I just found out today that a Whole Foods is going to be built close to my neighborhood. Too bad it’s not an Earth Fare.
While many crunchy, green mamas might rejoice at Whole Foods coming to town, I am in mourning because Whole Foods is basically on par with your “neighborhood” Walmart.
There is nothing “neighborly” about Walmart or Whole Foods.
What a joke.
Whole Foods is just another cutthroat Corporate Bully dressed in organic, “let’s save the world”, “buy local” disguise with the shareholders in full throttle, profit taking control.
While Whole Foods is undoubtedly counting on health conscious Moms like me in the neighborhood cha-chinging away at the brand spanking new registers, let me just share with you that you won’t see The Healthy Home Economist browsing the aisles there.
I’ll be shopping at the 2 small, local healthfood stores less than a mile away where I’ve shopped for the past 15 years. That’s where my business loyalty lies.
I spend almost all my food money with local businesses and local farms. Not Whole Foods.
How could I possibly rationalize shopping at Whole Foods which has recently rolled over on the GMO issue in the United States by suggesting that we all need to “learn to live with GMO’s” by accepting the USDAs proposal for “peaceful” coexistence between organics and genetically modified foods?
Here is Whole Foods’ official statement on the matter:
The reality is that no grocery store in the United States, no matter what size or type of business, can claim they are GMO-free. While we have been and will continue to be staunch supporters of non-GMO foods, we are not going to mislead our customers with an inaccurate claim (and you should question anyone who does). Here’s why: the pervasive planting of GMO crops in the U.S. and their subsequent use in our national food supply. 93% of soy, 86% of corn, 93% of cotton, and 93% of canola seed planted in the U.S. in 2010 were genetically engineered. Since these crops are commonly present in a wide variety of foods, a GMO-free store is currently not possible in the U.S. (Unless the store sells only organic foods.)
Since the U. S. national organic standards do not allow the use of GMO ingredients and practices in the growing or production of organic foods, choosing organic is one way consumers can avoid GMO foods. The other is through labeling, of which we are strong supporters.
Hey Whole Foods, here’s a novel idea: How about selling only organic and local foods then? That would solve the problem nicely wouldn’t it?
I don’t know about you, but that statement screams “sell-out” to me. Even more damaging, Whole Foods recently endorsed the peaceful coexistence option with regard to GE alfalfa rather than an outright ban. The unrestricted planting of GE alfalfa that starts as early as this spring threatens the entire grassfeeding dairy industry over the long term as alfalfa hay is an integral part of winter feeding.
Whole Foods is all about corporate profits and management can shade it and couch it any way they like, but the message is loud and clear: corporate profit and shareholder gains are more important than sticking to the basic sustainability ideals Whole Foods was founded upon.
Do you want your neighborhood healthfood stores and farmer’s markets to suffer revenue losses from business ruthlessly stripped away by a Whole Foods coming to town?
If not, you can choose to stay away like me and treat Whole Foods like just another supermarket or Walmart: a place of last resort where budget dollars are rarely if ever spent.
Note: as of July 2012, it appears that Whole Foods is still sourcing much of its “organic” produce from China which provides further verification of the video below.
In addition, as of June 2015, Whole Foods’ new veggie rating system can rank conventional produce grown in another country ahead of organic, local produce!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
I wish i could show you a picture of the back of my local whole foods. It’s a mess sloppy and disorganized and of course that’s where all their garbage and recycling is done and anone who drives around the store can see it.. Makes me automaticly think all the green talk WF spouts is just talk. They sell a comodity all right…feel good hope for a better tomorrow all neatly packaged in a brown paper bag.
I agree with you whole heartedly. Whole Foods is also insensitive to the needs of the poor and diminishing middle class. My recent investigative trip to the local store had me in state of anger over the $8 per pound cost of ground turkey.I am trying to teach students (high school ) how to navigate through the food system to find clean food that is affordable! Whole Foods claims that they are trying to reach out to the “little people” by offering coupons and lower cost proteins? I don’t see it unless they are referring to brown rice, quinoa and lentils . How can a working poor family afford to buy poultry, especially ground turkey, on a SNAP (food stamp budget)
I am a private chef to the 1% and refuse to shop at Whole Foods! I also do business with local independent health stores and farmers markets. primarily.
Whole Food has a license to steal and they lack integrity. What are they giving back, aside from occasional free food for public activites. I laugh at that gesture. It’s throwing crumbs to the poor. They need to start lowering their prices on certain products. They can start with ground turkey!
I just got back from whole foods, I asked for chicken feet and they told me they don´t carry feet or ears or anything of that sort because it is inhumane. If there is something that I dislike more than whole foods is how in love with whole foods its employees are, or team members as they call them. If you ask them if the baking soda has aluminum they will say I don’t know but if it is bad for you then probably not because we really care about everything that goes in all our products. If it is in whole foods you can trust it that is from a really good source, they add.
I was wondering if someone can tell me why is it inhumane to eat chicken feet? Is it more humane to eat the animal and toss the feet?
Thanks
I shop Trader Joe’s and the PCC. 25 years ago, the PCC was all about granola and getting your peanut butter out of vats, using your own jars. Boy, has that changed. They are all dressed up like whole foods now. And I can’t afford either of them. So Trader Joe’s it is!
I think it’s rather unfair to make such a negative generalization about an entire company. Each region and each store operates wildly different from one another, as every buyer in every store has free reign to make their own choices. The store I have been working at for the past 7 years is a huge supporter of local farms, grassfed meats, local seafood, and organic handmade products. Yes, there are still plenty of products that could be considered “Walmart” quality, but to say that all of it is is a downright lie. In an ideal world it would be nothing but organic and local, but due to constant customer complaints and requests, not to mention that they are still a business that needs to actually make a profit to operate, there are still inferior products sold. One of the biggest complaints about “Whole Paycheck” is price, what do you think would happen if they rid their shelves of everything but organic? It’s a nice concept that should be worked towards, but you have to convince the general public of that first. It’s not the company’s fault.
“Whole Foods really is just an upscale WalMart (with a “go green” marketing focus) with a store layout that is so impressive and beautiful that people just love to go there. ”
You seriously need to think about what you say about the people that read your shitty blog and wonder why people are giving you hell. More than half the people that posted in these comments say they have no other choice but to go to WF. You sit there and say “Oh, they only go because it looks nice”. You know NOTHING about any of these people! I don’t even shop at WF, but am completely offended at how you speak to your readers. Your blog will not last long. You need to seriously look at how your speaking to the people that have been giving you support. You’re rude and undeserving of any kind of reader base. This is by far the WORST blog I have ever come across.
I’ve been to a Whole Foods a few times in Atlanta. The selection was amazing, the prices out of this world ridiculous, and everything really seemed too good to be true, except the prices… It’s not impossible to have a completely GMO-free market like WF brass says it is. It’s just impossible to have a GMO-free super store, with locations nationwide, and a business model based on expansion and upward trajectory.
But then chain store anything has never been your friend. Your friend is a local organic farmer with a sense of duty and purpose. And moral backbone like steel… Or grow it yourself. And put a net over your garden so Monsanto can’t come to your door accusing you of infringement when their stinking modified seeds blow onto YOUR property.
I find this whole thread a bit funny.
I am an older Mom and have been ‘into’ whole foods for over 33 years. I still have two teen age boys at home who eat like food is going out of style.
Way back before computers, we had 20 families attending monthly Co-op meetings that lasted 2-4 hours as we put together huge orders to several vendors. Then two weeks later, we met in a Fire Station to distribute everything. Even back then, though, I got some of our food from Kroger and Safeway. I chose wisely and stuck to my budget, as well as my convictions.
Newsflash! I still buy stuff at Kroger and this week I got some excellent wild caught Salmon there for $6. a pound and day-before the expiration date Kerrygold butter for $1.99 a pound.I have butter to last for months in the freezer. If I hadn’t ‘lowered’ my standards enough to visit Kroger, I would have never gotten such great deals!
Everyone is doing the best that we can and division, while on the rise here in the good old USA is still a poor way to unite people. Nobody’s perfect, and no food is perfect, and no source for food is perfect.
The reason that this thread is almost funny is that it is such a First World concern.
We should be thankful that we have so many choices and that we are not watching our children go to bed hungry each night.
Balance is everything.
I think the takeaway message should be that we can all make efforts to change out buying habits, and that just because we’ve shopped at grocery stores most of our lives (as some of us have) and depended on large corporations for our food, doesn’t mean that we can’t look for ways to change what we are doing. And I think Sarah has done that beautifully. Sometimes to get people out of their comfortable spots that may not be such a good thing to do, there needs to be some pulling back of the curtain so they can see what’s really going on. It’s too easy to assume something is just fine because of slick marketing and advertising. Remember, big companies spend more of their budget on these two expenses than anything else. And unless you can’t verify the source of the food you buy, it’s all completely unknown. I firmly believe If we the educated consumers don’t stand up for sustainable principles, we’ll continue to get more of the same – commercial foods cleverly disguised as organic, local, and sustainable.