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| - I, in theory, love Whole Foods. I love the produce selection, the cheeses, and the meats. The hot bar is lovely and the bakery pretty good. When I moved to Pittsburgh, I was elated to finally have a Whole Foods I could shop at!
But the experience is just... unpleasant. Humans in BMW's/Audi's/beat up subarus have turned into vultures, circling... waiting... for the next spot to open up in the impossibly tiny lot. There are no words to describe the anguish of being stuck behind one of these vultures stalking a shopper with a full grocery cart, only to see a spot just ahead, that someone else pounces on while you helplessly look on. It sounds trivial and I get that this is a city, but is this what one really wants to deal with as they are trying to run errands on their day off when there are other, less stressful options near by?
And, you know, I think the trauma of trying to find a parking spot remains with the shoppers long after parking their car because people the atmosphere is kind of stressful inside as well. The jockeying for the shortest line in the check out, the pushing people out of the way for the last organic horseradish root... it's about the same as any other urban grocery store but after the parking! Knowing the dangerous gauntlet I must run to get back to my car with my groceries! The prices! It's just not worth it.
And I'd be willing to forgive all of this if it were an above average Whole Foods, but it's not. This brings me, at last, to the turkey. I called ahead in late October TWICE to make sure the turkey I ordered would be fresh for Thanksgiving. It was supposed to be fresh. It was labelled fresh. But it was frozen. If I'm going to pay 60 bucks for a bird, it really should come as labeled and advertised. I don't need the stress of hoping my bird will thaw before the big day (spoiler alert... it won't). Especially not after the parking lot.
EDIT: Well, customer service was awesome and they refunded my frozen turkey. I amend to 3*... thanks customer service!
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