Foo - Friends don't let friends eat at Whole Foods.

Since a lot of you are my friends, I thought I should let y'all know. (If you're not my friend, WHY AREN'T YOU YET?!)

Because friends don't let friends pay $14.95 for wild rice, roast beef that takes an HOUR to eat, and glorified string beans (none of which were that good). All of which were cold upon serving.

So be a good friend and tell your friends.

I wasn't aware that Whole Foods had a restaurant. I buy some items there, even though I know they're ridiculously priced.

But what's NOT to like about "green" chicken breast priced at the wonderful savings of $4.99/lb? You clearly haven't been educated yet. :)

On the other hand, I did buy Simple Orange orange juice for $2.00, when the health store in Hoboken charged me $3.00 for it once.

they do have the best selection of trail mixes i've seen so far. and cheap soy milk. and fancy cheese.

I'll admit I have a lot to learn when it comes to buying meat as I don't eat it. I do prefer that my food is organic, and I'll admit to a few luxury items that are hard to come buy in other stores. I wish there was a nonstop farmer's market or better yet, be able to grow all my own food.

they do have the best selection of trail mixes i've seen so far. and cheap soy milk. and fancy cheese.

Their raspberry latte mix is dangerously addicting. The downside is it melts in the heat.

I don't recall how far Orem is from Salt Lake, but I've been shopping at Sunflower Market (http://www.sfmarkets.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=69610B99DE2C416A84CC8693150E7216). Low prices on organic and all natural hippy food. Good stuff. check them out if you're around there.

I don't recall how far Orem is from Salt Lake, but I've been shopping at Sunflower Market (http://www.sfmarkets.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=69610B99DE2C416A84CC8693150E7216). Low prices on organic and all natural hippy food. Good stuff. check them out if you're around there.

My mom's told me about this place. The Murray location is much closer than the Orem one. I'll have to go check it out!

I don't know if the prices are low enough to make a trip worth it, but the one near me is like 1/2 a mile. It's closer than any other grocery store and there prices are lower than even a normal grocery store's organic prices.

I don't know if the prices are low enough to make a trip worth it, but the one near me is like 1/2 a mile. It's closer than any other grocery store and there prices are lower than even a normal grocery store's organic prices.

That's awesome. Well, the Whole Foods is definitely closer by about 12 miles, but I still want to check it out if anything to satisfy my curiosity.

Whole Foods isn't different than any other grocery store, IMO. I can buy pre-made stuff that costs an arm and a leg at the QFC up the road from my place. Conversely, I can go to Whole Foods and buy just what stuff is on sale or sells cheap to begin with, and not spend a fortune.

I make it a point to avoid Whole Foods like the plague for reasons too numerous to list here.

I have found that Trader Joes has pretty much the same stuff, but with lower prices and less smug.

The only thing I ever go to Whole Foods for is Lavazza coffee. TJ's dont carry that brand. I cant seem to find it anywhere else, or put another way, now that I know where to find it i dont plan to look anymore.

I wasn't aware that Whole Foods had a restaurant. I buy some items there, even though I know they're ridiculously priced.

some do, some don't. I feel the same way - I'll go there on my break to buy our tea which no one else seems to carry - tho the wife just found it at a discount when bought in bulk online.

I was thinking of buying WF stock a while back.....

I have found that Trader Joes has pretty much the same stuff, but with lower prices and less smug.

The only thing I ever go to Whole Foods for is Lavazza coffee. TJ's dont carry that brand. I cant seem to find it anywhere else, or put another way, now that I know where to find it i dont plan to look anymore.

I do prefer TJ's overall but a lot of their proprietary products have TONS of salt/sugar in them. I prefer WF house brand stuff overall.

except for TJ Roasted Garlic Hummus:love:....if I found out I had to eat that for lunch and dinner every day for the rest o my life, I'd be just fine with it.....:love:

I'll admit I have a lot to learn when it comes to buying meat as I don't eat it. I do prefer that my food is organic, and I'll admit to a few luxury items that are hard to come buy in other stores. I wish there was a nonstop farmer's market or better yet, be able to grow all my own food.

This isn't beyond your reach. You can self-educate, and be ready to go come spring (or Costa Rica). :)

I'm going to do much better next year. :o

they do have the best selection of trail mixes i've seen so far. and cheap soy milk. and fancy cheese.

Ive given up on them with cheese. Im going through the list from the Monty Python cheese sketch and
at the 4th cheese on the list, I had to go to Central Market to get it. Their 'cheese manager' told me
they had over 700 varieties. It looked like that was true.

I've never been impressed with WF's cheese selection. It's not very good, and they don't span many different varieties. Getting the same tired cheddar from 12 different farms doesn't equal bigger selection.

The only thing I ever go to Whole Foods for is Lavazza coffee.

QFC out here carries that brand of coffee. If you have a Kroger (or whatever store name they use in MD) near you, it might even be cheaper than at TJ's.

I have found that Trader Joes has pretty much the same stuff, but with lower prices and less smug.

+1,000,000!

I've never gone to Whole Foods and thought they really had something I couldn't get anywhere else, and every time I've gone I'm reminded why many folks call the place "Whole Paycheck." :)

yeah - i can't afford to even walk through the doors.

i like trader joe's better. but we usually do a mix of farmers market and local grocery store.

2 more personal pluses for me for Trader Joes.

1. The Annapolis TJ's (near home and the one I go to most often) is right next door to our clubs sponsoring shop.

2. The new Columbia TJ's (near my office) is right next door to the best beer store in Maryland, The Perfect Pour. 200+ brands from all over the world and I can buy any of them as singles.

alright i guess i'm a cheese newb then, i'll check out the local trader joes. the cheese shop sketch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_Shop_sketch) has quite a list of cheese...

+1 on Cheese from TJ - great prices, decent selection.

an example of the high sodium is their chips & salsa - but TJ also offers the lower sodium alternatives - trust me and go with that, unless you like high BP.

I don't recall how far Orem is from Salt Lake, but I've been shopping at Sunflower Market (http://www.sfmarkets.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=69610B99DE2C416A84CC8693150E7216). Low prices on organic and all natural hippy food. Good stuff. check them out if you're around there.

sunflower has awesome prices

We have a chain down in Texas called Central Market, owned by the HEB chain. (TW, HEB stand for H.E. Butt, an old Corpus Christi Family. Their name makes me giggle. Dad used to run with a Butt in high school, *giggles*)

Anyway, they have one of those food bar things where for a small fortune you can get food.

http://www.centralmarket.com/cm/index.jsp

It is good, but you could go out for a steak for the same price.

naw, i don't care about the price...

i swear by whole foods, trader joes, several local organic groceries, and the natural/organic foods at big chain grocery stores...

sure, a week worth of goceries cost $200...but i like it...it's yummy, healthy, and just makes me feel better...

WF has a spectacular selection of cheeses. And great meat/seafood.
Most of the specialty items are pricey, but the staples are not overly expensive.

wf has really great bread too - kicks TJ's butt in stuff like that. Yarrrrr!

We have our local equivalent called Greenlife and I went there around lunchtime to get some Dr. Bronner's Schizophrenic Soap and I swear, if some A-rab terrorist had driven a truck bomb up in there, every white liberal in Chattanooga would be in heaven, or wherever atheist sodomite liberals go.

I have found that Trader Joes has pretty much the same stuff, but with lower prices and less smug.

I guess it's just a matter of each store being different depending on where you are. At the WF in Redmond I've never encountered any of the staff or patrons being rude (with the exception of how they drive in the parking lot; but that's all of Seattle, not just a Whole Foods phenomenon.)
TJ's (in Bellevue) however, is the only store where someone has used their shopping cart as a battering ram to knock my fiancee's walker out of their way. (She had turned away from it for a moment to get something off the shelf on the opposite side of the aisle. Shopping cart/battering ram lady got her cell phone shoulder checked halfway down the aisle for pulling that stunt.)

I hit whole foods for the odd hard to find items from time to time. So freaking expensive.
That and on the weekend their samples are yummy.

Even better for me, a local low cost health food grocer named vitamin cottage is building a store 4 miles from my house near our soup-or-salad. WF is about 14 miles away. Weee!

naw, i don't care about the price...

i swear by whole foods, trader joes, several local organic groceries, and the natural/organic foods at big chain grocery stores...

sure, a week worth of goceries cost $200...but i like it...it's yummy, healthy, and just makes me feel better...


WTF

2+ weeks worth of food at my local "healthy food" supermarket costs me less than $100...

Unless you buy lots of generally high-cost consumables, that's quite the spending there.

I hit whole foods for the odd hard to find items from time to time. So freaking expensive.
That and on the weekend their samples are yummy.

Even better for me, a local low cost health food grocer named vitamin cottage is building a store 4 miles from my house near our soup-or-salad. WF is about 14 miles away. Weee!

That's mainly the reason I go there. You can eat enough free samples, it's like a meal :) And you can sample everything they have at the counters, too. mmmmm.....crab cakes...

WTF

2+ weeks worth of food at my local "healthy food" supermarket costs me less than $100...

Unless you buy lots of generally high-cost consumables, that's quite the spending there.

+1
OMG

I spend $400 a month to feed my wife, my 5 year old, and I. I can even cut that down further but I eat a lot. $200 a week is insane.

alright i guess i'm a cheese newb then, i'll check out the local trader joes. the cheese shop sketch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_Shop_sketch) has quite a list of cheese...

Yep- Venezuelan Beaver Cheese is fictional, and Im not going to eat Limburger since
the bacteria is same as human B.O.

Where I used to live there was no big health food store like Whole Foods. All health food type stores were small induvidual places. Whole Foods is cheap compared to the places I used to have to shop.

I'm a huge fan of Trader Joe's. It's where I buy my soy protein powder. I ran out recently, and there's no Trader Joe's in town. I shopped around and settled on a whey protein powder for a little more money at Walmart. Tried it, and it was awful. Took it back to Walmart and just waited until I would next be somewhere near Trader Joe's. Two days ago I traveled the hundred miles for work in Detroit, and on the way back I was able to stock up on my favorite Trader Joe's vanilla soy protein powder. Best deal.

While I was there, I looked around and found some great fruit leathers cheap that had no added sugar. One of them even had added fiber. So I got a few of them, too.

I think there's a Whole Foods here in the Lansing area, but I've never stepped into it. Maybe I'll look, but I'm not much for change.

Oh, and as far as prices are concerned, I will shop for the best stuff I can find that's cheap. I'm going to Aldi today for groceries. Problem is, I can't buy any fresh vegetables or fruits there because they all go bad within a couple days of purchase. Still, ya can't beat their price on eggs and tuna and cheese and bread and....

This isn't beyond your reach. You can self-educate, and be ready to go come spring (or Costa Rica). :)

I'm going to do much better next year. :o

That's the plan! I hope to be growing most of my diet by 1-2 years.

We have our local equivalent called Greenlife and I went there around lunchtime to get some Dr. Bronner's Schizophrenic Soap and I swear, if some A-rab terrorist had driven a truck bomb up in there, every white liberal in Chattanooga would be in heaven, or wherever atheist sodomite liberals go.

:lol:

That Dr. Bronner's stuff is awesome if you can get past all the Bible verses on the label. We used it as our only cleaning solution for everything while touring.

Because friends don't let friends pay $14.95 for wild rice, roast beef that takes an HOUR to eat, and glorified string beans (none of which were that good). All of which were cold upon serving.
I think WF has the right idea. Most Americans are overweight.

If the food they eat is a bit healthier and way more expensive, they'll introduce less crap into their system and won't pig out so much.....

WTF

2+ weeks worth of food at my local "healthy food" supermarket costs me less than $100...

Unless you buy lots of generally high-cost consumables, that's quite the spending there.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever spent more than $60 at WF before. But I mainly buy produce and bulk foods which end up feeding me for quite a while. I don't buy prepackaged aisle foods which is probably a real money drain.

I think WF has the right idea. Most Americans are overweight.

If the food they eat is a bit healthier and way more expensive, they'll introduce less crap into their system and won't pig out so much.....

Well, that's one way. I'm sure the majority of people however, will just opt to go to their favorite fast food joint instead. I'm going to guess that the majority of people who pay more for their food are more likely to care about what they put into their bodies.

I think WF has the right idea. Most Americans are overweight.

If the food they eat is a bit healthier and way more expensive, they'll introduce less crap into their system and won't pig out so much.....

Whole Foods does have the right idea in trying to be proactive about pushing nutrition to Americans. So has Starbucks (in a sense). Starbucks managed to do it within reasonable prices.

At least they're making healthy eating trendy. That's always a good thing.

:lol:

That Dr. Bronner's stuff is awesome if you can get past all the Bible verses on the label. We used it as our only cleaning solution for everything while touring.

If you eat it, will it cleanse your soul?:innocent:

If you eat it, will it cleanse your soul?:innocent:

I think it probably will. It will clean your intestinal tract at the very least.

:lol:

That Dr. Bronner's stuff is awesome if you can get past all the Bible verses on the label. We used it as our only cleaning solution for everything while touring.

I finally just got some for my girlfriend to try and now she's hooked and loves the stuff.

I finally just got some for my girlfriend to try and now she's hooked and loves the stuff.

I even used it to shave. I can't decide if I like the lavender or almond better.

I like Dr. B's Liquid Peppermint...gets my Spidey senses tingling

I live in the Dallas area. For me, the combination of Sprouts Farmers Market stores and Central Market have eliminated the need for Whole Foods. (Except twice a year when I go in there for a shaving cream I like - "Kiss my face")

However, my regular shopping is either at Walmart Neighborhood Market or Tom Thumb.

I only go to the others when I want a higher quality or unique items. For produce, I hook up the trailer and take my toddler to sprouts for veggies as we need them rather than during the weekly big buy.