Oh, Whole Foods...let me count the ways in which I loathe you.
A few grievances, just to scratch the surface:
1) With all your size and clout, you still manage to have about 2/3rds NON-organic produce, and at outrageous prices. Additionally, most of your house-brand "365" products seem not to be organic either. Way to score for the environment!
2) You have apparently decided that stinking, rotten, gag-inducing CHEESE is the backbone of your business, as you've positioned thousands of pounds of it throughout the store so as to be inescapable, bludgeoning shoppers with the smell of it at nearly every turn.
3) Again, with your size/clout, you offer very little incentive for newcomers to try health foods by keeping all prices ridiculously lofty. Similarly, you make it hard for anyone with a limited budget to buy much of anything. Hardly anything is ever on sale. And $3 for a block of tofu? $2.50 for a fucking vegan cookie or snack-sized spinach pie? Those should be 99-cent items at a store like yours, there is simply no excuse. Way to alienate most everyone except yuppies!
4) Your selection of vegan products is insulting; I've been in plenty of stores half your size (The Wedge, Heritage, etc) that seem to actually consider vegans an important part of their business and cater to them with more meat analogs, desserts, baked goods, convenience foods, etc. I suppose you're too busy tracking down the latest cheeses, free-range Sea Spiders and farm-raised Bison Lunchmeat to care much about that though.
5) You are anti-union, and brazen enough to write that your "Team Members" are so happy working there that they would never fathom needing to stick up for themselves.
Having been in the "natural foods" consumption game for a while now, I find myself quite frustrated with the options we have in Chicago. Frequent trips to Milwaukee (not a city that calls to mind Earth Mothers or vegan bakery) have put Chicago's piss-poor offerings in stark relief. You'd think that for a city our size, we'd have a plethora of health food stores and vegan options aplenty. Unfortunately, much like the Starfucks deathgrip on our coffeshop situation, we fall on our face when it comes to health food outside of MegaStore chain bullshit like Whole Foods (and Trader Joe's, to a lesser extent).
On the north side we have Sherwyn's as the largest non-chain store, but they are, like so many others, essentially a vitamin-and-suppliment store, bursting with Atkins, Keto, and Whey-Blaster bullshit and giving about half of their space over to natural foods and products, towards the back of the store. After Sherwyn's we have a couple of mom-and-pop stores that are okay, but lack the size to stock much of anything (and hours that basically prohibit me from making it there).
To add insult to injury, I can't help thinking of the ample and accessible natural foods sections of both Rainbow Foods in Minneapolis and Pick-n-Save in Milwaukee and comparing that to the nonexistent smattering of crap that Jewel and Dominick's grudgingly carry, all scattered about the store.
If anyone has any suggestions for places to go (or their own grievances to air), please feel free to do so in the comments section. Ugh.
Posted by pj at December 4, 2003 12:49 PMTrader Joe's is good, though of course, I'm not vegan so I can't quite grieve as hard as you do. However, in Chicago I think the ethnic supermarkets are where it's at. Jes has pinholed a ton of these places on Fuck Corporate Groceries .net of course, so be sure to read her site regularly. And check her resources. Here's a project we should plan, places to shop!
Posted by: Naz at December 4, 2003 05:29 PMShopping in Chitown sux0r. FCG is a great resource uh-huh. Whole Foods, yes annoying (the recent store rearrange on Ashland made it much worse) but they keep me well stocked with nutritional yeast, gluten flour and last minute organics. Stanleys has some Organic (mostly greens) and dirt cheap prices. Otherwise i really don't shop at stores anymore. I get's all my Organic Goodness from King's Hill Farm CSA, yo. Fuck em all... bastards!
Posted by: d4ve at December 5, 2003 10:48 AMsadly, whole foods was founded in austin, texas. all of your complaints are true and are well-intended by the founder. i hear he's a real ass. avoid it at all costs.
Posted by: sarah g at December 6, 2003 11:12 AMI think Dave is right on this one -- and while I can't speak for Chicago, I can speak for New York: Organic/health food co-ops and farms are the way to go. Paying a share monthly/annually and having vegetables delivered to a common locale in the city from an organic, independent farm is even an option.. and normally a greater number of members decreases the fare.
I've never stepped foot into Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and don't intend to. It's pretty clear they're not made to appeal to the true backbone of vegan/vegetarian/organic culture(s) but rather to draw in yuppies who think it's "neat" to buy soy cheese this month.
-joe.
Posted by: Joseph X. at December 8, 2003 09:09 AMNice post, but I have to ask, what are you alluding to with the title?
Posted by: dorothy at December 10, 2003 08:50 AMHey, I stumbled upon our blog a while ago. Although I'm not even a vegetarian I like to eat healthy food. The produce in normal supermarkets (Jewel etc.) is discusting but Whole Foods is just too expensive for most people. A store that big should be able to discount, isn't that how that's supposed to work? If I'm going to spend that much I will find a tiny mom & pop store since they will appreciate my buisness more. I didn't even like how tomatoes tasted until I left the country and realized that American produce generally sucks.
Posted by: Megan at December 10, 2003 01:58 PMHi,
You mentioned Earth Mothers, just curious if it was our restaurant in River North. If not, you might check us out. We have lots of vegan options.
Posted by: Liz Sturrock at December 10, 2003 03:42 PMjen and i get a half-share from kings hill farm each weekend. no complaints here, i definitely recommend it!
Posted by: allan at December 10, 2003 04:10 PM...Well, one alternative which is sometimes worth it, is Diamond Organics, in California. check then out at www.diamondorganics.com they are not cheap but have fantastic produce, baked goods, grains, teas and just about everything..available for overnight shipping. The stuff looks photo-shoot quality. They have 'sampler' boxes which are the best deals and the FEDX price is included...
a splurge..and good to know about when you live 1 hr from a Wild Oats or Whole Foods, as I do.
Posted by: Terri at December 10, 2003 05:19 PMyeah whole foods may suck with their designer look and yuppie marketing, BUT you may not realize that 25 or 30 years ago when I first realized you are what you eat there was nothing like whole foods. There were vitamin stores. You were lucky to find anything FRESH, OR ORGANIC! Get over it. back in the day I drove over two hours one direction for a natural foods market with produce, and to yet another destination about the same distance to get herbs.You couldn't even buy herbs in prepared tinctures. You don't like it, don't shop there. Start an Organic community garden and stop bitching. The most powerful message you can send to these entities is not to shop there!
Posted by: vanessa at March 10, 2004 09:01 AM