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| - Ugh. I have a love/hate relationship with Whole Foods.
In short: their products are diverse and of high quality and their staff is always friendly and helpful. However, I tend personally tend to avoid the stores because of their high prices (which isn't necessarily a negative...read below) and the overall aesthetic of the lifestyle they promote and the bougie clientele that shops here.
Products: As noted, they have a diverse selection of items, many of which simply cannot be found at others store; even if said stores are aiming towards the same kind of shopper. They have an amazing selection of meats (raw, cooked/bbq and cured), cheeses, breads, nuts, granolas, beers, produce and pretty much anything else. One thing that helps: since they are not selling branded corporate items, they do not have to do things like dedicate an entire aisle to cereals. Instead, they've reduced the shelf space dedicated to any one products, and thus, with the same amount of space as other stores, they're able to offer a wide variety of items you will not find anywhere else. As for their ready-to-eat food, while the quality is fantastic, I personally stray away from them considering the cost for the convenience.
It's always a good place to find obscure items. Recently, I purchase tea tree oil and had no problem finding it there (I had to look around a bit....but I found it).
Staff: I am usually a pretty independent shopper (i.e. I can actually find s*** on my own and know how to read aisle descriptions). However, the few times I have had to ask for help, the staff has always been friendly and helpful. The cashiers are relatively friendly as well; about as friendly as I expect considering the monotony of scanning barcodes all day and being the target of shoppers' misplaced anger. I mean, they tend to be the closest thing in sight when the totals come up on the screen lol.
Company: As for the company, since I try to separate worker from employers, I tend to have issue with their decisions and action. This is really one of two reasons why I do not shop here. They promote having the highest minimum wages in the industry but minimum wage is minimum wage and it's hard to survive when you're paid less per hour than many of the products sold there. Additionally, as per a Dissent magazine article in 2014, whole Foods has been known to use distributors and companies that use prison labor to make their products. And I'm sorry...but while the tilapia might be organic...if it's supporting the war on drugs, the prison industrial complex and the school-to-prison pipeline...what good is it really?
Aesthetic/Clientele: The other reason I avoid this place. I swear, there is just such a seeping milieu of arrogance, self-righteousness and bougie lifestyle in these places. I feel that because I refuse to dress up to go shopping (advertising to the world that I just came from the gym or yoga studio) and because I interact with the people rather than look down my nose at them, that I inherently do not fit in....and boy do I feeling the eyes staring. There are far better people than I who can explain this phenomena of cultural capitalism...(look up the youtube video featuring Slavoj Zizek's RSA animate speech from "First as tragedy, then as farce").
Anyways...Whole Foods: Come for artisan goat cheese, stay for judgmental soccer parents in lululemon pants.
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