Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I won't argue that they have certain items at a reasonable price (the late great sourdough crackers were a couple of bucks per box), but the majority of their items tend towards being very expensive. Some of them deservedly so, such as fancy cheese, as I already stated.
I, too, am a careful shopper, and I simply have too many other options around here to shop at Whole Foods. I used to go there about once a month before they closed the one that was less than 2 miles from here, but only for a certain few items. Sorry you don't like my little nickname for the store, but I think WF can handle the heat.
Delish! Unfortunately, I've been there far too many times when they've been giving out samples of those. Thankfully, our closest WF is 30 minutes away so it's not like I'm there every day.
Our favorite thing to buy there lately is their hatch chile burgers. Yum! Though I'm sure you can get those lots of places.
That pejorative is becoming tiresome, especially because it isn't necessarily accurate.
Yes, if you buy "value added" prepared/ready-to-eat foods at WF, you will pay a substantial premium for that convenience, but--then again--that can be said about the prepared/ready-to-eat foods at every supermarket. On the other hand, if you stick to staple items, you will frequently pass less for them at Whole Foods.
Being a very careful comparison shopper, I can tell you that WF charges substantially less for things like Organic Valley Half & Half, Siggi's yogurt, and Fage yogurt than any other food market in my area. There are also other items that I buy at WF, simply because they are consistently cheaper--as well as being of high quality--but I can't provide an accurate list of them at the moment.
I have an agenda of what to buy at Whole Foods, what to buy at Trader Joe's, what to buy at Wegmans, and what to buy at Shop-Rite--based on which store is the most reasonably-priced for those items.
I've comparison shopped, and occasionally found items to be cheaper at WF. Then they stopped carrying some of those items. For example, bagged salad greens were occasionally a little less at WF than Trader Joe's. Now WF in my town doesn't carry bagged greens anymore. They carry salad greens in plastic containers, which hold more than the bags, so they charge double or more. But shopping for one person, I don't need that quantity. I also noticed that when the price of berries drops seasonally, they will not sell berries in the smallest containers. They only sell them in larger baskets, which sell at the same price as the smallest baskets sell for off-season. That makes it hard for shoppers to economize, unless they can use the higher quantity without any spoilage. It forces the customer to buy more than they need, or not to buy at all.
So although I like WF for some things, IMO there's definitely some gaming of the customer going on, with regard to packaging and pricing.
And btw, their hot bar foods are not prepared by WF. It's a national or regional company that sells that stuff to delis and grocery stores all over, and the soups are full of cheap fillers and starches, and many have sugar added.
The tastiest jar of Garam Masala spice for Indian food.. I used mine up and refuse to throw out the jar so I burn it into my memory. We live three and a half hours away. It will be a very long time before I see it again.
It's that good.
Also, they sell the best tiny size orange colored split lentils. Such a fine size they break down into a creamy soup, minus the gritty choke.
Have fun.. I'm a little jealous..but glad you'll get to walk the aisles.
Sorry you don't like my little nickname for the store, but I think WF can handle the heat.
Wouldn't that be WP?
My favorite things at Whole Foods are the brownies in the tea cookies case, sold self-serve by the pound. I generally don't like most brownies: too much sugar, not enough chocolate. But these are good. I can really taste the chocolate.
Also, they have the best price in town for St. Andre, and it goes so well with their Italian bread.
I used to go for gruyere and the store brand pesto sauce, which was good and affordable. Love the cookies, but the price! Whole Paycheck will never get old to me. One night the people in line in front of me spent over $700. I don't spend that in a month and they did not buy for a month, believe me.
Much as people may rip on Whole Foods(and yes, their prices also to me are often more expensive than I prefer), I do like their Indian samosas(think that's what they're called, my friend turned me onto them) that you can sometimes find at their hot bar. If you can luck out and go to WF at the right time, it isn't uncommon for them to have Jeni's ice cream pints for $8-8.50, vs. the $10 and up prices I see for their ice cream pints elsewhere. Limit my purchases of Jeni's pints to rarely b/c of their price, but once in a very, very infrequent while I'll get one. And the in-store bars they have at newer locations are nice, since you can get flights(small glasses) of microbrewed beers for a cheap price.
Trader Joe's has a lot of really good frozen food items, and I LOVE how they aren't overpriced vs. WF. The Indian food items are especially good, but I've found other things from them that also were good as well(i.e. macaron(sp?) cookies). They NEVER, EVER do any sale prices on the items I see there, which is one of the rare downsides I can think of about TJ's.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
