Look at each store's pasta; O organics 1 lb spaghetti is about $2.59 while the same item at Whole Foods, 365 organic pasta is priced $1.19. Our data was collected at random times over a 6 month period. Each time Whole Foods came up less expensive. Yes, some cheeses and meats were higher priced at Whole Foods, but it wasn't item to item, Safeway doesn't carry the same cheeses or types/grades of meat.
As for the bag refund, jeez, 5 cents are you really that desperate? I'll send you a dollar for your next 20 trips. And I believe the nickel program is to encourage people to bring thier own bags when they shop and to reduce waste. Again, curiousity strikes me, would you still use your purse for your purchases at other stores that don't give refunds?
As for samples, were you getting samples or eating meals? I know the policy allows for the customer to try ANYTHING they want in the store.
I wonder, have you been anywhere that is perfect? I've seen past due dates in every store I have ever shopped. Mistakes are made, I assume even you have made a mistake, or even two in your life. If it is expired, don't purchase it, it might make you sick. And maybe bring it to somebody's attention to have it removed from the shelf.
Not everyone knows who The Flying Burrito Brothers were. At least the guy was trying to be nice instead of other places I've been were I barely get acknowledged.
Whole Paycheck?!?! Try this on for size:
I’d depleted my favorite convenient frozen staple ( Amy’s bean and cheddar burrito ) and I foolishly decided to stagger over to the Safeway in my neighborhood to fetch a supply ( which is within walking distance from my apartment ).
Amy’s frozen burritos are $1.10 more at Safeway … not 20 cents, 50 cents, but a $1.10 ... !!!
Safeway: $4.89
WFM: $3.79
Safeway, Ingredients for Strife™
"There was a stunning increase in BMI in the new staff vs. the Capers staff. "
What in the world does this have to do with anything?
Whole Foods is a great palce for buying specific items, but the idea of shopping there on a weekly basis is crazy. Still, it's a business, not a coop, why do people expect businesses to act in ways that are contrary to their own best interests? As soon as they became a publicly traded company, their primary objective became to make money for their shareholders.
If you don't like their policies, or their products, tell them with your wallet; find another place to shop.
I think it is fascinating that, following the post from David Lannon, who says he is with WF, the comments became so much more complimentary. Good grief !
My experience with WF was in Sarasota, FL. Ooooh you had to be hotsy-totsy, and the staff would have been considered rude, if they had even noticed customers. The prices were outrageously high. The layout was absurd. And, they constructed the ugliest box of a building imaginable. Who could ask for more?
It is my understanding that chocolate bars are tempered when you buy them. When a chocolate bar looses its temper you see that white stuff. I don't think that means you can not then retemper the chocolate so long as it is heated to the proper temperature hence melting the crystals and starting anew.
Since apparently, it's part of WF culture to bash competitors before making a hostile buy-out offer, I do not discount the possibility that any positive comments aren't from WF employees or management.
Sorry, but you deserved that.
Wow, and I thought that my ability to buy excellent quality fish, perhaps the best assortment of produce I have ever seen, and a great bakery to boot was just fortunate. In SantaFe, where I live, WF is hands down the one stop I make for preparing dinners.
Yes I still have to go to Albertsons for my wife's Diet Coke, and a few other items, but that's why they call it shopping.
Here in New York, there is NOTHING that Whole Foods sells that I could not get more easily and usually more cheaply somewhere else, whether at the food co-op, the farmers market, Fairway, or any one of hundreds of ethnic markets and health food stores throughout the city. The prices! The lines! the unhappy harassed workstaff! Oy vey! Of course, this all goes triple for Trader Joe's.
This list is lame. If it's all that you can come up with, Whole Foods looks pretty good in my book.
Hey, first, the title says "Annoying", and the article lists things that annoyed the author. So some of them are petty; many annoying things are.
Waste of time? Nobody forced you to read it, and you could have quit after the first couple of points.
I agree about the cheese--why must they wrap it in plastic? I get that it's easier to just grab a piece of cheese rather than have to ask the person behind the counter to slice it fresh and then wrap it in paper, but still, at those prices, I'd like my cheese to be properly care for.
In defense of my local WF, however, I must say that the staff is really friendly and helpful and those on the check-out counters are nothing but kind and chatty (in a good way). The produce at our WF is labeled in regards to which farm if it's local, and sometimes even if it comes from WA or CA. Yes, the prepared foods and soups are sooo salty, that I can't stand, but I'm there to shop for ingredients, anyway. I don't find ours to be a zonked out weirdly hypnotic place at all. Maybe we're just lucky at our branch in NJ!
What's really wrong with Whole Foods?
1. Prices - 'Nuff said
2. I completely agree with #4. It's a store filled with plastic packages of junk food that we're supposed to buy because it's organic and therefore somehow good for us.
3. For all their pretense at political correctness, the bulk of their produce comes from California (I am on the east coast) and Central America.
4. When the WF I often shop at was Wild Oats, they had tons of bulk bins, so I could buy just a few of something expensive like nuts or a paricular grain. Now I have to buy their prepackaged nuts and fruits, which means more solid waste and more money.
5. Good question about the bag. If I put it in my purse, why does it count for less than if I brought a reusable bag?
If I can get out of there on a Sunday night with some nice inexpensive wine ,i'm happy.Cheerfull ,competent staff does cost more I presume,so I guess they are paid better than thier contemporaries.As for the food -they really pissed me off when they offered a house brand cereal I really enjoyed and then ceased to replenish the shelves with it.Typical corporate culture of dominiating the market with choice and then removing everything except the most popular / profitable lines when you've killed the competition.The "zonked out weirdly hypnotic" stores are all on the Left Coast I believe?BTW ..... When are the Bio Diesel Gas pumps going to be installed and Darryl Hannah clones available for purchase to customers in NJ? Stick with the wine - you'll be much happier !
Finally, someone willing to utter some truths about the sacred Whole Foods. First of all, let me say that there are a lot of things I like about my area Whole Foods. But unfortunately, there is one huge exception - their prepared foods. I am at a loss as to how they could fail so miserably on this one.
The absolute worst is the buffet. Not only do they never change the selection, but no matter what time I come in, most everything is all dried up and totally unappetizing looking. (I have read other complaints about this regarding Whole Foods in other cities). There is not much variation in flavor either because most everything is loaded up with the same hot spices. In fact, I'm seeing a lot of Mexican type casseroles. Casseroles? Please! The only thing that isn't spicy is the fish. But that's usually rubberized, and swimming in an inch and a half of milky grease.
The soups are also a problem. Most are so spicy-hot that consuming them is a kind of torture. And the creamed soups are usually curdled from being boiled. Plus after having been sitting in a steam table all day, many are condensed down to nearly a paste or have a crust over the top.
Then there's the bakery. The bread is good, but the $1.99 each bakery goods are a real disappointment. The selection is totally lacking in imagination. Aside from cookies and muffins, the rest of it is all variations of "danish" made from their croissant dough. Once topped or filled with canned pie filling and brushed with glaze, it becomes as tough as soggy cardboard.
Just yesterday I tried a new selection, a blackberry scone. It was horrible! I should have known because it looked like an odd, giant cake cookie. It ended up being over-baked on the bottom, tasteless, and reminded me of a baking powder drop biscuit from a boxed mix.
But it does no good to point any of this out to Whole Foods. They are so full of themselves at this point that they can get away with anything. And many Whole Foods customers seemed to be so brain-washed they have lost all sense of what they are entitled to for these kinds of prices.
Oh, I forgot to mention the banana nut muffin I also bought from Whole Foods Market yesterday. It ended up being unlike any real food product I have ever tasted. In fact, it tasted like a piece of Juicy Fruit gum that was left lying in the bottom of my purse for too long. I'm not kidding.
The Whole Foods near me in Dallas was rebuilt across the street -- larger, slicker etc. . They're competing hard in Austin, Dallas and Houston with foodie-paradise Central Market, a subsidiary of HEB Grocery chain. Given my choice, I'd rather have a CM in my neighborhood, but I'm not going to drive across town every time I want organic grass-fed beef etc. The biggest joke about the store is its upstairs "spa" -- where they've moved the wonderful chair massages. I bought a regular full-body massage there and was shocked at the price -- until I was told that the price already included the gratuity. Well, excuse me -- but when I'm buying a personal service like a massage, I want to control the gratuity. Otherwise, what's the point? Ironically very socialistic in a chain that is more and more fitting the profile of a typical megacorporation. Their holier-than-thou attitude about organic or "no chemicals" is laughable when you consider how little (as in Nothing) they're doing to promote the development of non-salt seasonings in goods. What reduced-sodium Amy's Soups are available, I can usually find there -- but Whole Foods could play a leadership role in reducing sodium in all packaged foods. Sodium is killing people more quickly and sooner through high blood pressure than a lot of the ingredients that Whole Foods condemns with a sniff. When I sent a letter to this effect through the website, I never got a response. Wal-Mart may influence their suppliers too much, but at least they use their market position to demand changes/products wanted by their customers.
Wholefoods is a godsend to our neighborhood where bodegas charge $10 for 4 rolls of toilet paper and the fruit is the "throwouts" from safeway. Sheesh. It was dream come true when they opened!
The Wal-Mart of the food industry. Support your local retailers and markets. How anyone shops there, especially in places like NYC when there are so many other options is beyond me. Would love to see Whole Foods crash and burn
Wow! Almost totally lacking in substance. This "article" has "filler" written all over it.
(...and did a price comparision project.)
BodeT: Would you please give the citation for your study? I'd like to read it.
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(If you don't like their policies, or their products, tell them with your wallet; find another place to shop.)
lulubelle: Already do. Unfortunately they took over a lower price, easier to navigate, and friendlier staffed Wild Oats. And immediately shut it down. TJ's is so much better, my local grocery store and others sell pretty good organic produce, and I'd need another mortgage to buy WP's cheese.
I think it is sad that so many people are so passionately predjusticed against Whole Foods. They do so many things that are right, but most of you ignore that. If there are issues with your local store's product or staff, tell the manager. Complaining about it here may make you feel better, but it's not solving anything.
ABC's The Goode Family, which just ended it's run, showed a parody of Whole Foods called One Earth on all of it's episodes.
They had a changing board of what was good or bad to do.
Wow, bitter much, author? And nice comment about having a "needle exchange" at the SF store. It must be difficult for you to live among such an embarrassment of riches that you can complain about nonsense.
WF is great for their variety of cheeses, canned tomatoes, olives and breads and their chicken is also very good. everything else is just hippy corporate products. If you are going to Trader "Guiseppes" or to WF for prepackaged foods then it seems to me that you are missing the point of actually eating healthy or natural anyway. This notion of farmers markets, organic shops and naturally raised meat vendors has been bastardized by yet another corporation. i just shop at the local asian market, i dont care if the produce was grown in china, how unhhealthy can it be? there are 4 times more chinese than americans, must be somewhat healthy, no?