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I liked the old Wild Oats, even if they were a bit "granola" to me.
Whole Foods, well there isn't a lot that is whole about what they sell. Certainly they do have a wide selection of organics and herbs and such, but definitely a lot of "gourmet" type items catering to the wine and cheese crowd in there. I find the prices out of sight and too high.
At least here in PA with Wegmans and Giant Foods, there is an ample selection of such items now and there is no need to go to Whole Foods, if one was to exist nearby.
Thank you for the video and info. I'm glad to see this outed and surprised at the same time. I'm headed back to San Diego this summer after years away, so will definitely be mindful of spending more $$ at WF, thinking it's money well spent simply because it's being sold through WF.
I must say however, this has got to be a larger local problem in some stores. I recently lived in Boston and shopped for 80% of my food at WF. Although they did carry the 365 label, I never looked at the packaging as I eat fresh, never frozen/canned/bottled, yet that info on China made was certainly unexpected. Our food in the Newton and Brookline stores declared to be local, going so far as to post the names of the farms and a snippet about each farm. Not always, of course, and you'd commonly see these products alongside other fresh produce saying it was from Chile and other countries. And, yes, bananas and coffee aren't borne of this continent, so the local store's motto was they buy local whenever possible. I'm happy to eat bananas unlaced with poison no matter where they're grown or how much they cost. Can't beat the flavor either... they actually taste like bananas.
However, the Boston WF I frequented never carried any brands which could be purchased in other markets, such as Cheerios. Even salad dressings or canned/bottled food were never brands I saw anywhere else, including Trader Joe's.
Occasionally, I'd see a sign saying "We no longer carry cherries from ABC Farms as they were not certified organic" (I'm paraphrasing). There would occasionally be local news stories about WF policing their suppliers and if discovered they were not offering organic as they'd initially declared, they'd be dropped. So, perhaps wrongly, I assumed WF was doing a bang up job by policing their own vendors 24/7... perhaps they do in some stores and/or perhaps in regards to some produce or food products and/or perhaps only sometimes. I fell for the green marketing ploy.
This is good info and I'll much more closely observe labels and ask produce managers about the origins of their much more expensive offerings. I'm guessing many store employees couldn't offer this info with accuracy as they are basically stockers and many in Boston spoke little if any English... perhaps in some areas why many consumers don't ask and blindly trust. I guess I've been a bit lackadaisical myself in trusting the name brand of WF.
I'm now staying in the Mid-Atlantic for spring near a Wegman's which does offer some organic... I'm going to be more careful before loading my cart next time I'm shopping for 1/2-bag of groceries for $35, as I paid today.
I went into whole foods a couple of times and was shocked by the price of things. Lucly in Utah most grocery stores sell local produce.In New Mexico we had Sunflowers Market, I love Sunflowers they may not have pretty stores, but their labeling and prices are good.
I see a lot of "manufactured for/distributed by" labels on foods at Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and other grocery stores. But they don't actually say where the manufacturing took place.
I can't wait until summer. We have a couple of farmer's markets here in the summer, and a beef farm always shows up with a cooler full of meat. Unfortunately, we don't have the markets in the winter, spring, or fall.
Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and ALL supermarket chains have their store brand manufactured by larger food producers that they carry. For example, WFs 365 brand vegan burgers are made by Boca (Kraft). This is common practice and one of the main reasons why the store brand is usually of the same quality, but generally cheaper.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wanneroo
I liked the old Wild Oats, even if they were a bit "granola" to me.
Whole Foods, well there isn't a lot that is whole about what they sell. Certainly they do have a wide selection of organics and herbs and such, but definitely a lot of "gourmet" type items catering to the wine and cheese crowd in there. I find the prices out of sight and too high.
I preferred Wild Oats, too, but they were bought by Whole Foods and to my knowledge Whole Foods closed all of them down (even though the competition would prove lucrative to both stores and in the end WF would collect the money, anyways. So much for choice!).
Whole Foods used to be a whole lot better up until the end of the 90s. They were still ridiculously expensive, but the quality was way better, most things were local, and each store cooked/prepared each deli item. This may upset some people, but this was at a time before the average person really cared about anything organic and was still considered fringe or hippy. No offense, but just like everything, once it becomes popular, the price goes up. It's a basic market principle.
Face it, eating organic and being 'green' has become widely accepted by suburban soccer moms to go along with their yoga phase. While it is great that people have become interested in such, the rest of us who are lifers and not into it for health (solely) or because it is the current trendy thing to do, ultimately pay the price (for a lifestyle that we have supported for years before it was 'cool' and will support years after it loses its fad).
I heard that if a package doesn't say the country of origin, it must be from the US. Does anyone know if that is true?
Unfortunately, no.
this is an interesting discussion. The video is from 2008. In mid-2009 a new law went into effect, requiring certain retailers to label where the food comes from.
Check out this video from USDA. Also, note the exclusions to the law starting about 3:02. Only way to be sure what you're eating and where it came from is to cook from scratch ~
BTW, this labeling is something Trader Joe's has been doing long before it became law (labeling country of origin). Or maybe they just saw the law coming over the horizon....
As I understand it, labeling something USDA approved does not mean it comes from the USA. It means that the producer meets the requirements of USDA inspections (referenced in the first video that was posted).
I'm waiting for the correct answer(s) from a cattleman's association whom I contacted. If anyone's interested, I'll post that info when I get it emailed to me.
Best course of action is to "read the fine print" as another poster said.
Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, and ALL supermarket chains have their store brand manufactured by larger food producers that they carry. For example, WFs 365 brand vegan burgers are made by Boca (Kraft). This is common practice and one of the main reasons why the store brand is usually of the same quality, but generally cheaper.
I preferred Wild Oats, too, but they were bought by Whole Foods and to my knowledge Whole Foods closed all of them down (even though the competition would prove lucrative to both stores and in the end WF would collect the money, anyways. So much for choice!).
Well in West Denver I used to go to a Wild Oats there. Hadn't been since 2007 and when I went back last fall, it was now a Whole Foods. Mostly the inside was unchanged down to the furnishings and everything, but I noticed the there were some changes to the food selections and so on. Prices were high.
All well, like I said here in PA, Wegmans and Giant Foods does a reasonable enough job for me to get everything I want and things like herbs I order online a lot anyways.
People are hard-wired to use visual cues to make assumptions. Even if Whole Foods never used a single word in advertising, just their graphics and the materials the use to build their stores would give the impression that their food is healthier.
Just like auto manufacturers don't need to put words all over their cars, or their marketing materials, to create the impression that their SUVs are safer. SUVs aren't safer, but people assume they are just by looking at them. They are using visual cues to make an assumption.
And just like people make assumptions about the safety of a neighborhood by the way it looks. Unkempt lawns, peeling paint, and empty storefronts don't necessarily mean a neighborhood is unsafe, but people use visual cues to assume that it is.
Whole Foods is no guiltier than any other business, and they are only half the equation--the other half is the customer who relies on visual cues and creates an opportunity for businesses to exploit.
i am very surprised whole foods is sourcing food from china. we deliberately avoid food from china....yet we do sometimes buy some frozen products from WF.
I'm torn on WF; one of the reasons that I patronize them, as wells as Trader Joes, is that they refuse to give into union thuggery and cave in and go union, all the while paying their employees quite well. So props to them for the non union, but on the flip side they pay their employees so well because they pass the cost onto the consumer, hence the nickname Whole Paycheck. I haven't seen the video yet, so I'll comment on that after watching it.
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