The Daily Biff - Whole Foods... Overrated and Overpriced

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Fri, 10 Mar 2006

Whole Foods... Overrated and Overpriced
I have been hearing all kinds of rave reviews from family and friends about Whole Foods Market since they recently opened an eastside location in Bellevue. The store has probably been open a year, but since there are at least a dozen other grocery stores between us and the Whole Foods Bellevue location, we just haven't gotten around to visiting the store.

Well, we have now visited Whole Foods twice in the last week to buy food for Eliana's family party and her big let's-invite-all-our-friend-and-family party that we are hosting tomorrow. In a word, I was unimpressed with Whole Foods. The bakery is ordinary. The produce is not noteworthy and is nothing better than you can find at your local "non-Whole" grocery store. The "365 value brand" is hardly a value for the poor quality of the product line. The variety and selection of off-the-shelf food is dismal. Whole Foods does appear to have very good meat, fish, and deli counters, and the cheese counter looks top rate... but it doesn't look like it is anything better than what I can find at Larry's. Yet Larry's has better produce, a better bakery, and several thousand more products available on the shelf... products that I would actually stock in my pantry at home.

Basically Whole Foods is just a bigger (but not necessarily better) version of a PCC Natural Market. There is a PCC very close to us down in Issaquah - a store we have probably visited about 3 or 4 times in the 6 years we have lived here. Why so few times? Because the product offering is so narrow at PCC - and it is just slightly broader at Whole Foods... it's just organic this and organic that... nothing "mainstream".

Now, don't get me wrong, I love organic produce and organic dairy, but I'd rather pour my organic milk over a bowl of Crunch Berries than some of that nasty organic Kashi. However, there isn't a box of Crunch Berries to be found at Whole Foods (nor at PCC for that matter). Yet, I can buy a nice delicious half-gallon of organic milk at QFC, Safeway, or Larry's and (perish the thought) at the same store, pick up a big 21oz box of Crunch Berries.

Whole Foods... there are better options out there.

(Update Tue Mar 14 08:58:09 PST 2006 // they're -> there)

:: Posted by rus on Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:42 pm
:: Filed under /opinion

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