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I do all of my weekly grocery shopping at Whole Foods, even though it's seven miles away. I've given up on Giant and Safeway, the two chains closest to home. A few days ago, I was in the neighborhood of Balducci's, and dropped in thinking I'd pick up a few things. I was really disappointed in their selection of basic staples, aside from spices.

The Gaithersburg, MD Whole Foods is large and has an excellent selection of just about everything. It has a classroom and a hot bar. It can be a little overwhelming, but I bring a list and manage to get out in a reasonable amount of time. From May to November, there is a small farmer's market around the corner, and I go there first.

What I like best about the store: Produce is outstanding; people who work there fall all over themselves to help customers; great cheese selection; cakes are delicious (Rum Dream Chocolate Cake -- amazing!); prepared foods counter always has something yummy; meat counter sometimes has local lamb; occasional freebies such as reusable bags, mini-cookbooks, etc. They are pretty generous to community groups, even allowing a non-profit CSA to set up a sign-up table in front of the store. Last but not least, I have never had to wait behind more than two people in a checkout line, even on the day before Thanksgiving.

What could be improved: Selection of beef cuts; availability of bones for making soup; selection of dried beans; store could open earlier. For a while, they had a super selection of herbs and spices in the bulk foods aisle, but they did away with it. I kind of miss that.

I've never been to the Fairfax, VA store, but I've heard it has a wine-tasting room and that the store allows a farmers market to set up in the parking lot.

What in blue blazes is a "trattoria bar"? A bar of trattorias? A bar of trattoria food? Whole Foods just sticking words together and hoping they sound "classy"?

Whole Foods is my main supermarket. I used to split my shopping between my local Stop 'N Shop (for any non-organic purchases and groceries) and Whole Foods (for produce and specialty stuff), but it was too time and gas consuming (they are in opposite directions). I go to WF for everything now. I go to the Montclair, NJ and West Orange, NJ stores. I really love both stores. Like Julie mentioned, the employees are really nice and helpful (and if you know anything about NJ, you know that is a miracle) and the produce and meats are always of top-notch quality. Plus, you can get high quality REAL feta cheese from Greece (Mt. Vikos). I never have to plan a special trip to Astoria again! (Although, it is cheaper there, I'm saving so much gas and aggravation.) The West Orange store is huge and was very overwhelming the first time I went, but I'm so used to it now. I make sure I have a list and pretty much stick to it. Yes, things cost more, but I firmly believe that you get what you pay for. The Montclair store is tiny. They have a nice cheese section. The WO store has a raw bar/seafood bar, brick oven pizza, a cantina, a confectioners counter with specialty chocolates and roasted and spiced nuts, an olive bar, a fresh pasta bar, and vast cheese section.

We are lucky in NJ that we have so many farmers (it ain't called the Garden State for nothing), and WF does offer many truly local produce items during the growing season. I buy from my local farmers market when it's open, but WF will do in a pinch. I haven't seen much grass-fed or pastured meat and eggs in these stores. I would like that to change. And unlike Julie, both the WFs I shop at are usually mob scenes unless you go in "off" hours. But then, NJ is the most densely populated state in the country, and Essex County is the most densely populated county in the state!

Athena -- The store I shop at is frequently a mob scene (especially on Saturdays), but somehow they manage to keep the checkout lines moving. If a cashier is free, she'll stand out in the aisle in front of the belt to wave customers over. Whenever people start to pile up, new lanes are opened.

I also frequent the West Orange (NJ) store. It is huge and usually has everything I need (and then some!). I found it after complaining about the Millburn NJ store to a friend. I will never go back to Millburn -- always unbearably crowded, the parking lot is too small and nearly impossible to make a left out of and I find the staff at West Orange so much more helpful and friendly. Everyone at the Millburn store -- employees and customers seem to be on edge all the time. Both of these are pretty far away from me, but I feel they are worth the extra drive. I keep hoping they will open a WF closer to me, but nothing yet!

There's nothing at Whole Foods that I can't get from an actual local business. I have nothing against the food itself, but I don't appreciate the fact that it's competing with smaller, local-er grocers and butchers. Or maybe by raising food consciousness it's actually helping those places. Either way, I get my meat from a butcher, my produce from one of three produce places or my CSA box, and most everything else from the food coop or specialty stores around town.

I really, really, really object to the "Food As Status Symbol & Lifestyle" vibe that I get there. I hate how pretty everything and everyone is. It's just so completely the opposite of the hectic little shops and open air markets that I associate with good food.

I do my grocery shopping weekly at both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. I like WF for their variety. However, one has to question how organic the apples from WF are, when they shipped from New Zealand. Yes, the apples are pesticide free, but then again the pollution that is generated from transcontinental shipping of the apples . . . . The same with the bags of prewashed lettuce that are shipped from California to Alexandria, VA, where I live.

I would like to see more of an emphasis on locally grown foods at WF. But, given what I've been reading in a book called "The Omnivore's Dilemma", it's not likely to happen.

I shop at Whole Foods in River Forest, IL at least once a week. Just for the record I don't usually see a bevy of "beautiful people" and the store is not especially "pretty"! Ha!

Our is a smaller WF (missing the trattoria bars and demonstation kitchens) but it features most of the core services other posters have mentioned (including tasty brick-oven pizza). It seems to carry a fair amount of regional produce when they can (lots of Michigan apples and cherries, which I love because I moved to Oak Park from Michigan).

I shop there because it's close to my house, and it carries a very large selection of food that is both delicious and (mostly) ethically produced. I supplement with Trader Joe's, Target, and the local Farmers' Market (in the summer).

There are no really great "indie" markets in my neighborhood for those of you who find that important. The local indie market is small and dirty and feels like an ambitiously-stocked party store.

I find the employees incredibly friendly and helpful, particularly at the meat and cheese counters. They are educated about the product and can always answer my questions.

I wish they carried grass-fed beef as I'd like try switching to it. I don't eat much beef however, so it's unlikely my tastebuds alone would be worth the investment for the store.

I know it's expensive--many of my friends can't believe I don't just go to the Jewel a few blocks away--but I feel like I'm paying for some level of ethical consideration and, just as important, I'm paying for some level of customer service. Employees go out of their way for us at Whole Foods in ways that would never occur to the Jewel employees. That's worth a few cents to me.

i shop at Whole Foods for anything that i can't find at my smaller local (yet also rather expensive) markets. i was also initially impressed by the new grocery-unrelated features of the new Whole Foods here in SF (its trattoria has a couple of local beers on tap), but was soon very disappointed by the fact that it has not only NO nut bar, but also no bulk foods section! the other WF that's a little further away has those things and yet is somehow much smaller.. so, i'd easily and gladly give up the trattoria (whose service has disappointed me anyway), coffee bar, and spa services for bulk grains and nuts and a wider selection of actual groceries.

It's hard not to have a love/hate relationship with WF. I also live in SF, around 8 blocks away from the new megastore, but almost never shop there. I prefer the local shops, which I believe are much cheaper, and less of a status scene. However, sometimes WF is the only place to get stuff without going across town (sliced Diestel turkey ie.) Also, sometimes they have good deals on sale products or their own brand. Yesterday, I saw an avocado for $6 though!

I've also heard that WF has come down hard on its employees who are trying to unionize. Not absolutely sure if this is true, anyone know for sure?

I have to say, if I didn't live in a city with so many other options I sure would be grateful for a nice WF in my neighborhood!

You're lucky SFGail,

I used to live in SF too and went to Whole Foods maybe a few times.

I'd walk across the street during the week to buy my vegetables, down to Valencia for specialty whole foods, Rainbo(w)? for other specialty organic stuff, Ferry Plaza once a week for vegetables...

It was great. I never had to go the "grocery store" really. Except for Cala occasionaly for brewskies and paper towels.

I miss those days.

I shop at WF very rarely, preferring to shop at my local food co-op, "health food stores", farmers market, and our market/food district shops (a part of town called The Strip, not entirely unlike a more stretched out and less packed version of Seattle's Pike Place Market). There isn't much at WF that I can't get elsewhere at a locally owned shop, or from a local grower. Very rarely I'll go there to pick up skincare items when my usual supplier is out and I'm in a pinch, but that's rare.

Plenty of folk in this town will go to WF and buy the same things they can get to the co-op (sometimes the co-op even has lower prices on many of these) and yet turn their noses up at the co-op and say that it's for radical punks and hippies, not real people like themselves. Pfft I say- support your local businesses, don't pull the wool over your eyes pretending that WF isn't a big-business chain (which plenty of people try to forget, at least around here).

I guess I just take it for granted that we have great local produce all the time out here in California. I didn't realize you guys on the East Coast were getting produce from out here. But I'm wondering, what kinds of local, seasonal produce can be grown in New York and Ohio when the ground is frozen and covered with snow? Or would it have to come from greenhouses?

Here in small town Ohio, I drive over an hour to Cleveland, or hour and a half to Columbus--both one way--to shop at Whole Foods (and Trader Joe's) about once a month. I love them both.

Columbus Whole Foods is supposedly one of their biggest stores and I could probably spend hours in there! Our local co-op is very small, though I do find a lot there, items such as Muir Glen tomatoes are much cheaper at WF or TJ's.

I love the selection of vegetables and fruits that look much better than anything in our town. I do wish they had more of a meat/poultry selection. I actually find shopping at WF and TJ's quite relaxing because it's so nice to just KNOW what I'm buying will be of good quality. As opposed to here, where I may want to make certain meals but find I can't get the right ingredients, is quite frustrating at times.

Also I'm in love with WF's Robusto Cheese!

So I live in Austin, home of Whole Foods but also host to multiple Central Markets, which is the upscale/produce-heavy branch of HEB (a massive local grocery chain).

Given the choice, I pick Central Market every time. Whole Foods is so poorly laid out that I feel manipulated by the company. Central Market does this too, but somehow it works out.

Their bulk section (WF) is inferior to most of the other bulk departments available to me, and I am also disappointed with their deli. One choice of prosciutto, really? And I wish they didn't mix the charcuterie and cheese departments with the prepared foods and sushi bars, etc. It's so unnecessarily crowded in that area of the store.

I was also really disappointed during the pet food recall to see the poor quality of ingredients in their house brand foods. They wouldn't sell beef that ate this sort of food (cheap grains and imported ingredients). I hope that they've changed the formula since then.

Above all, I am bothered by the aggressive lifestyle-marketing aspect of the whole thing. I don't want to pay WF prices so that someone can feel self-righteous and urbane about their salad bar.

The only thing I buy regularly at WF is coffee. No place near here comes near it in quality and freshness. I live pretty far from WF, so I only get to go about once every 3 months. Coffee is always the priority, with oat groats and vitamins and good butter on the 'would be nice' list, if I have money left over. The produce and meat and cheese are luxury items for me. I buy them once or twice a year and that's it. Otherwise, it's super Walmart or on base to go food shopping.

If I cannot find something that I'm looking for at the farmer's market, I need something right now or I'm looking for an occasional out-of-season (or not-so-local) ingredient, and Whole Foods happens to be nearby (it is close to one of the green markets I frequent), I stop by.

I cannot imagine going out of my way to go to Whole Foods, but then again where I live (NYC) where HF is hardly the only choice for organic, quality foods. Fairway is better in terms of selection (IMHO) and smaller natural groceries are just plain more convenient.

I do shop regularly at WF, but quite selectively since I can only afford a fraction of the foods they sell.
But I have to say, with respect to your dislike #2: Our WF (St. Louis) makes a great effort to find and sell locally grown produce in season. Throughout summer, I enjoyed tomatoes and other produce that was grown within 10-20 miles of the store. Lots of other Missouri-grown stuff also finds its way there. I do appreciate that all origin of all the produce is labeled so I can make an educated decision.

I alternate between the big chain (Albertsons), Whole Food, and the local store. The local store has local produce for when I miss the farmer's market, but its selection is upscale but tiny. Albertsons is filthy (there are almost always chicken bones in my shopping cart), and it doesn't have things that I consider staples like tortillas or non-white bread. Whole Foods is 10 miles away, but I can find things there that the other two stores don't carry such as tempeh, whole grains, and ethnic foods.

We buy the bulk of our groceries from Whole Foods and supplement with trips to Trader Joe's and bi-monthly fruit/vegetable deliveries from Boston Organics. Our Boson and Cambridge WF stores do not have the bells and whistles that some of their other locations seem to have. I did prefer Bread & Circus to WF - a lot of the health food staples used to be cheaper before the name switch.

I recognized that Whole Foods in the picture right away...it's right down the street from us in New Orleans! My favorite thing by far about Whole Foods is that they have meal-worthy prepared foods. It's not crap that's slathered with mayonnaise and wilted lettuce like the typical convenient/grocery store fare. They have good salads, fresh fruit, and a really great variety of soups. It's nice that they have pre-packaged prepared foods for when you're on the go, in addition to their salad and hot bars.

Sometimes when my husband and I want to go out to eat but don't want the hassle of a restaurant, we grab some sushi and have a cheap date out on their patio!

athena,
it sounds like you're in my neighborhood so I'd like to recommend the farmers market at the walnut street train station in Montclair. It's there every Saturday from May to November and along with all the great veggies there's seafood from LBI and one of the venders sells free range chicken and grass feed beef.
I'm starting to add Whole Foods as a stop for groceries but am also trying to watch what i spend. I would prefer TJs (although they don't carry enough items to be a one stop shopping venue) since their prices are much better than Whole Foods but now that I'm living in Montclair, TJs is just too far away and Whole Foods is walking distance from my house. Maybe what I save on gas will make up for the higher prices, who knows.

vertigo,

that is the farmer's market i do go to when it's open. and i have gotten very good meat from vacchiano's and produce from them and matarazzo's. i gorge on corn and tomatoes in the summer. nothing like jersey tomatoes! i've never seen seafood, though! maybe it's gone early? i usually don't get there until about 1pm. i go to TJs for certain things, but it's more of a hike for me. and these days saving on gas actually does mean money in your pocket. :-)

robyn,

i drive from belleville to WO. not a really long drive, but enough of a hike, considering there are regular supermarkets 5 minutes from me (stop 'n shop and shoprite). but those just suck. :-) i try to curb my driving in other ways to make up for it (driving under 65, only going out when i need to).

julie,

i wish the registers where I go were handled better. it's pretty much every man for himself.

I had to laugh...

"even though we love our early experiences with local co-ops and health food stores and will still patronize those instead if we can. "

That's exactly what Whole Foods WAS back in 1987 when I was a poor starving college student. It was one of two choices for organic foods in Austin at the time.They were expensive even then but you knew you got your money's worth.

Now I leave it up to the yuppies and wannabees.The ones who shop the way they drive thier SUV's.

There are ALWAYS smaller, better alternatives.

I have a really hard time believing there's anything positive about Whole Foods. They gobbled up my local Wild Oats (which, granted was still corporate, but at least felt smaller and closer-knit), and it has been a nightmare watching all the changes... The store has gotten so cluttered, the amount of pre-packaged items has ballooned, customer service has gotten worse, they discontinued the wooden nickel program, and prices are steadily going up across the board. If it wasn't the easiest option for organic staples (like rice), I'd boycott them and spread my general discontent.

Oh dear, my local grocery store is Wild Oats, which is being gobbled, but I hadn't noticed any change until the last month with more of their labled goods. Trader Joes is my other convenient shopping place, where I buy organic dairy, dried fruits, organic chicken, olive oil . . .

renata, I'm in Austin too. I also prefer to shop at Central Market because it is seemingly less crowded, has more options, and is easier on my wallet. The bulk section is probably the best in town. It also seems more thoughtfully laid out to me... At least at the North one, there's a clear single path that winds through the store and you end up walking through each section as a result. Whole Foods uses the typical racetrack layout and then scatters the rest of the goods in the middle.

If I do shop at Whole Foods--primarily for their cheaper organic dairy and potatoes--I go to the one up North which is a third the size. I hear they're closing that one down in favor of building a bigger one too. Oh well.

Shopping at the giant downtown Whole Foods is an ordeal. First, you search for a parking space in the parking garage beneath the store if you arrive at any time after 12 pm. Then, it's a long ride up the escalator and out the door to fetch a cart. Next, you do battle as you dodge the hordes of yippies and tourists that block your path, all while trying not to get lost.

The store is huge, and it is not thoughtfully laid out. The aisles make no sense as to their product placement, which is clearly a deliberate move to get you to stay in there much longer and purchase more as a result.

The only thing that I think the gigantic Whole Foods has going for it is its very broad selection of pre-made and hot foods. It's a nice destination for a quick lunch while shopping at the surrounding stores.

We just got our first Whole Foods in Tennessee. Of course, it ended up in the neighborhood frequented by Nicole Kidman and Jessica Simpson (oh, and Prince William)... a neighborhood I avoid like the plague. We went to WF one time just after it opened, and the vast luxury of the WF and the surrounding boutiques was overwhelming and so darn pretentious.

So, we won't be trekking over to the other side of town very often for the privilege of spending too much money at WF. We'll stick with our ghetto Kroger, the tiny, local natural foods market, and occasional trips to our downtown farmers market. "Disneyland" is an extremely apt description, Faith, because I feel like we will go to WF only if we're aching for a diversion from the real world!