Hello Beautiful!

It looks like you're new to The Community. If you'd like to get involved, click one of these buttons!

In this Discussion

whole foods a rip off ?????

is it me or is this store way beyond expensive any more ? i dont mind spending more for quality but it seems that this store is past expensive and in the realm of being a rip off. i see the same products in there as the acme, and acme is expensive but whole foods some stuff up to 40% more ? what is going on here ????? maybe we need a consumer group to bring the prices down some ?

Comments

  • I only get a few things there, like wheat berries and mung beans in the bulk bins. They are dirt cheap! However, I agree that the rest of the store is quite pricey.

  • StefunkStefunk Raw Newbie

    I wish I had a chance to go to a Whole Foods! They are much cheaper then the Akin’s we have in Oklahoma. Whole Foods won’t come to our state because of our ‘high obesity rate’. Sound to me like they would have good business if they did:)

  • Trader Joe’s is a MUCH better option…especially for medjool dates and avocados.

  • debbietookdebbietook Raw Master

    If ‘Wholefoods’ in the US is related to ‘Wholefoods’ in Kensington High St, UK, I’d agree that it is RIDICULOUSLY expensive (

  • willmizewillmize Raw Newbie

    I’m with Ron; for the weird, rare, and hard to find items, it’s pretty much the only game on town here in Tampa (it’s Wild Oats down here). As for everything else, if you’re keeping it simple, the local grocery (Publix/Sweetbay) is a much better buy.

  • MarichiesaMarichiesa Raw Newbie

    Jaymz I’m with you. I think whole foods has gotten out of hand with their pricing even if you take into consideration rising fuel costs. I can get almost all of my produce at an asian market near me but some specialty items not so much. On several occasions I’ve almost said something to management but then I chicken out. Its a free market after all. The powers that be don’t seem to mind that Trader Joe’s and Giant sell for much less. Whole Foods is in business to make money. I get that but enough with the holier than thou marketing ya know?

  • Marchiesa, I hear you with “the holier than thou” attitude at Whole Foods. “Whole Foods, Whole People” should be “Whole Paycheck, Whole lotta People”!

  • There’s another issue with these big health food stores.

    They sell a lot of pure junk!

    I think that some people can be easily misled that the “boutique” versions of bad foods are somehow good foods. What about all the meat, candy bars and alcohol that they sell? Sure – it might be organic….. but!

  • alpdesignsalpdesigns Raw Newbie

    I agree that these groceries fool people into thinking that their whole inventory is healthy, but most of it is still processed food and some items marketed as organic, aren’t. But, I wish there was a Whole Foods near me because the farmer’s stands in my area are closed for the season and my only options are to buy from Diamond Organics and pay $30 or more for shipping (plus very high prices), or shop at the local Brookshires. One of these days, I’ll be able to grow my own food! Avocados don’t grow well in central Texas though!

  • queenfluffqueenfluff Raw Newbie

    I agree too. I remember when Whole Foods was a new thing many years ago. It wasn’t very well known yet, so it was a great place to go for my vegetarian and organic stuff that no one else sold and not crowded and not overly priced. It was like shopping in a cute little coop. Now, it is like the “in” place to shop for all the “gourmet” types. I only go there for certain things that I can’t get at the smaller local coop.

    I will be moving out to Cali within the next month and if I don’t end up with a sweet local coop near me I will be having to Whole Foods shop more than I normally do. Thank God a friend of ours has connections with farmers so we will hopefully be gettint real good deals on most produce. :)

    And it also seems like some Whole Foods will hire anyone too – I have had people check me out who are stashing a bottle of Mountain Dew on the side of the registar. Yuck! I am wondering if soon we will not be surprised to see them selling Coke – they already have started selling some magazines which I don’t think they should be selling there. They used to sell all these great health magazines and now they don’t – such a shame!

  • humanimalhumanimal Raw Newbie

    yeah they aren’t exactly what I would call fair prices. Now Trader Joe’s rocks!

  • willmizewillmize Raw Newbie

    A funny/interesting/sad Metafilter post about the owner of Whole Foods going online, supposedly ‘anonymous’ and shilling his own store, stock and cuteness.

    http://tinyurl.com/3xfg5j

    I think I’m leaning toward sad.

  • If you have a Vitamin Cottage near you, I would strongly recommend going there!! They ONLY sell organic produce and it’s dirt cheap. I can get a 3# bag of organic pink lady apples (YUM) for $3.50. They even go on sale for $2.50. And org avos are always around $1 each. They also have an amazing selection of dried fruits and nuts, as well as raw energy bits.

  • I agree Whole Foods prices can be atrocious. But I go ahead and shop there and at Trader Joe’s anyway. I live in a low income area and the Safeway and Giant here are terrible…I only go if I have to. It’s definitely worth the drive to go to the health food stores instead. I may not be able to buy much, but I refuse to buy crap just so I can eat more.

  • Sigh. It didn’t used to be this way! I live in Austin, the birth place of Whole Foods. I remember when Whole Foods was like a healthy corner market. Prices were competitive and they had tons of stuff that other stores didn’t. But now other stores are carrying more and more organic items (my Costco just switched to organic carrots!) and Whole Food’s prices have continued to go up. It’s a shame.

    I do have to admit that the Flagship store here they finished a few years ago is a blast to go to. They have a raw food bar and lots of raw food products. It’s always such a zoo in there. For certain items, you still have to go but I find myself there less and less these days…especially now that I get local organic vegetables delivered to my door once a week!

  • i used to shop at the whole foods stores in union square and 23rd & 7th when i lived in nyc…and yes, they had an awesome selection…but they WERE expensive! plus, there were always people outside trying to shove flyers in my face (while both of my hands were full with grocery bags, no less! what am i going to do, slip my shoe off and carry the flyer between my toes?) that said the workers were being treated unfairly and to boycott the chain.

    i started getting off the subway halfway through my trip home to go to an independent grocer called ‘westerly market’ instead, which was way out-of-the-way, but had ALL organic produce and less junk-food eloquently labeled as ‘all-natural’. whatever that means. i never really liked that whole foods has both organic and conventional produce mixed together…i’m such an air-brain that i was always buying the conventional stuff by accident and didn’t realize it until i had already lugged the 25-pound bags home…

    anyway, i think it’s better to support the smaller stores and co-ops whenever possible. any time there’s a chain, the emotion and thought that goes into the product in question is usually compromised. of course, that’s not so easy for the raw-foodists who have only safeway and c-town or giant to choose from…just as a general rule…

    i WILL say that when i was a SAD-eater, i could spend $50 or $60 at a time at the cheesemonger in the whole foods in union square…they had a bigger selection of cheese than most of the cheesemongers in nyc! i used to buy this AMAZING ‘l’ecir de l’aubrac’ and peccorino…but as far as raw foods went, the other markets had WAY bigger selections…westerly had a huge raw-foods section! i found it was pretty easy to ditch whole foods…ha ha ha! whole paycheck. love it. lol

  • When I was in Sac. I was thrilled when a Whole Foods opened up near to my house, that is until I tried shopping there. I don’t know where they were hiding these bins I keep hearing so much about… Cause I was paying way too much for my raw almonds! Not to mention that the whole store was truely over-priced, especially for my meager budget. I think I went once to a Trader Joe’s but that was for a skin brush cause they were the only one’s who had it. I’m more a farmer’s market girl… The prices are totally better, the produce is nicer and if you go enough times you start making friends with the growers. Helpful if like me you tend to buy alot of certain foods (the good-buddy discount). Alas now I live in Soran and I think I’d be all too happy to pay those prices just to have a store like that here. Oh the things I miss in the US!

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    Aww. This topic makes me sad. Madness, I am also from Austin, and some of my fondest childhood memories involve the bulk aisle of the original “corner market” Whole Foods. We used to walk down to the store several times a week when I was a kid, and I still remember slurping on smoothies as a “special treat” and going from burlap sack to burlap sack smelling the coffee beans. It really was just a friendly, reasonably-priced little neighborhood health store.

    But I agree, the prices now are absolutely obscene. The selection at the flagship store is fantastically impressive (if it wasn’t for the crowds, I could wander around the produce section for hours, and their selection of bulk salt has no equal). However, I hate shopping there. It’s just all so…glitzy. The overall feel, the prices, and the new clientele—I miss all the old tie-dyed hippies of my childhood Whole Foods. I’ve moved back to Austin recently, and though the flagship store is in my neighborhood, I only go there on rare occasions. Instead, I go out of my way to go to a little co-op that still feels the way Austin did when I was growing up.

    James, I used to live right around the corner from Westerly Market! They really did have a great selection of raw foods—even way back in 2004! In fact, I think Westerly was where I was first introduced to raw foods. What a great little place.

  • Jenny, the Flagship store is crazy isn’t it I always enjoy going there, but get worn out so quickly and can only go every so often. I live much closer to the north store, so I still go there on occasion. Have you been to Sun Harvest lately? I really like their stuff. But my favorite is Greenling. Do you know about them? They deliver organics to your door for less then Whole Foods (for most things). I get the “local box” which is all local produce. Costs $35 a week and provides 90% of the veggies that I and my boyfriend eat. Check them out!

    http://www.greenling.com/

Sign In or Register to comment.