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| - As someone who travels for work, I've been to maybe 30 or 40 Whole Foods across the nation. My home store in Scottsdale, though, has had a rough time because it was built in expectation of more housing going in just before the big Recession.
It is a big, beautiful store with one of the largest selections of any of the stores I've seen, but has some issues that keep me from giving it a higher score. (I would prefer to give 3.5 stars.) Here's a rundown (I won't pick on the store for the recession period, only its recent issues.):
1. Prepared foods: Of all the stores I've ever been to, this one has consistently been weakest when it comes to the steam table-portion of prepared foods. Part of this is a function of the store's location, which has some but not enough businesses nearby. But the bigger problem is simply the selection is often bland and uninspired. A Nashville, Tennessee, store, for example was chock full of Southern specialties. A Washington, D.C., store I visited had an enormous selection of food from around the world. Sadly, the Scottsdale store has generic, bland repetitive food choices that are often not prepared well. The rice is dry; the beans and rice never look appetizing; and roasted Brussel sprouts are often undercooked. Recently, they added some Indian fair and a ramen station, which is between the pizzas and sandwiches, instead of next to the Asian soup bowl section. The choices of prepared food along the far wall is comprehensive, but sometimes those staffing the Asian soup bowl section have been downright mean to my 12-year-old son. The store's BBQ is often dry and tough.
2. Produce: This is the most important section of the store to me and at first glance looks well stocked. Like many Whole Foods, though, it is often overpriced and fails to have the diversity a store of this size should have. Freshness can be an issue with products such as snow peas, okra and cucumbers. When I lived in California, a lack of variety wasn't a problems because I prefer farmer's markets, but Arizona has very limited farmer's market choices making us more dependent on getting produce from Whole Foods. On the other hand, those winter sumo oranges -- in which the skin just falls off -- are the amazing.
3. Fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. This store used to have the BEST vegan chocolate chip cookies of any store I've ever visited and yes, I buy a chocolate chip cookie at every one. Sadly, a few months ago, the store dumped the amazing recipe it had been using -- I think the dough was outsourced -- and replaced the cookies with an inferior product. Instead of a crisp, fresh-tasting delight, the store now offers a doughy, stale off-flavor cookie.
4. Baggers: The checkout people are always friendly and polite. The baggers, however, seem to forget we live in a desert where the interior of a car can exceed 160. While the checkout people are great about making sure ice is added to the bags, the baggers often put perishable products in the non-cooled bags. If I don't check the bags before going out the car, the chocolate bar will be liquefied by the time I get home.
5. Knowledge: It's hit or miss when it comes to general knowledge about the food at this store. The employees have a good sense of where everything is, but they're weak about produce variety, what's non-dairy, etc. Several times in years' past, they had dairy products mixed in with a section titled non-dairy or vegan. To their credit, the store team fixed the problem immediately.
6. Making food fun: In a way, this is the store's weakest point. Samples tend to be poorly tended and the choices uninspired. Unlike some stores, there seems to be less in the way of cooking classes and very little is done to make the store a community hangout.
Positives:
1. Large fish and huge meat selection.
2. Even though I criticize the steam tables, the store does have a huge selection of prepared foods.
3. Huge gluten-free offerings.
4. Better than average non-dairy offerings.
5. Coffee, tea and baked goods all offered in one spot.
6. Popular wine bar.
Technically, there is nothing wrong with this store as far as Whole Foods go; it just needs to improve in the areas mentioned above. (And lower prices on produce.)
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