The Whole Foods crime of good food

Whole Foods Market, the company that's expanded significantly over the past decade into the country's largest natural foods supermarket, is an excellent source for [almost] everything food-related. Ever since one opened near me in the Boston area, I shopped there for about 95% of my groceries, dropping my frequenting of the local Stop & Shop pretty suddenly. There was so much to be desired about the store. It was clean, pleasant, the people were nice, and -- most importantly -- the food was a lot better.

Having moved out to California, I was glad to find one a few blocks from my home that's even better than the one near me at home. Yet as I talked to friends and coworkers of mine in similar circumstances (just out of college, in their first real careers), I was somewhat surprised to hear such animosity towards the store. Primarily, it's a cost issue. There's a common misconception that products are more expensive at Whole Foods. It's an argument I love getting into, because these people are just so damned sure that they're right. They're convinced that because their bills are higher when they leave Whole Foods than when they leave Safeway or Trader Joe's, that the store is more expensive. What they forget to note is what they're buying.

Let's look at a common grocery list of products I may buy from either Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. I don't have comparable receipts on hand, but I do have a pretty good recollection of costs:

• Half gallon of milk: $2.50 - $3.00 at both WFM and TJ's
• Loaf of sandwich break: $3.50 at both WFM and TJ's
• Frozen pizza: $6.00 at both WFM and TJ's
• 4 sticks of butter: $2.50 at both WFM and TJ's
• Bag of lettuce: $2.00 at both WFM and TJ's
• etc. etc.

"OMG so why is it that whenever I go to Whole Foods I wind up spending twice as much as I do at Trader Joe's?!" Well for the answer to that, I'd suggest actually looking at your bill. Specifically, what are you buying at Whole Foods that you're not buying at Trader Joe's? Could it be that $10 Wolfgang Puck frozen pizza? The $10 six pack of imported beer? The $30 bottle of amazing olive oil? The $12 chocolate shaver? Yeah, that all adds up. But you don't have to buy it.

The funny thing about Whole Foods is that they have a much wider selection of goods for purchase than other grocery stores. And yet that's what corners them into the "high end market" corner that dissuades many cost-conscious consumers from shopping there regularly. So yes, in a sense they're being punished for loving good food products and sharing their passion with the public.

On a side-note, I do have a mini rant about the place. I went there yesterday to buy groceries, including supplies for a salmon dish. Everything was going fine until I started looking for French vermouth. Unsure of where it might be, I asked one of the employees, who looked at me like I had asked where their shovebo doorlocks were.

"Hi, do you know where your French vermouth is?"
*quizzical look*
"...or, if you have it...?"
"Um...what is it?"
"French vermouth? Or just vermouth?"
"Uh...I don't know what that is."
"Well, it's an alcoholic product."
"Oh, well then check over there" *points to beer and wine section*
"Yeah, thanks."

Brilliant. The French vermouth would be in the wine and beer section? I would have never guessed. At least when I got over there, I was pointed to the two types of vermouth they did have. (Neither were French, but the extra dry worked out fine.)

P.S.
The Atlantic salmon steak I picked up from them was amazing. Damn their food is good.