Overpriced prepared foods/foodstuffs (The hatin' on Whole Foods thread)

That kind of freaks me out too though, I'm curious as to who buys pre-seasoned meats, for example, especially at such a premium. Is it that hard to spice these things yourself?

I guess pre-sliced veggies and fruits also fall in this category.

The nutritional value and general tastiness is declining the longer they sit out there.

Good call with the watermelon/pineapple exception.

I admit to having purchased a couple of premade small soups at Fairway before to have for when I got home very late while I was in school.

xpost oh god the chaos in the aisles of Fairway, that used to drive me mad but I kind of miss it now as there was a method to the madness and also quite a huge amount of delicious things. Their cheese section was actually great.

Um except whole fish which I'm scared of.

I bought pre-chopped onions once. They lasted about two days in the fridge before they went bad.

Not so confident with my own baking skills

NOT the old people.

ew, those are funky.

normally they're very easy to peel yourself but if you're making chicken w/ 40 cloves or something it does take a while.

Oh yeah I can understand that. I had a similar space issue at my old apartment (compounded by having, like, two small overhead cabinets for the entire kitchen). And there are occasions when you realize you forgot to get something and you run to the store and they ONLY have it in the pre-niced, bagged form, which kind of sucks.

I don't understand why canning or jarring a food generally makes it less expensive when putting it in a bag or a tupperware-esque container makes it more expensive.

Huh!? Didn't we get the tilapia?

I never buy meat at Whole Foods here. It's too expensive and I know other, better places which don't cost as much. I don't buy produce there, either, as it's astronomically expensive too. I buy cheese there and stuff like imported butter and whatnot, just 'cause that's one surefire place to find it.

I think we got some snacks at the WH at Columbus Circle. It was insanely busy the day I was there.

I buy the bags of pre-mixed lettuce and salad, I admit.

Are you ppl serious about the garlic thing? WAHT?

That's a walk in the park compared to chilli juice cock, Ally.

i used to know someone like this too... he didn't know anything about food and didn't really care but always made a point of going to these see-and-be-seen restaurant openings and then telling everyone HE WAS THERE.

jbr, no! That's the best way! The only way in my mind tho I seen people actually sit there and carefully peel them--I don't know why.

I still don't understand why things that are tinned/jarred

haha exactly! when else in life do you get to whack things with a knife? it's so cathartic.

Oh yeah, aluminum foil kinda works!

This way, I cut prep time substantially and can actually cook at home and have leftovers to take to school/work. Otherwise I really would quite seriously eat out all the time, which would not only be more expensive, but make me monstrously fat.

I'm a full time law student, though, which is like the mother of all excuses for taking advantage of things like expensive convenience foods. It also works for avoiding phone calls from relatives and parties for people you know socially but don't really want to hang out with.

Chinatown, man!

i whack the whole clove in a plastic bag against the counter-top. this makes the clove come apart. then i press a knife on top of the pieces and this sheds the skin easily. mimimal peeling ensues. doesn't take more than a couple of minutes.

i hated garlic presses even before reading kitchen confidential. they do something really horrible to garlic.

Like this, but bigger and more stainless-steely:

http://www.peasandcornco.com/images/products/TLEA.jpg

More nefarious are those fantastic orange juicing machines that run upwards of 3500$ and enable you to dump cases of oranges in and bottle the ORANGE GOLD that runs out.

And they're positioning themselves for "savings":

Whole Foods Talks Dollars and Cents
By MICHAEL BARBARO

With its white-apron-clad chefs, who whip up almond crusted flounder for $14.99 a pound, and its rows of hard to pronounce cheeses (consider bleu D'Auvergne, best paired with a Rhône red wine), Whole Foods Market has always felt like the Saks Fifth Avenue of supermarkets.

But the organic food emporium, all but synonymous with gastronomic indulgence, now wants to be known for something else: low prices.

Yes, low prices.

For the next 10 weeks, Whole Foods is running print advertisements in New York City emphasizing "value" and "deals" — two words not generally associated with the chain that inspired the quip "Whole Foods, Whole Paycheck."

But Whole Foods says the widely held perception that its prices are higher than its competitors' is simply untrue. With regional supermarkets leaping into organic foods and its scrappy rival Trader Joe's growing at a rapid pace, it says, the time has come to set the record straight.

Portraying itself as inexpensive, however, could prove tricky for Whole Foods. After all, the chain's perceived elitism — encouraged by the company or not — has earned it a cultlike following among well-heeled, health-obsessed professionals, who consider it a badge of honor to buy their fair-trade organic coffee, cage-free eggs and hydrogenated-oil-free cookies there.

The ads "are inconsistent with what the brand stands for," said Allen Adamson, managing director of the New York office of Landor Associates, a corporate identity consultant that is part of the WPP Group. "The reality is that they have a premium-looking store positioned as an all natural place to shop. Both of those signal 'expensive.' "

Whole Foods executives, however, say their supermarkets can be high quality, organic and natural but also inexpensive.

"We are extremely competitively priced," said Christina Minardi, a Whole Foods regional president who oversees the New York market.

"But we are not doing a good job of getting the word out," she added. "We are hiding it."

The new ads, which bear the tagline "More of the good stuff. For less," are largely consistent with the tone of previous Whole Foods advertising, written in a homey, seemingly hand-drawn font and spotlighting natural, additive-free foods.

But the central message is price. One full-page ad features the image of a large cream-filled cookie, from Whole Foods' store brand, 365 Everyday Value, with the price ($2.99) featured prominently in a nearby box. Below, three more "deals," also appearing in boxes, run horizontally across the page, resembling a row of coupons.

Another, titled "Who says you have to take bad with the good?" explains that consumers "will never find any of the following in the foods at Whole Foods Market." It then ticks off a list including artificial colors, bleached flour and, in bold letters, "exorbitant prices."

Created by a boutique agency, the Watsons, in New York, the ads are running in the City section of The New York Times through July. The section is not distributed outside New York but a spokesman for Whole Foods, Fred Shank, said that depending on feedback from consumers, the ads may eventually run in other regions.

To work, the ads will have to overcome a perception problem that begins inside Whole Foods' 175 stores. Even Whole Foods executives concede that the chain's wide, clean, track-lighted aisles, its piped-in jazz and its extensive collection of specialty cheeses, minimally processed meats and organic produce have given it a high-priced sheen.

"It's a misperception," said Angela Rakis, a marketing director at Whole Foods, who recommended comparing prices at Whole Foods to those of its competitors in New York City.

So Business Day did, surveying the prices of several national brand grocery products at the Whole Foods, Food Emporium, Trader Joe's and Walgreen's near Union Square in Manhattan. (Food Emporium is a New York area supermarket owned by the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company.)

In several cases, Whole Foods' prices were, in fact, the lowest. An 8-ounce package of Philadelphia Cream Cheese was $1.99 at Whole Foods, compared with $2.19 at Walgreen's and $2.99 at the Food Emporium. A 15-ounce box of Kashi Crunch cereal was $2.49 at Whole Foods, compared with $2.69 at Trader Joe's and $3.49 at Food Emporium.

Despite its reputation as a higher-priced alternative, Whole Foods frequently matched the prices at Trader Joe's, which, since it arrived in Union Square in March, has often attracted a line of customers outside its store waiting, up to 20 minutes, to join the line inside.

Both stores charge $2.39 for a 5.75-ounce package of Annie's single-serving white cheddar macaroni and cheese, for example, and $2.69 for a 5-ounce package of Lightlife Smart Bacon. (A Trader Joe's spokeswoman declined to comment on Whole Foods' advertising, and what, if any, role Trader Joe's played in prompting it.)

Andrew Wolf, a longtime grocery industry analyst at BB&T Capital Markets in Richmond, Va., said the perception of high price, even if untrue, "is very powerful," and can hurt the reputation of grocery chains, as it did in the late 1990's with Hannaford Brothers in Richmond, which was viewed, inaccurately he said, as more expensive than its discount rival, Food Lion.

So far, the price issue does not appear to have hurt Whole Foods, based in Austin, Tex. Indeed, its sales rose 22 percent to $4.7 billion in 2005. Rather, it is acting "proactively," Mr. Wolf said. "They will not sit here and wait for this to become a problem," he said.

Researching the price of branded products like organic chips in Arizona recently, Mr. Wolf said, he found that Whole Foods charges, on average, 3 percent less than competing local supermarkets.

"The reality is that they are not a higher- priced competitor," he said.

"However, if your store looks cleaner and your products are better, you can create a price image that is higher than reality," he added. "You are punished for being good."

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

this doesn't surprise me. the price-gouging at key foods, food emporium, gristede's etc is unbelievable.

I wish our local gauging supermarket would get bought up by Whole Foods. The prices would still be high but at least the mesclun wouldn't look like they've been storing it in the boiler room.

I'm a sucker for the pre-peeled butternut squash. Peeling them with a carrot peeler aggravates me. Negotiating all those curves.

this is totally the way to go. Usually cheaper, more variety, better tasting, and most importantly - local.

my whole life i'd been aware of the scary-sounding chemicals in the ingredients lists of typical supermarket products, but when i actually started reading about those chemicals and what purpose they served and what they did to your body and how else they were used (insecticide, etc), THAT was the turning point. i know i've got a ways to go before i become the picture of perfect health, but cutting out the chemicals and hormones has got to be a good start. i'm also VERY careful now about corn syrup and hydrogenated oils -- they're in virtually all the packaged foods that are sold in mainstream supermarkets, so i've learned to read all the fine print on the labels.

Very true. I don't really care about the organic hippie stuff--but I do like slab bacon and like 10000 kinds of sausage and the awesome peanut butter machine. Also the local farmer's market is wildly inconvenient (Tuesday at 10am? wtf) so the WF produce is really the only choice as Winn-Dixie/Sav-A-Center/etc produce is just nasty. So as much as I dislike the inane hippity dippity attitude it's the best I'll get (and it's 2 blocks from my house).

Brian: Lark's tongues! Otter's noses! Ozelot spleens!
Reg: Got any nuts?
Brian: Haven't got any nuts, sorry. I've got wren's livers, badger spleens...
Reg: No, no, no...
Brian: Otters' noses?
Reg: I don't want any of that Roman rubbish!
Judith: Why don't you sell proper food?
Brian: Proper food?
Reg: Yeah, not those rich imperialist tippets!
Brian: Oh, don't blame me, I didn't ask to sell this stuff!
Reg: All right, bag of otter's noses, then.
Rogers: Make it two.
Reg: Two.

also: i dont think going after prices as their point of difference is a good idea. i was pretty shocked to see that article posted above. i also find it interesting that they are known for being an organic retailer when their mix of organic is really not that impressive.

but i really do most of my shopping at safeway . :x :x :x

I used to have to do this when I worked at a little gourmet market five years ago, and the ten minutes of effort it took every day really made the margins especially staggering in retrospect - we couldn't keep it on the shelves at $5 a quart.

There were plenty of people who were perfectly willing to pay that much of a premium for fresh-squeezed orange juice. It was certainly better-tasting and ostensibly healthier, although the intake tubes of the machine were totally fucking impossible to clean and usually clogged with decomposing orange peels.

I realized after I asked that you said you work for a retailer--didn't mean to put you on the spot mandee, sorry.

I've been connected by a sponsorship with VC for a long time (13 years), so when I want stuff of that ilk, I go there out of loyalty. They've been good to my old team.

I like WF's bread though.

My mom became drawn into the conversation too. She is not a hippy, but deep-conditions her hair with mayonnaise sometimes. She believes people were much more physically fit when:

1. Juice served in those tiny glasses: 'the whole point of the small size is that you only need a little orange juice'. Orange is actually an appetite stimulant, and the small size of the glass = juice of one orange.

2. Restaurants brought water to the table. One year they stopped offering this as normal due to a big drought, as if making Coke didn't use just as much water...she dates the rise of the BigGulp from about this point.

3. Sweets and crisps are TREATS not part of a daily diet.

4. Eat stuff when it is in season. Not only does it teach you basic observation about your surroundings, it's better for you.

5. You don't have to have a big-ticket meat item every day for your sit-down meal. Once a week is enough. Leftovers will ensue, and you will eat them.

6. Fish. Not even my early-adapter grandfather went on about omega-3 and 6 but when nice fish was hard to come by, he made his kids take cod liver oil once a week.

7. Magnesium and zinc. Make sure you have enough of these and you're laughing.

Also every time I come back to the US I always feel like GET ONE PORTION CONTROL. Seriously, the styrofoam boxes for leftovers used to be the size of a Big Mac pod. Now they are the size of my head, and become lunch for the next couple of days.

Pullapartgirl, excuse me for a moment while my hysterical laughter alternates with inconsolable sobbing.
No.
But I do live near some excellent source of prepared Asain seafood, thanks to two local fishmarkets subbing out that department. Last night, (after nine straight hours of physical work) I bought the following prepared foods: Thai cold rolls, Vietnamese cold rolls, tamari-maple salmon and Chef Oh's crabcakes (OH MY GOD).
I woke up thirsty several times during the night, which might have meant salt, but also might have been the Macallan and the wine.

Saw a really good deal tonight:
http://i.imgur.com/JIKtc.jpg

is that supposed to be a taco?

^^^missing the point^^^

You're right Steve, tacos are really good.

i don't think i'd want to eat an anthropomorphic taco

The only way to deal with that would be to walk in there, buy a taco, walk out, then walk back in and buy the 2nd taco?

I will gladly pay an extra penny for a chance to eat not one but two delicious tacos.

there should be a penalty, however small, for gluttony

it's the soul-gnawing shame that comes from eating a whole food taco when you live in SF

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/23/whole-foods-america-s-temple-of-pseudoscience.html

Selling snake oil is hardly confined to Whole Foods. Almost any product that has an advertising budget more than $100,000 will have a spell of glamour thrown over it that has nothing to do with plain irreducible facts, scientific or otherwise.

This article cites Dr. Bronner's soap as a case in point. Anyone who has read the half-incoherent rantings on a bottle of Dr. Bronner's knows what a weird bunch of ranting is there, but it is good soap and who the fuck cares if the company was founded by a madman? It's soap. It works well. It smells good.

http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/does-target-sell-the-most-irresponsible-homeopathic-remedy-ever/

Speaking of unconfined snake oil.

That daily beast article is not very smart.

Selling snake oil is hardly confined to Whole Foods. Almost any product that has an advertising budget more than $100,000 will have a spell of glamour thrown over it that has nothing to do with plain irreducible facts, scientific or otherwise.

True, but the marketing of alternative medicine is more explicitly pseudoscientific than your typical "Buy this and people will like you" subliminal ad pitch.

I grew up in the era of "iron poor blood", "tiny time pills" and cartoony animations that showed how "fast, fast, fast acting" potions spread relief throughout your precious bodily fluids, an era when every otc med and cosmetic used a pseudoscientific pitch. Advertising has always grabbed for any pitch that sold product, including inventing names for imaginary maladies and famously hiring Robert Young to tell people, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on tv. and..." This isn't anything new or different.

Well, I would maintain there is a difference, though perhaps a subtle one. The old-fashioned, corny pseudoscientific pitch tries to ride on the coattails of science by cloaking itself in signifiers of mainstream science, whereas the alternative medicine pitch is anti-scientific, positing itself as working for reasons that are yet outside the reach of mainstream science.

I can see your aura. It needs cleansing.

Dr. Bronner's is awesome. You can't go wrong with a soap that also works as a shampoo that also works as a floor cleaner, toilet cleaner and toothpaste.

equating yuppie/ hippie whole food junk to creationism or climate science denialism is some grade D trolling

I think it's not equating them, more like asking why creationism gets people's hackles up in a way that for instance nutritional supplements with doubtful scientific basis don't.

http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/iOFKU_hwj2o/hqdefault.jpg

i guess when Whole Foods starts writing public school science textbooks to promote their agenda i'll be concerned

I think it's not equating them, more like asking why creationism gets people's hackles up in a way that for instance nutritional supplements with doubtful scientific basis don't.

― o. nate, Tuesday, February 25, 2014 2:51 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

probably because creationism is a tool of a ton of other insidious things such as eliminating the type of good public school science education that would help you tell how to avoid dumb supplements at whole foods.

xp high-5 will

Have you ever tried to brush your teeth with Dr. Bronner's? It's disgusting. xp

which, hey, could happen once we privatize all k-12 education

xxposts

now if this Daily Beast clown wants bag on the liberal anti-vax crowd, i'll be right there

bronner's is at trader joes, too, but i'm surprised they haven't made a Dr. Joseph's knockoff version yet. (They seem to have ditched tofutti entirely)

eliminating the type of good public school science education that would help you tell how to avoid dumb supplements at whole foods.

lol nicely done

How did I miss this thread? Despite being deeply offended by all the pseudoscience crap, I love Whole Foods. But only because the one I go to has three bars in it with great beers on tap. I like drinking beers there and then shopping for bags of frozen greens.

These displays always made me laugh:

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7446/12777683465_8fa7a0cf2b_z.jpg http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3672/12778125804_dfa50444f3_z.jpg

We'll cleanse you anyway we can!

Have you ever tried to brush your teeth with Dr. Bronner's? It's disgusting. xp

I would never brush my teeth with the shit, but I would before I'd brush my teeth with anything else I can also use to clean my floor or toilet.

i like whole foods because they have a really good variety/quantity of produce, there's an actual butcher to talk to when i want to get meat, and the store is not enormous so i only have to dip into one or two aisles and can otherwise stick to the perimeter.

Also, good coffee beans and birthday cakes.

yeah their produce is main reason why I'd go to one

Totally. Produce and meat. Also they are the only place that sells bags of frozen kale, collards, and mustard greens, which are our primary source of green vegetables in the winter.

Trader Joe's sells fresh and frozen kale.

Tip to gardeners: kale not only survives in cold weather, in actually thrives in cold weather.

As a Britisher I found it weird that oh-so-ethical WF was selling homeopathic crap but it's not like we don't sell it here, I guess it's just more in places you *know* are trying to sell you BS.
WF magic bars I miss u come back 2 me

They used to sell these sugar-free choc choc chip brownies that were best sugar-free sweets I've had, but no mas. I'm puzzled by places (WF and elsewhere) selling tons of gluten free or dairy free etc stuff but basically no sugar free stuff. Hoping for a "sugar is EVIL" groundswell to shift things in my favor.

A minor "sugar is EVIL" groundswell did happen in the 1970s, but it only resulted in replacing sugar with high-fructose corn syrup, which, remarkably enough, pacified the "sugar is EVIL" crowd for a time.

yep I also found it weird that WF soda and stuff had 'MADE WITH REAL SUGAR!!' on it like that was so great

Whole Foods is big on ESSENTIAL OILS, too, which is cramping the style of a soccer mom on my FB feed who's a "downline leader" for Doterra.
She also talks constantly about colds and her kids' many ailments that are cured with essential oils. I want to respond with something about how I haven't been sick in a long time, so maybe she and her kids should try smoking, drinking whiskey 2-3 times a week and eating too much Chinese food instead of the MLM scheme.

bronner's is at trader joes, too, but i'm surprised they haven't made a Dr. Joseph's knockoff version yet.

They did this maybe five years ago and it was terrible.

The "sugar is evil" thing is showing up again, only in the form of stevia/agave stuff.

Reminds me so much of when Opus hitched onto the Rainbow Warrior:

http://assets.amuniversal.com/cdd98af05dc1012ee3bf00163e41dd5b

probably because creationism is a tool of a ton of other insidious things such as eliminating the type of good public school science education that would help you tell how to avoid dumb supplements at whole foods.

― call all destroyer, Tuesday, February 25, 2014 2:56 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This is such an excellent point actually, because the conclusion of the article should really be "we need better science education," not "You do your dumb thing, I'll do mine."

There's still a crucial difference between " and "not as scientific as you purport to be" and "anti-science"

the conclusion of the article should really be "we need better science education," not "You do your dumb thing, I'll do mine."

That's not the conclusion. I encourage people to read the whole thing. He does say we should resist creationists trying to meddle with education and things like that. But it's not like the Whole Foods contingent doesn't ever politically mobilize either. Witness the campaign to require GMO labeling.

labels?! my god! it's as if they were using facts for their own nefarious purposes!

Well, labeling imposes costs that are passed through to every consumer regardless of whether they find the information useful. Bills have also been submitted for outright bans, not sure if any have passed.

Imposing negligible costs on consumers is not anti-science, but is rather anti-Ayn-Randian.

Well, it's a bit anti-science because there is no scientific evidence that this information is useful. Proponents of the bill know that uneducated consumers will see some scary label on something and steer clear of it. Witness the proliferation of "gluten-free" labels on things that have never had gluten in them, and the fact that gluten is harmless to most people. At least that is voluntary. Would you be in favor of requiring "Contains Gluten" labels on any food product that has gluten, as a way to strike a blow against Ayn Randists?

Proponents of the bill know that uneducated consumers will see some scary label on something and steer clear of it.

Uneducated people do not go out of their way to read the fine print on nutrition labels ime. The claim you are making here is without substantiation. It has the odor of propaganda.

Would you be in favor of requiring "Contains Gluten" labels on any food product that has gluten...

Products containing gluten are already sufficiently labeled for an educated consumer to determine if gluten is present. People with Crohn's disease or gluten intolerance are inveterate label readers as a result.

By way of analogy, peanuts are also "harmless to most people", but labeling laws that require a special (scary?) disclosure of peanuts seem well-justified in spite of this normal harmlessness. Gluten intolerance is rather less acute in its effects than peanut allergy, so that specific (scary?) disclosures about gluten have not yet been found necessary. Anyway, this issue looks like a red herring to me.

You don't really make a good case that GMO labeling is anti-science. Your arguments are wholly grounded in economics, not science.

This isnt prepared food, not is it the only honey in the store, but if you have $65 to waste on honey, whole foods is the place

https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/t1/p526x296/1002042_10202513812147335_960100943_n.jpg

People who have more money than they know what to do with often need expert assistance in finding new and innovative ways to waste their money, so that Whole Foods is merely providing a specialized service for such folks.

yah but you want yr honey to be plenty umf active

Being less than stupidly wealthy, I can only aspire to umf active 10+ honey.

yah i guess 10+ is acceptable

anti-whodoo folks can get a bit too reactionary re: science because of the vast number of Creationists and anti-vax lunatics and so on.
Yes, anti-vax people are dangerous and sure, most of them (anecdotally) are anti-GMO - that doesn't mean people who are put off by GMOs are on the same level

OTOH, when it comes to fucking with nature, we don't have the greatest track record. The number of grand scientific advances of the 20th century that bit us on the ass is pretty large - either in terms of something we eat being harmful or in ecological fallout. Maybe you're not opposed to GMOs because you think they're poisonous, maybe you think they'll cause harm to their environment in some way and want to avoid them.

I like to gather my own honey from the trees of my local parks.

Maybe go fuck yourself

frownyface

Got a bad apple (inside was rotting) from WF

Worth it to bring it back and get a new apple (+ possibly more)

?

yes definitely

they are typically cool w/ that ime. friend of mine who used to work there said one customer brought back a half-eaten rotisserie chicken and said that he didn't like it, he got store credit for it.

i would never step that far but we have brought things back on occassion, sometimes "whole body" products that we didn't like

yeah they don't ask many questions they just give you a store credit ime

Yeah I'm just debating whether or not one apple is worth the trip

Like $1.50 is not a lot of money but otoh it is also a lot to pay for a single apple

i bought a $12 umbrella from CVS the other day that broke after two uses. the stem fully snapped off from the top. i am hoping CVS is as amenable to returns as whole foods is

Fuck. I bought the $12 CVS umbrella and have kept it unopened in my messenger bag awaiting a great deluge. Was hoping it would be a step up from the $5 umbrellas I used to buy there, but maybe it is the same thing but repriced?

xp i mean if you're planning on making a special trip to wf just to return the apple it's prob not worth it....

go in & request a refund & then say

+ possibly more?

if there's an awkward silence just keep raising your eyebrows suggestively, maybe say "dot dot dot"

I never want to shop there again

I'll make a little circle motion with a finger for each 'dot' xp

Maybe you'll get two worms with this one

This is the offensive apple

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/026333FE-1092-4114-803B-BB655CCFD482_zpswcvmetg7.jpg

http://ep.yimg.com/ay/barronseduc/richard-scarry-s-lowly-worm-s-applecar-7.gif

i would not pay $1.50 for a single apple if it gave me a second penii

apples are expensive in general ime

Fuck. I bought the $12 CVS umbrella and have kept it unopened in my messenger bag awaiting a great deluge. Was hoping it would be a step up from the $5 umbrellas I used to buy there, but maybe it is the same thing but repriced?

― how's life, Thursday, October 30, 2014 12:24 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

probably, it definitely did not feel like a $12 umbrella but i really needed it. i was shocked it was that expensive. take it back while you can

also 龜 that apple is mostly edible, seems like the rot is mostly at the core

i would pay $1.50 for a single apple if it would get rid of my second penis

Disappointed Apple Purchaser ISO Refund And Possibly More

I love Costco's refund policy. You can walk up to the desk and be like "I bought this five months ago, I thought it was red but I just noticed that it's actually blue."

Definitely have returned food on the basis of stuff like "I thought my toddler would like these crackers but she doesn't."

http://thoughtcatalog.com/mahbod-moghadam/2014/11/how-to-steal-from-whole-foods/

I hope that person goes to jail for a long time.

Sorry to get all sexist/racist here – I love all people, I swear it – but, in case you’re at a new Whole Foods and you don’t know who the cool cashiers are yet, the most sympathetic cashiers are young, male minorities.

Isn't that the guy who got kicked out of rap genius

It's him

Christ how could anyone over the age of 13 have written this

WholeFoodsGenius

I didn't make the rap genius connection, amazing

I think the main things I've bought at Whole Foods recently have been yellowfin tuna steaks and $6 wine

the whole foods in my neighborhood (only one i've ever been to, may be at others as well) has this bin/display with all these different kinds of cookies and you buy them by the pound so you can get a bunch of different kinds and it's basically the pinnacle of western civilization.

rest of my groceries come from conventional stores bc whole foods is like .5 miles further and i hate grocery shopping

I got IA at whole foods last time because they had a big ad on the outside of the store that said something like "Shop like an idealist." and I was imagining these rich Manhattan fucks literally fanciying themselves more moral and idealistic people because they spent their banking pay checks on raw juices. I quickly got the idea out of my head, figuring it was a strawman. But then behind me in the coffee line there was this impossibly cheerful and tall and thin woman wearing that vaguely global village style of hippie yuppie clothing and she actually reached her hand up to the sky and did these soulful, dance like gestures, while waiting in line to order coffee, like she was saluting her friend the sun.

Beautiful

just got back from wf, got a bunch of tasty-looking food, pretty content as usual.

:)

I am going to go to whole foods in about five minutes to buy some wine, some lemons, and--PLEASE WHOLE FOODS DON'T LET ME DOWN ON THIS--some hickory chunks for smoking ribs.

If whole foods let me down I will have to go across the street to the hardware store, but I am hoping to make this a one-stop shopping experience

i think i see that stuff by the meat counter sometimes?

yeah I'm just worried that it might be considered a "summer" stock item but man I love bbqing in the fall and winter!

I really hated WF for a long time but I have kind of come around to being OK with it, especially because I really REALLY hate the new Giant in my 'hood, despite the fact that it has a bar with several very decent brews/wines on tap and you can put your pint glass in the shopping cart drink holder and sip as you shop

I am still angry that the Whole Foods here does not have this "drink while you shop" luxury.

I haven't done WF drinking in awhile but my favorite was to go to the bar there, have 3 beers then shop with a 4th. Dangerous.

my man

holy shit that article

i hate wf but like quincie my only other choice is giant and it suuuuucks so bad. or safeway which is worse. ours doesn't have alcohol. the bulk tea cookies thing is the best and worst thing.

if my wf had wine on tap i would be there every day

wait, some whole foods' have bars?

do they have hard liquor as well as beer and wine?

My whole foods has two separate beer bars and a third wine bar. I don't think they have booze.

one thing that i also think is good is they are generous with free stuff. one time the produce guy was putting mushrooms out so he was in the way of the mushrooms i needed and he asked me what i wanted but there were just a few cremini left and i needed a lot so he cut open some baby bellas and gave me all these mushrooms for free. another time i got some expensive unhomogenized grass-fed milk and the cashier was like ooh this is new come back and tell me if you like it. i have no idea if she thought that was really going to happen but she didn't charge me for it. and before those things happened i once got a free box of spring greens.

The WF had hardwood charcoal but no smoking hardwood lumps/chips. had to go across the street to the hardware store. first world problems. My new Giant--the one with the bar--costs about the same as Whole Foods for most stuff, AND they do that stupid store card thing WHICH I HATE so I dunno lesser of two evils when I can't get out to the good "international" stores in the 'burbs which are better cheaper faster etc. But far. And require planning and car driving and shit.

yeah if you are paying attention to what you're buying wf is not more expensive than a typical urban grocery store chain. organic stuff is almost always cheaper. if you round it out with costco, ethnic grocery stores, farmers' market ur gonna $AVE

WF is a all about knowing what to buy. You can be a real sucker there or get good deals. Whereas at Costco you. An pretty much walk around blindfolded pushing stuff into your shopping cart and get good value.

I'm lucky that I have a Sprouts in town now and a Central Market 20 minutes away. I used to think CM was worse re: yuppie ridiculousness but lately they've got more and better produce cheaper, better meat/seafood selection, fewer smudging sticks and hippie dresses.

Central market >>>>>>>>>>> whole foods

xxp sure, if good value = buying things in quantities that will not fit in the amount of storage available in your urban apartment

Haha yes. My bf recently bought like 48 rolls of toilet paper he doesn't like so gave most of it to me, which is great, but I'm storing it balanced on top of the hanging bar in my coat closet.

do you have to solve physics equations in order to choose yr next roll so the whole thing doesn't fall down?

There's a lot of stuff at Costco that comes in reasonable sizes. Maybe it doesn't make sense for a single person in an NYC studio or w/e, but as a family of 3 in a 2BR we do most of our shopping there

even if you don't get paper goods at a wholesale club due to space they're amazing for health and beauty products, i never go to cvs anymore and my life is so much better for it.

the amount i spend on health and beauty products a year is probably less than the cost of a Costco membership tbh

I could see soap as being the base level health/beauty item and spending less than $55/year, but

does Costco sell American Spirit brand cigarettes?

sam's club does.

i calculated that i save about $24/year on toilet paper alone

My Costco has like a two pound tub of whitefish salad for $11.49 which is worth the price of admission imo

Soap razors floss toothbrushes toothpaste shampoo conditioner drugs. If that doesn't get you to 55, buy your Christmas gifts and office chocolates and the like there.

My Costco has phones too - they even have the new iPhone like 20 bucks cheaper than the carriers.

I think the REAL BARGAIN SAVERS have determined that toilet paper and paper towels aren't cheaper at costco, but I think they are just trying to ruin my enjoyment.

does Costco sell American Spirit brand cigarettes?

― the HegeMony Mony Chant thread in the Most Read Threads List (sarahell), Monday, November 17, 2014 4:59 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sam's club does.

― holla back for a dope nakh (how's life), Monday, November 17, 2014 10:32 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

WHAT

My Costco has like a two pound tub of whitefish salad for $11.49 which is worth the price of admission imo

this. the worst part abt moving to nyc is that getting to costco seems like a huge drag.

xp: They have them in stock at my Sam's Club at least. I don't even smoke, but I noticed that on my trip there last week.

Those "savings experiments" make me IA because they're comparing brand-name paper products at Costco to buying them on sale at a store. Costco makes its own toilet paper and paper towels which are both cheaper and far superior.

WF is a all about knowing what to buy. You can be a real sucker there or get good deals.

otm. stay away from most packaged foods, snacks, drinks, frozen foods, and prepared foods. stick to bulk and produce and 365 brand shit and you will be fine.

but really though most conventional grocery stores are annoying because the produce is shitty and they don't have bulk foods. that is like 75% of what we buy.

Costco doesn't make anything, they might rebrand, though

It's called Kirkland noob

I stand corrected. They don't own any manufacturing, though, it's just oem products

A lot of it is made to costcos specs though.

stay away from most packaged foods, snacks, drinks, frozen foods, and prepared foods.

This list comprises like way more than half of cosco's inventory. The real one weird trick is don't buy that shit anywhere, period

buy snacks, I assure you it is worth it

no that was the list not to buy at whole foods, not costco

Whole Foods chain faces NYC probe after investigators found ‘worst case of overcharges’

lol

Well, guess my sis works for Amazon now.

Don't bank on it just yet...

How does this not constitute a breach of antitrust statutes?

why would it? The murmurings I heard were based on potential class action lawsuit due to stock pricing or something.

holy wtf

"You're the octopus that I'm having for breakfast," Bezos said. "When I look at the menu, you're the thing I don't understand, the thing I've never had. I must have the breakfast octopus."

http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-jeff-bezos-eating-octopus-business-acquisition-strategy-2017-6

our new oligarchic overlords etc

loving how all the WaPo stories about this end

“Whole Foods Market has been satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers for nearly four decades — they’re doing an amazing job and we want that to continue,” said Jeffrey P. Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

365 foods coming to Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime becomes Whole Foods' rewards program

Lower prices on organic produce/fish coming Monday...

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-and-whole-foods-will-lower-prices-on-organic-items-like-avocados-and-baby-kale-on-monday-2017-08-24?siteid=bullytweet

They had square melons for $100 each at Wholefoods last time I was there.

And to clarify, it was just a normal watermelon that had been grown in a clear box so it went square.

the first response in this is classic shakey

Love overpriced prepares food/foodstuffs

I got a loaf of pretzel bread for $2 at WF, would recommend

really excited to get more benefits from my annual $109.41 besides two-day shipping and free streaming of a handful of middlebrow tv series for educated white ppl like me!

Apparently They have Duchess du Bourgogne at the local WF, so I might have to stop by

Useful example of a compare/contrast after the price reduction

http://www.businessinsider.com/whole-foods-prices-cheaper-amazon-2017-8

whoever did the shopping has really boring taste

I went shopping at Whole Foods today and my takeaway was that my bill was maybe $15 cheaper than I expected. That's purely conjecture, though.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2018/01/whole_foods_food_shortages_empty_shelves.html

fwiw there are claims that this is due to use of an ordering system that was implemented before Amazon took over, but it seems a little too coincidental that problems with it only came after Amazon took over.

― IF (Terrorist) Yes, Explain (man alive), Sunday, January 21, 2018 11:18 AM (one week ago)

I noticed this the first week after Amazon bought WF but it's gotten a bit better

Still a problem, there is like next to no fresh bread left in the evening -- this used to not be the case