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Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,925,051 times
Reputation: 4561
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Quote:
Originally Posted by randomparent
Well now, a condo AND a boat! How nice for you.
I find it hilarious that some people on this thread are portraying WF shoppers as being stuck-up and status conscious, and yet the counterargument includes dropping ownership of second homes and watercraft into the discussion.
Used house I am renovating, used condo bought when things were depressed in Florida real estate, used boat, 13 year old used vehicle (haven't bought a new one since 1973 and never will), used furniture bought at better grade consignment stores (saves 1000's and often better quality.. real wood, real leather), am familiar with the inside of Goodwill and their offerings, etc. etc.
Life is lived better experiencing things. Recycling articles is environmentally and fiscally responsible. So is Aldi's
That's what I was thinking too. Dragger's makes Whole Foods look like a run down Safeway in a bad neighborhood.
OP's Whole Foods experience is nothing like what I've experienced here in Northern California. The suburb that I live in is ethnically diverse, middle class, and the Whole Foods is two blocks from a train station. So, you see all sorts of people shopping there, and no one walks around looking confused or nervous. It also most definitely isn't a status symbol. In Silicon Valley if you want to flaunt your wealth, you buy a Tesla Roadster. Your choice of grocery store isn't even on anyone's radar.
I agree. It's no big deal to go to Whole Foods, but the largest amount of our groceries are not purchased there. It's just part of the mix. We like variety and quality, and we buy organics whenever they are recommended.
We shop at all the following grocery stores at some point during the month: Whole Foods, Sprouts, Raley's (all 3 near each other), Safeway, Trader Joe's and an Asian market for a few rare items (not much, though, as our emphasis is Japanese, and around here it's mostly Chinese and South Asian). I do really wish we had a Japanese market like Nijiya, so we trek occasionally to Mountain View for that. We used to drive often to the Peninsula and then shopped at Andronico's (gone), Lunardi's, Draeger's, and the small shop inside Stanford Shopping center which sells great cheese.
We don't belong to Costco, as it's just the two of us and also because they seem to be switching mostly to on line sales of most non-food items. I don't shop online at all. I want to support my local stores.
They always give you weird looks. And they look super self-conscious, awkward and unsure of themselves. They don't know where they're going.
I don't have a Whole Foods near me, but I go to one once a month to purchase my "hipster healthfood goods"
I think the stunned look is for two reasons - 1. The VAST amount of STUFF! 2. The VAST amount of stuff you just can't get anywhere else. 3. That place can make the most focused person turn ADHD - and maybe its purposely set up that way - I have violated my budget so many times there. There is stuff to taste. Stuff I forgot I wanted. Stuff I never knew existed, but realized that I absolutely had to try.
It's like a worlds fair of upscale mostly healthy food!
I believe there's a bit of upper-middle class-sheeplery involved with a lot of Whole Foods shopping. These are the sort of people who lie to themselves saying that quinoa doesn't taste like sawdust and actually buy yoga pants.
Don't get me wrong, the stores are very nice and they usually do sell good quality products but they clearly scored hugely with the status obsessed petite bourgeois that inhabit the inner suburbs and gentrified urban areas of America. It's conspicuous consumption but at least it's non-GMO and gluten-free.
DLT, I completely agree.
Perhaps b/c I have and currently do live in such said type community, I see this often.
The types that frequent these are generally those who are have a lot of money and actively shop there daily, actively and willingly spending large amounts of $$$ on crap they convince themselves they can afford, and convince themselves they need.
At any given Whole Foods I've been to, the parking lot is filled with large SUVs..typically BMW, Subaru, Mercedes,etc.
It's pseudo-elitism, at it's best.
I go there perhaps (at most) once a year and that's just to get some of their carrot ginger soup during the winter. I'd rather spend my shopping money and hard-earned salary on local grocery stores with reasonable prices..
I like Whole Foods, but not all of the time. The employees there are better than most. Like the other night, I was on a road trip and I saw a Whole Foods and I wanted some Pop Tarts. No, not the commercially well known brand, but Whole Foods organic ones. They are a great snack without all of the chemicals like the major national brand that we all grew up with. I did not know what flavor to get, so an employee opened a couple of boxes and allowed me to try them for myself. Very good! I bought two boxes, one was a flavor I tried and the other I had not tried. I thought that was awesome. Things like that are kind of unique to Whole Foods and Trader Joes. I like them both.
The customers there tend to fall into two categories:
Middle aged and older women who have seen the Botox needle too often.
Younger women who have too much silicon implanted.
A third, much smaller category, is middle aged men who are quite jaunty in their white slacks, blue blazers and yachting caps.
I'm surprised at so many comments about the type of people at Whole Foods. I grocery shopped there only twice, but also went to pick up a single item about twice (in the vitamin aisle). The people there seemed just like ordinary middle class people, like me. Wealthy people are people, too, and don't always dress differently. An expensive t-shirt is still just a t-shirt. Although I did see a couple of pricey cars in the parking lot.
But that is why I wondered what they did for a living, to be shopping there. Because they seemed so middle class. (Maybe they were thinking that about me!) It may make a difference that I was in a store within the loop in a big city. It's near a ritzy area but middle class areas, too.
One store I thought was odd and uncomfortable was a new Kroger's or something in one of the burbs far north of the city. I stoppd in to get something when I was out that way, and I felt like I was in the Stepford Wives movie. The aisles were extra wide, the linoleum new and shiny, the place was spotless, the people a little too clean for a 100 degree summer day. Then I saw Ken and Barbie...he with his blonde combed hair and white shorts, she with her coiffed blonde hair with a sweater casually tied around her neck and hanging down her back. They were on their way to the tennis courts at the Club, no doubt.
Oh gee, another bashing Whole Foods thread with all of the stereotypical remarks about "expensive" and "yuppies"....how original, next up....Starbucks? * eye roll * But hey, it's fun to trash a company that has made a mission to improve the food industry via standards pertaining to ethics of production and animal welfare practices versus factory farming/pesticides, genetic modification and horrifying conditions animals are raised/processed in. Quick, name another national grocer that has had any other interest in anything beyond the bottom line.
And furthermore if one wants to talk weird, it can't get any weirder how much many Americans can't get enough of trashing companies that give back/help to improve the world we live in (i.e. Whole Foods, Starbucks, Chipotle) and yet can't spend money fast enough with companies working overtime as detriments to society. Seriously, try to think it through for a minute. I for one would rather vote with my 20% higher food bill (comparing organic to organic, versus conventional) at a store where standards stand for something versus selling "organic" products that have no background check other than what's on the label.
Location: In a little house on the prairie - literally
10,202 posts, read 7,925,051 times
Reputation: 4561
Quote:
Originally Posted by kyle19125
Oh gee, another bashing Whole Foods thread with all of the stereotypical remarks about "expensive" and "yuppies"....how original, next up....Starbucks? * eye roll * But hey, it's fun to trash a company that has made a mission to improve the food industry via standards pertaining to ethics of production and animal welfare practices versus factory farming/pesticides, genetic modification and horrifying conditions animals are raised/processed in. Quick, name another national grocer that has had any other interest in anything beyond the bottom line.
And furthermore if one wants to talk weird, it can't get any weirder how much many Americans can't get enough of trashing companies that give back/help to improve the world we live in (i.e. Whole Foods, Starbucks, Chipotle) and yet can't spend money fast enough with companies working overtime as detriments to society. Seriously, try to think it through for a minute. I for one would rather vote with my 20% higher food bill (comparing organic to organic, versus conventional) at a store where standards stand for something versus selling "organic" products that have no background check other than what's on the label.
Except, the emperor has no clothes.
Whole Foods have been caught in all sorts of scandals.
Do you need more? Did their Goebbels like marketing convince you that their presentation of reality is correct? It seems that they truly understand the concept of sheeple.
You would look scared in a store, too, if you had been up all night "googling" herbal and natural remedies as alternatives to the frightening pharmaceuticals offered for whatever ailments plagued you.
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