Tag: shopping

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The "Gap" of grocery stores…

Brooke and I visited Whole Foods for the first time last night… I’ve done my best to avoid this place since we first heard about it, largely because I’m generally against the idea (and fad…) of buying organic food products… Anyway, the prices at Whole Foods weren’t quite as bad as I thought they’d be in all products, but there were some items that were a bit more than expected… For example, wines and most produce weren’t much higher than the Shop ‘n Save variety (except for organic varieties), but cans of vegetables ranged from $1 to $1.50, and I saw organic olive oil for $16… However, as Brooke pointed out, they had a heck of a lot of bulk foods available, and they had stuff that Shop ‘n Save, Dierberg’s and Schnuck’s don’t carry (lentils, for example…multiple varieties of barley…etc.).

Overall, the experience wasn’t terrible, but I still can’t justify the cost increases when averaged out across all products. Are the cans of corn that Whole Foods sells for $1.50 better than the cans we get from Aldi for $0.29? Maybe… But are the cans really $1.21 better than the Aldi cans? Absolutely not! Actually, even beer was $2 more expensive than Shop ‘n Save… As Brooke pointed out, the prices at Whole Foods are comparable with buying name-brand products at Schnucks or Hy-Vee…but since we never do that, it just seemed rather expensive…’cause there’s no off-brand offered…

On another note, many things around the place were deliberately misleading. For example, there was a sign in the produce section saying how Whole Foods supports local farmers. I’m sure to an extent that they do…but find me someone in Missouri growing corn right now…or peas…or oranges… Obviously, all of that produce is coming from somewhere else, likely another continent (i.e. South America). So by the time the food makes it up here, being all organic and not including preservatives, it’ll go bad within a day of getting it to your table, thus increasing the consumer prices because the food that isn’t sold is thrown out within days of arriving…

I especially liked their “educational materials” that can be found near the checkout lanes. I picked up a few pamphlets, on irradiated foods and genetically engineered foods, specifically, the latter of which is particularly intriguing… The pamphlet states that Whole Foods as a company wants to inform their consumers of foods that are from genetically engineered sources (while using wording that makes you think that genetically engineered foods are bad for you). Of course, practically every form of produce they sell is “genetically engineered” through generations upon generations of specific breeding and growing, only selecting seeds from good stocks and not planting seeds from the bad ones. That’s still genetic engineering, folks… They go on within the “food irradiation” literature to discuss the idea of irradiating produce to kill things like E. coli and Salmonella, and how irradiating foods can also destroy some nutrients within the food. Again, the literature states that all they want is to have federal guidelines whereby growers need to disclose whether the food has been irradiated or not, while including language in the pamphlet that really makes you think that irradiation is a bad thing… Maybe when they get sick from eating infected food, they’ll come around…

So yeah, while the food wasn’t quite as expensive as I thought it’d be (although close…), I was more disturbed by the yuppie “our store is better than your store” sentiment Whole Foods left on me. I’m not against educational materials for shoppers. I’m not completely against the idea of organic foods (…though mostly against…). Frankly, we were asked if we needed any help 2 or 3 times while we were walking around, which is more than I can say of my neighborhood Shop ‘n Save, Aldi and Schnucks…however, I can’t say I like the place… If I can save $20 a trip buying food that’s just as good from another store, and instead buy a DVD or donate it to help cure AIDS, I’m all about it…

Posted on

The “Gap” of grocery stores…

Brooke and I visited Whole Foods for the first time last night… I’ve done my best to avoid this place since we first heard about it, largely because I’m generally against the idea (and fad…) of buying organic food products… Anyway, the prices at Whole Foods weren’t quite as bad as I thought they’d be in all products, but there were some items that were a bit more than expected… For example, wines and most produce weren’t much higher than the Shop ‘n Save variety (except for organic varieties), but cans of vegetables ranged from $1 to $1.50, and I saw organic olive oil for $16… However, as Brooke pointed out, they had a heck of a lot of bulk foods available, and they had stuff that Shop ‘n Save, Dierberg’s and Schnuck’s don’t carry (lentils, for example…multiple varieties of barley…etc.).

Overall, the experience wasn’t terrible, but I still can’t justify the cost increases when averaged out across all products. Are the cans of corn that Whole Foods sells for $1.50 better than the cans we get from Aldi for $0.29? Maybe… But are the cans really $1.21 better than the Aldi cans? Absolutely not! Actually, even beer was $2 more expensive than Shop ‘n Save… As Brooke pointed out, the prices at Whole Foods are comparable with buying name-brand products at Schnucks or Hy-Vee…but since we never do that, it just seemed rather expensive…’cause there’s no off-brand offered…

On another note, many things around the place were deliberately misleading. For example, there was a sign in the produce section saying how Whole Foods supports local farmers. I’m sure to an extent that they do…but find me someone in Missouri growing corn right now…or peas…or oranges… Obviously, all of that produce is coming from somewhere else, likely another continent (i.e. South America). So by the time the food makes it up here, being all organic and not including preservatives, it’ll go bad within a day of getting it to your table, thus increasing the consumer prices because the food that isn’t sold is thrown out within days of arriving…

I especially liked their “educational materials” that can be found near the checkout lanes. I picked up a few pamphlets, on irradiated foods and genetically engineered foods, specifically, the latter of which is particularly intriguing… The pamphlet states that Whole Foods as a company wants to inform their consumers of foods that are from genetically engineered sources (while using wording that makes you think that genetically engineered foods are bad for you). Of course, practically every form of produce they sell is “genetically engineered” through generations upon generations of specific breeding and growing, only selecting seeds from good stocks and not planting seeds from the bad ones. That’s still genetic engineering, folks… They go on within the “food irradiation” literature to discuss the idea of irradiating produce to kill things like E. coli and Salmonella, and how irradiating foods can also destroy some nutrients within the food. Again, the literature states that all they want is to have federal guidelines whereby growers need to disclose whether the food has been irradiated or not, while including language in the pamphlet that really makes you think that irradiation is a bad thing… Maybe when they get sick from eating infected food, they’ll come around…

So yeah, while the food wasn’t quite as expensive as I thought it’d be (although close…), I was more disturbed by the yuppie “our store is better than your store” sentiment Whole Foods left on me. I’m not against educational materials for shoppers. I’m not completely against the idea of organic foods (…though mostly against…). Frankly, we were asked if we needed any help 2 or 3 times while we were walking around, which is more than I can say of my neighborhood Shop ‘n Save, Aldi and Schnucks…however, I can’t say I like the place… If I can save $20 a trip buying food that’s just as good from another store, and instead buy a DVD or donate it to help cure AIDS, I’m all about it…

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Wal-Mart…saving the world again…

Who’d have thought it? As some of you may have noticed when buying light bulbs at Wal-Mart recently, they’re starting to make a big push to sell more compact fluorescent bulbs (linked from a New York Times article…you may need to log in…). From the article:

“A compact fluorescent has clear advantages over the widely used incandescent light — it uses 75 percent less electricity, lasts 10 times longer, produces 450 pounds fewer greenhouse gases from power plants and saves consumers $30 over the life of each bulb. But it is eight times as expensive as a traditional bulb, gives off a harsher light and has a peculiar appearance.

“As a result, the bulbs have languished on store shelves for a quarter century; only 6 percent of households use the bulbs today.

“Which is what makes Wal-Mart’s goal so wildly ambitious. If it succeeds in selling 100 million compact fluorescent bulbs a year by 2008, total sales of the bulbs in the United States would increase by 50 percent, saving Americans $3 billion in electricity costs and avoiding the need to build additional power plants for the equivalent of 450,000 new homes.”

Now that Brooke and I have moved to a new apartment, and since AmerenUE is trying to hike electricity rates in Missouri, we’re going to try using compact fluorescent bulbs wherever we can. We got a set of 10 from Sam’s Club a few months ago for $15 (give or take…) and, personally, that seems like a pretty reasonable price to me. That, and I don’t really see much of a difference in the light emitted from them.

Anyway, if you’ve never used the bulbs before, you ought to give them a try. While I generally dislike Wal-Mart, they are certainly a “force of nature” when it comes to retail, so hopefully this push of theirs will result in more people using the bulbs and maybe make some kind of difference in global warming. As the article goes on to discuss, Wal-Mart basically told their suppliers “we’re going ahead with this, so come along or be left behind”…a few of those companies were very much against changing their manufacturing to make more of these “more expensive” bulbs. Maybe if we all start buying these bulbs, such manufacturers will get the idea, eh (cue light bulb going off above their respective heads)?