Community Chat

[ValuSkr]

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@Pearlee wrote:

BTW - I find Fresh Market to be pricey also. 

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LOL.  The Fresh Market is in a class unto itself price-wise.  It makes Whole Foods' prices look reasonable.  I expect The Fresh Market near me to close soon - a Wegmans opened in November only 1/2 mile away.

[Sooner]

We LOVE Whole Foods!  In our store, the produce is great and lots of things will be on sale and organic, so I buy those an cook them that week.  Most of our cooking is from scratch.  They have good sales on meat, and the quality is great too.  I buy sale stuff--so don't get worked up about the prices.

I like a lot of the 365 their own brand sauces, pastas and such.  THere is a lot of expensive stuff there, but you can find very good prices as well  

They have bundles featured a lot--we bought a roast (it was great) and got a big box of beef stock, a round load of bread, and some other things with it at a good price.  These are usually by the door.

Check the meat dept. for good sales and throw somein the freezer!  

[qbetzforreal]

We love Whole Foods. Good quality of NGH meats and produce.  Locally grown organic produce and fair trade sustanable items.

[qbetzforreal]

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@gardensla wrote:

Even though I live in a major city (L.A.) we don't have stellar options for grocery stores (no Wegmans, Publixx, etc) so I do shop at Whole Foods for produce, fish and meat (I'm a veg, but BF eats animals), bread, flowers and a few other items that I prefer to be organic, or in the case of fish, sustainably caught and not farmed. For staples, like others, I head to a regular grocery store. 

One reason I like to shop at Whole Foods as it's not a huge superstore--when I'm on the way home from work and just need to eat, I can hop in there, grab something from the prepared foods and be on my way. 

The WF near us is always, always jammed no matter the time of day. 

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I'm in LA as well.  And Von's, Ralph's and Albertson's are less than stellar chains.  We go to Whole Foods for the good stuff.

[missy1]

They are nice ,but expensive imo. I prefer TJ.

[Puzzle Piece]

Living in a large city, we have more than several.  I enjoy the products I purchase there. 

[ECBG]

Ours is about two years old.  I didn't shop the grocery part because it was across from work.  The bakery area is beautiful.

At work we were all happy to see the large buffet area where you could select great looking hot foods as well as a fantastic salad bar.  

Every bite of the hot food tasted like you had just poured the whole bottle of spice in your mouth.  I tried it twice and threw it away.  Also found out they bring in their cooked food, they're not cooking in the back.

They do have a beautiful seating area and ours had an outdoor one upstairs with music.

One of my customers had taken her elderly mother and a friend over there for lunch.  It upset their stomach.

You may want to go for the bakery.

[SeaMaiden]

The whole foods markets where I live  only open in the upper class yuppi areas....so they are far and few between. Good reason. They are over priced on everything! I would not shop there  even if it was next door to me. I have several nice markets I shop at and get great deals without getting ripped off. 

[jaxs mom]

I love Whole Foods, much better selection and bigger than Trader Joes. 

[Moonchilde]

There are multiple Whole Foods around me as well as multiple Trader Joes.  They cater to very different customers.

Whole Foods trades on the belief that if you label something organic and/or "healthy/healthIER", people will (1) believe you out of hand, and that (2) those with high amounts of disposable income will flock there in droves to be able to say they shop there and make sure friends & neighbors know they do.

It's very much a status symbol, i.e. I can afford to shop here, I don't shop at the proletariat chains, and I clearly care more about my health than "the rest of you" do. That about sums it up.

There are farmers markets everywhere that sell organic produce for half of what WF sells it for, not to mention the supermarket chains also sell organic.

It's all down to how much money are you happy to spend there.

ETA that I have spent plenty of $$ at WF in my days of infatuation with it, patronized it regularly for about a year. I just got tired of paying double and not receiving a product worth double to me.