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Dear Whole Foods,
When I bring my own bag, the Chelsea Whole Foods deducts a dime from my bill. When I do not bring my own bag BUT am able to transport the goods without a bag, the policy is arbitrary. Recently when a checker refused the dime-off deduction and I inquired as to why, he said, "We're trying to TRAIN people to bring their own bags." The manager agreed with him. She told me that they were "trying to TRAIN people." Then she added, "If people complain enough we give them the ten cents off." An interesting way to set policy and an interesting goal --- to TRAIN the public.
Vintage Candy Monday: Big Cherry
When I was in high school I remember reading Craig Claiborne's comment that "the three worst foods begin with the letter 'M' --- marshmallows, marzipan and maraschino cherries." I disagreed with him then, and I disagree with him these many decades later.
Balthazar: What a Satisfying Dinner
Balthazar is indeed a happy place with good food. The chicken dish that Ed mentions is proof of the latter. It closely resembles one of Soltner's "special" dishes in the good gone days of Lutece. It was "Coq Saute au Riesling" and was enriched by what-must-have-been a scary amount of egg yolks. Soltner, as you probably know, was Alsatian also. He too had a way of making the diner feel special, even those of us who were existing on hotdogs and tuna sandwiches and could only afford Lutece on special occasions. Balthazar is more egalitarian and casual, but there always seems to me to be some genetic connection between it and Lutece.
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Recent Comments | Response to Comments
Serious Heat: Cayenne Tea to Cure the Sniffles
Interestingly enough, there's a relatively new product out there called "Sinus Buster." It's this all natural thing based on capsaicin pepper, which is nothing but cayenne. It's a nose spray. I've tried it, and it really clears out your sinuses.
Dear Whole Foods,
When I bring my own bag, the Chelsea Whole Foods deducts a dime from my bill. When I do not bring my own bag BUT am able to transport the goods without a bag, the policy is arbitrary. Recently when a checker refused the dime-off deduction and I inquired as to why, he said, "We're trying to TRAIN people to bring their own bags." The manager agreed with him. She told me that they were "trying to TRAIN people." Then she added, "If people complain enough we give them the ten cents off." An interesting way to set policy and an interesting goal --- to TRAIN the public.
Vintage Candy Monday: Big Cherry
When I was in high school I remember reading Craig Claiborne's comment that "the three worst foods begin with the letter 'M' --- marshmallows, marzipan and maraschino cherries." I disagreed with him then, and I disagree with him these many decades later.
Balthazar: What a Satisfying Dinner
Balthazar is indeed a happy place with good food. The chicken dish that Ed mentions is proof of the latter. It closely resembles one of Soltner's "special" dishes in the good gone days of Lutece. It was "Coq Saute au Riesling" and was enriched by what-must-have-been a scary amount of egg yolks. Soltner, as you probably know, was Alsatian also. He too had a way of making the diner feel special, even those of us who were existing on hotdogs and tuna sandwiches and could only afford Lutece on special occasions. Balthazar is more egalitarian and casual, but there always seems to me to be some genetic connection between it and Lutece.
The Best Black and White Cookies? Half-Moons? Amerikaners?
The Donut Pub on 14th St, just off Seventh Ave, has fresh and wonderful donuts and variations thereof. (Let's argue about what a true cruller is, how to spell it, how to pronounce it). But the Black and Whites (some frosted just white, others just black) are exquisite cake-like discs with achingly sweet icing. Really just about perfect as far as I can eat.
Serious Heat: Cayenne Tea to Cure the Sniffles
Okay, yesterday I awoke with a slight sore throat, so I did the cayenne/lemon/honey tea and it made my throat feel much better (it also made my nose run). I had two cups yesterday and am having one now, with not quite a half teaspoon of pepper. Hoping to avert a cold!
Serious Heat: Cayenne Tea to Cure the Sniffles
EEEK, this is seriously spicy! I'm sick and currently suffering through a glass of this stuff because the normal decongestants aren't working too well. Seems to be helping, but boy is is painful! (I guess the sore throat doesn't help things...but maybe it will numb my throat a little too??)
Dear Whole Foods,
Once you bite into a Great A&P 150th anniversary chocolate chunk cookie, that taste will make you forever foresake Whole Paycheck.
Head on over to any A&P Fresh and rediscover the origins of foodie paradise, great food at fantastic savings.
Can't beat that A&P!!!
Dear Whole Foods,
I tried to like you, I really did. But Trader Joe's and Wegmans will always be my first loves...
Dear Whole Foods,
Dear Whole Foods Santa Fe,
Please do not lecture me about "looking around me, and remembering where I am, and asking myself if the product in question has dyes in it" if I inquire if you might have the new dark chocolate m&ms for my homemade trail mix, especially not if I have 3 bags of TVP (texturized vegetable protein) in my hands. OBVIOUSLY I KNOW WHERE I AM.
And then to Whole Foods Union Square--
Please bring back peppermint bark during the holiday season. Even if you run out, your staff will at least have seen it (and hopefully experienced it!) and will not stare at me in befuddlement when I ask if they have any in stock.
Dear Whole Foods,
@Paula.. what Whole Foods location is this that you're talking about? i've been to several now and had nothing but good experiences, so it's very surprising to hear what bad experience you've had.. definitely not the norm for Whole Foods in general
Dear Whole Foods,
Please stop trying to convince me that catfish on sale at $7.99 a pound is some great deal.
In fact, i don't get your seafood program at all. Fresh wild caught seafood at one place for $12.99 a lb. is no less fresh and wild than yours at $18.99 lb. Unless you know of an organic ocean everyone else doesn't know about.
Dear Whole Foods,
@mookie - thanks for the opportunity to rant about something that has bothered me for a long time! :)
Dear Whole Foods,
Train you service staff, and get a clue!!!
Here are a few of my recent grievances (if I were to go back further than two months, this would be 10 pages long, at least):
I stopped in for Pancetta at the deli counter the other day and my husband and I were repulsed by the rancid smell while standing there. Then, as we waited, we noticed rotting broccoli in a salad at the front of the display case, and a number of other disgusting offenses. Gross!!! Not what one would expect from an over-priced grocery store that touts freshness. Furthermore, the person behind the counter had no idea how to slice Pancetta, and had to use the obviously filthy meat slicer, after which she wiped the debris from other meats off my Pancetta right in front of me. Again, gross!!! Why hasn't the Department of Health shut you down???
Also, we bought a few dozen oysters from your seafood dept. recently, and one of your staff was supposed to shuck and package them for us. Turns out he filled it with slushie, wet ice - too high, and set it under a hot lamp to wait for us, so when we returned eight minuted later, they were swimming in two inches of chlorinated water, and covered in debris from the uncleaned bottom of the shells. In other words - inedible. The cashier was the first to notice, but of course when we went back to the seafood dept., moments later, there were no more oysters left. He ruined all of them. Those poor suckers died pointlessly, and we did not have oysters for our soiree. Lame!
I could go on about how your bakery practices mirror those of a typical Safeway (recycling should not apply to baked goods - yuck!), or how every time I want to special order something I commonly use, no one seems to be interested or able to help (so, you lose my biz as I go home and order it online, instead), or how every time I go to a service counter there are several staff members standing around chatting with each other about nothing for minutes on end before helping, and then act put-upon by the nuisance of an actual paying customer requiring assistance, which happens almost every time I shop at your lame store. But, since the managers are often guilty of the same behavior, what is the point?
The point? I now only shop at Whole Foods when I can find no other option, and then I shop there begrudgingly, and only for the item(s) I cannot find elsewhere.
Whole Foods - you stink!!! Literally.
You have driven out all the small guys and replaced them with garbage, bad service, and over-inflated prices. Furthermore, you have aided in the lowering of "organic" standards, and pushed all of the small producer's products off of your shelves, replacing them with big corporate products, because you are nothing but a sell-out! You are the WalMart of "health food" stores!!
I look forward to the day when I no longer have any reason to set foot into your disgraceful, big-box-style, warehouse of disappointment.
Sincerely,
~ Paula
Dear Whole Foods,
Please stock carob product other than the chips in the baking aisle. Also, feature more local company's foods.
Dear Whole Foods,
Whole Foods, or at least the one near me, both bakes and carries completely inedible bread. The rolls are too hard for anything, the prepackaged bread has no flavor, and their baked loaves are horrid and flavorless. And don't even try to find a decent hot dog or hamburger bun. They have one variety of each and they're overly huge, dry, and inexplicably oily and wet on the outside.
Bread is the only reason I make the occasional trek over to Wegman's.
Dear Whole Foods,
@twoojoe - I agree with you - some people do seem to want it all, and they want it cheap and NOW. Although, I'm a hippie (a real one from the 60's - not one of those faux hippies in $250 artfully shredded jeans and $80 designer tee shirts) and I don't see too many people like me shopping at WF. I do see a lot of well-to-do soccer moms and spoiled trust fund kids. Then they get into their Hummers and drive off to their McMansions. They're all about fair trade, organic and green, as long as it doesn't cost them anything or inconvenience them. They also don't have a clue about the economics of organic farming.
I do all of my shopping at Trader Joe's, Henry's Market (a San Diego chain) and local farmer's markets. I'll gladly buy most of my clothes at Target and wear them practically forever so that I can afford the higher prices that the farmers need to charge for their efforts. I only shop at WF for a couple of things. One is apple pectin powder for pate de fruits, which no other store in my area stocks. The other is for cheese, if I'm planning a special dinner. But I go in knowing that I'll pay a small fortune for it. Fortunately, the farmer's markets in the San Diego area are starting to carry locally made cheeses too so I won't have to go to WF for anything but my biannual apple pectin powder purchase.
Dear Whole Foods,
Central Market rules!
Dear Whole Foods - your Chana Masla and saffron rice on the hot bar are really good. Congrats. Also, I copied your fresh salsa recipe and I make it at home; thanks for having it on the label!
PS: please carry Sweet Leaf tea in New York! Ex Texans miss our Sweet Leaf!!
Dear Whole Foods,
@pksmash agreed! Wegmans is much better than WF. That said I love the WF beer store near the Bowery. Growlers!
Dear Whole Foods,
It funny to hear people complain about high prices yet, they seem to be the ones demanding fair trade, organic, living wage produce! If thats really what you want then yes a single apple will cost $3. Thats why I love low prices, it allows me to use my salary to donate to charities of my choosing, and yes I am aware of the slavery type conditions of some produce workers and that is not what I am advocating. But at the same time, some of these new fangled hippie ideals are simply impractical, and their consequences are the outrageous prices of "Whole paycheck" or wherever hippies shop these days.
Dear Whole Foods,
@missvenuz: That's my parents' WFM! I hadn't been since it was converted, and it really is basically the same. Except for now they carry like 40% fewer baked goods. I definitely cried myself to sleep over this.
And @greentwist, a trip to Houston is not complete for me unless there's a run to Central Market. California Connection is the icing on the cake. The WFM in Houston can't compare! It's only a matter of time until HEB figures this out and expands into new markets. I hope.
Dear Whole Foods,
Please stock every food item that exists. Put a store on every block in every city everywhere in the world. Make tuna salad with onions, without onions, with mayo, without mayo, with celery, without celery, with pickles, without pickles, with tuna, without tuna and every combination of the above. Do this for every item you carry. Charge $.01 for everything. Don't let anyone into the store unless they sign a contract that they will buy something. I hate it when they look at something but don't buy it. Have a time limit on how long someone can look at an item so that they stay out of my way. Only carry food from producers that hand massage every item before it's packaged. Make sure that each and every item in the store has a price tag on it ($.01 of course). Make sure that every employee knows every price ($.01, remember) of every item and please have one of them meet me at the door and walk around the store with me in case I have a question or can't figure out the price of something ($.01, but I might forget). Only carry seafood that doesn't smell like seafood. Make sure it smells like flowers. Provide free babysitting, free delivery, free chef services and please pick me up and drop me off at home. Use one bag per item, but be sure to only use one bag for my entire order. And for heaven's sake, hire some people who are mind readers so I don't have to tell them what I want. Thank you.
Dear Whole Foods,
With this many apparently loyal shoppers willing to fork over their whole paychecks, why is your stock (WFMI) in the crapper?
Dear Whole Foods,
Dear WF:
I love shopping with you. I like being able to find things like Israeli Couscous for that rocking soup I love. Thank you for having fresh fish which has never made me sick the next day (unlike Pathmark and Acme). Sometimes I don't like certain things about you, like getting rid of your bulk bins. But, I've heard about the mice problems that go along with bulk, so I guess I understand.
Thank you for carrying Lichees because the only other places I've found them in Philadelphia are 1) at the 69th street H-Mart where they were half-spoiled already and only came in a huge gigantic box that was way too much for one person and 2) Reading Terminal Market, where I either have to pay $10 to take the train in and out of the city, or pay even more in gas and parking.
Most of all, thank you for paying my fiancee a living wage, with benefits and profit-sharing included. Yes, she grumbles when she has to go to a 10pm store meeting to listen to people from a union she doesn't want (but at least you paid her for that lost hour of her life), but we appreciate her not having to pay a percentage of her wages to the union who really doesn't have anything additional to offer her.
I'm going to go eat some lichees now.
Dear Whole Foods,
Wegman's is a pretty store that carries a lot of the same stuff a regular grocery store carries at higher prices. The prepared foods section is filled with tasty food.
However, Wegman's may be even more expensive than WFM in my area. At the very least prices are comparable. In fact, out here on the East Coast, TJ's & WFM offer simlar (or same) price for many of my favorite packaged items. Wegman's carries amazingly little organic produce, so I end up more at TJ's & WFM even though I drive by Wegman's daily.
My boyfriend is a WFM employee who gets a discount (and yes, we met at WFM, so I'm indebted), so once in a while we splurge on something overpriced. But normally we stick to basics at and I wishwishwish (and have asked in writing, with no response) they would expand their bulk section to be more like the one in Berkeley, CA (bulk teas, spices!). I guess East Coast suburbia residents don't like the idea of buying bulk. Who knew?
Dear Whole Foods,
Please get olive bar containers that can withstand the pressure of having a lid placed on them.
Please get goats milk yogurt so I don't have to make a second stop at Trader Joe's.
Dear Whole Foods,
Dear Whole Foods,
Please be more like Central Market. I will cry when I have to leave Texas, just because of the awesome grocery experiences I have had there.
Dear Whole Foods,
Wow, people. I mean, yeah, the prepared foods and meat are on the expensive side, but I guess the other grocery stores in Manhattan are so crappy and expensive that WF looks like a deal by comparison. I really have no complaints. It's great for the store brand items, and they always have awesome sales on yogurt and frozen stuff. When I lived in Manhattan, I would never do all my shopping there, but compared to the nearby Gristedes and D'Agostinos it's like a breath of fresh air. And doesn't smell like a combo of meat that should have been sold 5 days ago and the chemicals in bakery cake frosting.
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Interestingly enough, there's a relatively new product out there called "Sinus Buster." It's this all natural thing based on capsaicin pepper, which is nothing but cayenne. It's a nose spray. I've tried it, and it really clears out your sinuses.