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This past weekend Hawk and I visited a Whole Foods store. One's opened up recently in our downtown, a little over a mile from home. We were walking in the area and figured, "Why not?"
Why not is Because it's too expensive, normally. Whole Foods earned the nickname "Whole Paycheck" years ago for good reason. So many of their groceries are 1.5x to 2x the price at other grocery stores. As a result I'd only shopped WF maybe 4-5 times in the past 10 years; most of those times were to buy dinner at their food court when it was the best option in the area. Curiously their food court is not overpriced 1.5x to 2x.
I wasn't looking for food court food Sunday (I'd eaten lunch before our walk) but I figured I'd give the new store a walk-through anyway. First up inside was the produce department. Wow, that was a story of prices all over the map. Avocados were on sale and actually cheaper than other stores' regular prices. Meanwhile bell peppers were priced almost 3x what I buy them for at Trader Joe's. To be fair, WF's peppers looked better than TJ's, just not 3x better (not even close).
Next up was the cheese department. Yuppie cheese were similar in price to what I see at Safeway. ...Well, at the one Safeway in our area that has a yuppie cheese department. I grabbed a dish of spreadable cheese at full price because it was a variety I don't see carried at Yuppie Safeway.
Then there was the meat department. The butchered meats looked oh-so tasty... and they cost at least 50% more than the best prices I've seen elsewhere. One of those elsewheres, though, is Costco. Costco has some great quality meat, but a) the selection is narrow, just a few cuts at a time; and b) you've got to buy it in huge quantities. That Is The Way at Costco. For harder-to-find choices and just-the-two-of-us sized portions I might be willing to spend 1.5x on occasion.
Why not is Because it's too expensive, normally. Whole Foods earned the nickname "Whole Paycheck" years ago for good reason. So many of their groceries are 1.5x to 2x the price at other grocery stores. As a result I'd only shopped WF maybe 4-5 times in the past 10 years; most of those times were to buy dinner at their food court when it was the best option in the area. Curiously their food court is not overpriced 1.5x to 2x.
I wasn't looking for food court food Sunday (I'd eaten lunch before our walk) but I figured I'd give the new store a walk-through anyway. First up inside was the produce department. Wow, that was a story of prices all over the map. Avocados were on sale and actually cheaper than other stores' regular prices. Meanwhile bell peppers were priced almost 3x what I buy them for at Trader Joe's. To be fair, WF's peppers looked better than TJ's, just not 3x better (not even close).
Next up was the cheese department. Yuppie cheese were similar in price to what I see at Safeway. ...Well, at the one Safeway in our area that has a yuppie cheese department. I grabbed a dish of spreadable cheese at full price because it was a variety I don't see carried at Yuppie Safeway.
Then there was the meat department. The butchered meats looked oh-so tasty... and they cost at least 50% more than the best prices I've seen elsewhere. One of those elsewheres, though, is Costco. Costco has some great quality meat, but a) the selection is narrow, just a few cuts at a time; and b) you've got to buy it in huge quantities. That Is The Way at Costco. For harder-to-find choices and just-the-two-of-us sized portions I might be willing to spend 1.5x on occasion.
