Hold the phones

I'm back. I got in my car yesterday, obeying most essential traffic signals in my quest to worship at the altar of boutique-and-largely-organic-or-sustainably-grown-or-just-plain-fancy foods. I walked into Whole Foods and...

it was still, um, just like Wild Oats. The signage hasn't been changed, the house brands still say Wild Oats, the shopping bags emblazoned still with Wild Oats. I went straight to produce, hoping to encounter the vegetable-obsessed hirsute hippies that are a Whole Foods trademark. Not a one (although one smiley produce boy said I have nice hair, so that one can stay). The checkers, unfortunately, are still of the Wild Oats ilk (holding up a fennel bulb or a crookneck squash, furrowed brow, hoping for SKU illumination). The bakery: still Oatsey, not WF-ey (meaning, find me a baguette you'd want to put in your mouth).

I want Whole Foods prepared foods! I want the absence of this stuff! I want the cheeses and the wall of good vinegars and sauces. They say it will happen incrementally as the Wild Oats inventory runs down.

Alright, I'm not totally a slavering devotee. I understand that Whole Foods Market has had some dubiously ethical labor practices (anti-union). And that, essentially, WF is the organic food equivalent to Borders Books or Wal-Mart--meaning consumers benefit from economies-of-scale due to the juggernaut's vast purchasing power, but that a force that large can influence what gets made, how it gets made and what hoops the little farmer/producer/vendor has to jump through to be considered for the big league. That's a lot of power to wield.

Comments

[jimbo]

Fresh Market just as good if not better, IMO.