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Could think of a few reasons...

a) Better quality products.

b) Supply and demand (there are people willing to pay more to have that assemblance of quality all in one place).

c) Organic stuff generally costs more.

d) Do their people get paid more than average supermarket workers? This may be one reason - but let's face it, the employees create such a wonderful array of foods and such a pleasant shopping experience.

I know I probably take more pleasure than most in a trip to WF or a high end market. At least for me, it's a 3/4 hour trip to civilization.

I love the cheese selection, olive bar, bread, bulk aisle (yay!) and the pristine meats. The sausage flavors are incredible. Not to mention the beautiful produce. I love the fact that a produce worker stopped me one day and asked me what I did with a particular item, then listened raptly as I explained it.

Try getting that at Super Wal-Mart! :D

People think it's more expensive because WF doesn't offer the low-quality items available at most grocery stores. You can't buy the old meat and pale chicken. I agree that if you compare the prices of good quality, organic items from a grocery store to Whole Foods, it's totally comparable. And the quality is way better, the employees are really helpful, the atmosphere is so great, etc. The butchers at WF always go out of their way to make/find something I need. They'll ground the pork fresh for me!

Another reason people think it's expensive is the availability of gourmet items. As a food lover on a budget, it's really hard for me to go near the cheese or artisan salts, sugars and chocolates. I want them all, but can't really afford them. (But they're totally worth the splurge!)

My 2 cents.

There's a few reasons.

As a general rule, organic food is priced higher than its conventional cousin. A consumer might be used to buying black beans at the local big box store for $.55, when a similarly sized can at WF can run $1.32.

Two, WF has foods catering more towards the foodie market - artisan cheeses, imported olives, good meat, etc. I challenge you to find a raw cow's milk cheese or good kalamatas in Wal-Mart. These items cost more to procure and in turn, cost more to the consumer.

Three, WF employees are better paid, have better benefits, and are generally better educated than their counterparts at conventional grocery stores.

All that said - WF does charge a higher price for conventional items that can be purchased at a regular grocery store. Why? Their target market can afford it. WF's average customer makes significantly more money than the average customer at a conventional store. They can afford to spend more money on food; WF knows this and charges accordingly.

Personally, though I'm WF's average customer in one sense (concerned with quality, purchases mostly organic food, etc), I just don't have the budget to make an entire grocery run there. I tend to spend most of the food budget at the farmer's market (I'm lucky to be near a market with vendors that sell 80% of what I would need in a week, for less than even conventional stores), and the remaining 20% spent between a local co-op and conventional stores. I'll occasionally enter WF for the bulk products (cheaper than conventional) and the items that the co-op just doesn't have (cereal that doesn't require mortgaging my first-born), but I mostly avoid it. It's called Whole Paycheck for a reason!

I have to travel 2 or 3 hours round trip to get to Whole Foods, so for me the cost of gas is also figured into the prices. I agree with all the others who talk about the quality, but also that they charge more for staples.

Unfortunately in my hometown our grocery, who my mom works in the main offices for, charges about as much as Whole Foods and I often travel 45 min. to shop cheaper these days, because their quality isn't near WF. I do get to Whole Foods about once a month because I highly believe in their quality and as others said, they have stuff you just can't get anywhere and I always feel at such peace there with how organized everything is, and spacious, and fresh.

I go to the Union Square Whole Foods every single day. I'm lucky enough to live just a few short blocks away from Union Square. About half of what they carry at WF is significantly cheaper than any other store in the area (except Trader Joe's, in a few cases), and significantly better. The staff is palpably happy (also true of Trader Joe's) and well-informed, and you can taste practically anything you want. Yes, their cheeses are quite expensive, but I also live near the East Village Cheese Shop, which has the cheapest cheese on the planet (not always the best, but sometimes very good indeed). The meat and fish at WF are wonderful, though pricey--you do get what you pay for. If people think the store as a whole is too expensive, fine, all the more for me and mine.

I miss the East Village Cheese Shop! I moved down to Miami from NYC a year ago and have yet to find a good cheese shop. So, Whole Foods it is for me!

It's pretty impossible to say WF isn't expensive - when you get 2 bags of basic groceries there for almost $70, you can't question it. I only go there for specific things, unless I'm in a rush. Ever since I paid $8 for three (puny and sour) grapfruits, I just can't justify doing my basic shops there. I go there for the unique selection and am well aware that I'm paying more than I would elsewhere.

I do think they're overpriced, and their produce quality hardly rivals most farmer's markets. The thing is they CAN be pricier; I never see people shopping there look at the prices - if you shop at WF you know what you're getting yourself into. Great cheese, meat, unusual greens, etc., sure. But I'd go broke without real reason if I did all my shopping there, absolutely.

Whole Foods is opening about 15 minutes from my house and I can not wait! The local major grocery chain has a dismal selection of cheeses, produce quality is iffy and over priced, certain ingredients are just plain absent, but it does run incredible specials on meat all the time. The TJ's here is pretty small and I find I have to supplement that shopping trip with another at the local chain.

This is just in my case - The nearest WF is 40 miles away, so it is not feasible to shop there. I would rather spend my money on food than the gas to get the food.

I couldn't agree more! I also have a long list of items that are much cheaper at Whole Foods than at other grocery stores. Especially the vegan and vegetarian items. And sure, they have many pricier items than what you'll find at a Kroger, but that doesn't mean that everything is more expensive.

Whole Foods is relatively cheap... for Manhattan. For the rest of the country, it's considered expensive.
While visiting my brother, I was in line at a Gristedes (in Murray Hill), and a little old lady was complaining to the cashier how the cereal she is buying is more expensive there then at Whole Foods...the only reason she wasn't going all the way to WF was because she wanted to get home in time to watch Oprah.
My brother live off process food & takeaways, so I cook for him when I visit. It's always a challenge to find good quality ingredients at "regular" supermarkets in Manhattan..all the produce & meat just look revolting.

If I live in Manahttan, WF & TJ would probably be my primary supermarkets, but I would l go to specalty shops, chinatown, the green market for decent cheese meat & produce etc.

Here in California (I live in San Jose), I can get fresh, artisan cheese, charcuterie, organic produce & meats at the farmers market (Mountain View) for a fraction of what I would pay at WF. The rest of my shopping at TJ or my local chinese supermarket.

I have 6 grocery stores within a mile of my house (plus a butcher, two cheese chops, and two bakers). While not the most expensive - its not the cheapest either and I can get the same quality at east three other places. So the only time I go is when I'm biking home and it just happens to be the grocery store I pass. Other than that - prices are 1/3 to 1/2 cheaper at grocery stores that my brothers family go to because they have a mortgage, loans, three kids, etc...

Also the salad bar is awful. It has to be said.

I walked in Whole Foods once to see what it was like, and the prices were so high on everything. I noticed that the store carried some of the same goods as TJ's for a higher price. As journalists make about as much as beggars in San Francisco, and living in the Bay Area is expensive anyway, it's hard to go grocery shopping as it is with food prices increasing every couple of weeks. So as much as I'd love to buy organic and good-quality foods, I'm kind of stuck. I just pick what I buy very carefully. Just because people don't make enough money to shop at Whole Foods doesn't mean they can't have fairly healthy diets.

@wookie: Be careful of those new Whole Foods! They just built a new one by my mom's house in Arizona, and we went there when I visited. I swear to you, I wanted to go buy a tent and set up camp by the sushi bar. Some delights it contained? A chocolate fountain, a panini bar, a "smokehouse" (when I was walking towards it, all I could smell was delicious bacon), an actual BAR that you could sit at and enjoy a beer... I thought my local WF was huge until I saw this one.....

I basically spend my grocery money between Whole Foods, Trader Joes, and the greenmarket. I work in theatre, which is definitely not a profession known for making money, and so I have to shop around to make my grocery dollars stretch throughout the week. Then again, I'm in Manhattan, and it seems like WF is cheaper here? I walked out of WF yesterday with two stuffed grocery bags for $30. That's about what I would do at TJs.

Whole Foods is so expensive because they choose to purchase high quality products. For example, who else would spend their money on g-d knows how many authentic wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese just to crack it all at the same time to make a Guinness World Record?

Hillary
Chew on that

Oh Hillary, that link brought back a flood of suppressed memories. Portioning that king of cheeses really is a rite of love and labor. In the shop where I worked, it was both a badge and a burden to know how to do it. I was the only female.

Back to the topic, I stopped in the other day to look for some veal. They had excellent prices, in fact, $6.99/lb for shoulder roast. It's the first time I ever bought veal, but I know that when I see it in other shops (rarely), it's in double-digit zone. Same price for lamb shanks, which is good to me. They were a nice size, too, suitable for one per person without being ridiculous behemoths. Since it's not too far from my home, I think I will look to it more in the future for meat. The smaller store in Austin (Sun Harvest) has been bad for me in the meat area, and Central Market can get hugely expensive.

But the produce is ridiculous. The only items I saw that were good deals were fresh herbs (anything other than parsley and cilantro are always $3 per stupid plastic clamshell at the supermarket $1.49 at WF -- still, .99 at Central Market).

Dairy was higher than any other store I visited, though.

And the service really is helpful. I was using their self-checkout and a couple of my items weren't in the computer. She overrode the system and I scored a bag of purple potatoes for a buck.

I do love their rustic French baguette.