Whole Foods- what's your guilty pleasure? (Mayo: coupons, hotel, home)

[luvingme23]

Originally Posted by donisanasfan

Being a in a traffic congested, poorly accessible, dated and ugly shopping center is all a big plus. I just can't figure out why every employee there I have talked to says they think the location was unfortunate. The best place for great priced food that actually tastes good is believe it or not Costco. If you can deal with feeling like you are shopping in a third world country, it really is a bargain.

it was location then it wouldn't have ever been busy because people just wouldn't go to it. Publix was there for years and survived. they only moved when Albertson's left. At one point they occupied both spaces right across the street from each other. I'm sure the location can be enhanced a bit but i don't see it as a significant reason why people don't shot there. the best people to ask wouldn't be the employees but the people who used to shop there and don't anymore like myself. btw, i'm sure it was probably more like 1 or two employees that empathizing with you while you were making observation/mild complaint in a conversation rather than EVERY employee actually telling you the location is bad. i've done it myself with customers just to make them sense that i feel their pain, buy my product, come again, thank you very much.

just mentioning Costco would actually support my theory of cost. Costco prior to St. Johns Town Center being built was a terrible location. nothing was immediately around it except Chase. even now it has no immediate residential neighborhoods like the Whole Foods location. Also, if you shop at Costco, then you either live near there and Whole Foods would be a terrible location for you or.......You live near Whole Foods and location isn't a problem for you because you are willing to drive waaaay to costco. I say that because none of those two are even close to each other so they probably aren't two choices for those who most likely would be Whole Foods customers given their current location in Mandarin.

[donisanasfan]

Actually neither is close to me, but I find that Costco is less painful to drive to as there is always something else to do at the St Johns Town Center. I actually think around Beach and Hodges would have been my choice for Whole Foods as it is as central as you can get for a city as spread out as the Jacksonville area , while being close enough for higher end spenders in PVB. Ok, so you are right in that every employee does not come up to me and say "Hi, man our location sucks". Still, I am able to read people well enough to know when someone is just being a yes man and when they are actually agreeing and elaborating as to what they would have done differently. In Jacksonville you simply have to drive a lot, that's just the way it is. So I would have been willing to drive to Whole Foods for certain things had they not put it in what I find to be a very inaccessible area given the traffic and also the lack of other good shopping in the area . There are simply not enough high end consumers, in the Mandarin are by itself, to make it viable in my opinion.

[luvingme23]

yeah, i don't want to disagree with you to the extent that you think i'm picking on your ideas because i'm not. however, beaches & hodges are no where near "central" to the jacksonville area. you would excluded 3/4ths the city in that area. downtown is the most "central" area in jacksonville. however, there is just not much incentive to go there.
as far as traffic is concerned. there is a lot of traffic in that where whole foods is because there is a lot of residences and businesses in that area. therefore, alot of businesses are doing very well in that same area. turning a corner doesn't make it so much more inconvenient that you aren't going to want to shop there. like i said, i've never heard one person not want to go there just because they didn't want to make an extra turn even when Publix was there.

you are right about the strip mall over all being bleek though. other than whole foods, office depot and steak n shake there is no reason for me to go in there. ok occasionally comedy zone and that firestone. that's every once in a blue moon. but it's just not realistic to say that most of the people who stopped shopping there from their opening are not going there anymore because of that extra turn and the location. if the location was that bad they wouldn't have went there in droves in the first place. as you stated lots of daily traffic, which means lots of business going by everyday.

as far as costs go. there are many businesses, including other organic food stores on that same street not to far from that same location that seem to be doing well enough. i have no reason to believe that they would do better anywhere else in jacksonville, except for St. Johns Townscenter just because that's the hotspot right now. it's just overall too expensive for daily grocery shopping for the entire jacksonville area considering the alternatives. that's just my opinion. i suspect that's one of the reasons you choose costco. because you can save money on your products.

[eureka1]

Why is anyone still shopping at Whole Foods when they outed themselves as the corporate rats they are during the health care debate? Support your local merchants, not the giant corporations like TJ and Whole Foods.

[donisanasfan]

Makes me want to deal with the traffic and shop at Whole Foods for all my groceries! Got to love those open minded liberals.

[donisanasfan]

good enough luvingyourself- I do have to say though that of coarse people shopped there at the beginning. I ventured over there several times. It was new here and it was familiar to those of us who lived other places where WF's where prevalent . After a few times making the haul over there I was done, and evidently so were many others. By the way eureka1 , do you think that local merchants are in business because loosing money makes them all tingly? They are in for the profit just like the "corporate rats". They just haven't been as successful yet, thus they are only local. That is the point of a business, to make money. I think your dread locks may be weighing down your brain.

[luvingme23]

wow someone just got mean for no reason. maybe you can try debating without the personal attacks.


there is a tremendous advantage to supporting your local merchants. in general they are more likely to trade goods and services with other local merchants. they are less likely to bring in outsiders for the hire paying positions. they are more likely to sponsor local events and projects. they are likely to spend their profits locally because they tend to live in or near the area. in other words, your money goes circulates alot longer within your community before it leaves when you invest in local merchants. another side effect to the business is that you are more likely to be able to hold someone accountable with local merchants. try making a customer complaint with walmart as opposed to native sun or publix and see which holds your voice more valuable.

[donisanasfan]

OK......so dismissing a group of people as "corporate rats" is not mean? I guess that is just a friendly term ...'oh those crazy corporate rats..I just love em'. Look, you just go right on believing all that anti corporate crap.. It's liberal , fantasy land gobbledygook, but what can you do? Look who doesn't love to support a local based business? But you can do that with out having to believe that it somehow makes you superior in doing so . I mean to not support the "corporate rats" at whole foods because they had the common sense to voice an opinion that runs contrary to the view of many of the brain washed, pachouli wearing, dread lock coifed crowd is just completely lacking any objective critical thought process. There are many large corporations that are very responsive to their customers, ( that's how they generally get customers ) in fact my own experience has been that they are generally more responsive. Just by their size alone they are able to many things local smaller businesses could never do. Are you familiar with the Stowers Institute? Those corporate types giving all that money to cancer research, who do they think they are?
Please think about using your brain before one utters those cliched liberal throw away phrases.

[Magnolia Bloom]

Some folks just take pleasure in making every thread a debate and they get carried away, luvingme23.

Someone whose top choices for routine food shopping are Costco or WalMart is not the demographic that Whole Foods is going after. They are looking for the Publix/natural food stores shoppers.

Originally Posted by luvingme23

wow someone just got mean for no reason. maybe you can try debating without the personal attacks.


there is a tremendous advantage to supporting your local merchants. in general they are more likely to trade goods and services with other local merchants. they are less likely to bring in outsiders for the hire paying positions. they are more likely to sponsor local events and projects. they are likely to spend their profits locally because they tend to live in or near the area. in other words, your money goes circulates alot longer within your community before it leaves when you invest in local merchants. another side effect to the business is that you are more likely to be able to hold someone accountable with local merchants. try making a customer complaint with walmart as opposed to native sun or publix and see which holds your voice more valuable.

I have become more intentional in supporting local merchants, even if they are a bit pricier. Not just in foods, but in other areas, as well. I only recently began going to the flea market on Beach for produce and it is really fun. Never thought I would say that, as I can't stand flea markets, but for the veggies, just being there among the hub bub of folks filling their bags, smelling, feeling the produce.... the one place the Jax is entirely multicultural! (and less expensive, actually)

And there are the farmers markets throughout the city- closest to me is the one at Whole Foods parking lot on Sunday. That is pretty hit or miss, asit is fairly new, so I have relied more on the Beach Blvd. flea market.

[donisanasfan]

By the way, check out the demographics at Costco, or even simpler check out the parking lot and you might think you are in a mercedes car dealership. The average income for a Wal Mart shopper is 35 grand, at Coscto more then double that. In fact ( those stubborn facts get in the way all the time don't they/) Costco has a slightly higher demographic then does Whole Foods. As for WalMart , it has become a kind of savior of sorts for one of the lefts most sacred deities , the lofty local farmer.
The Great Grocery Smackdown - Magazine - The Atlantic
It's so much easier to make sense when you have some idea of what you are talking about.