Because they deal with organic, natural products almost exclusively, their prices are a little higher than your typical grocery store. They make sure the eggs they sell don't come from hens confined to battery cages. Their nutritional screening doesn't allow for foods containing trans fats or artificial coloring. Non-food organic products such as shampoo, soap, etc. are required to contain 95% or more certified organic ingredients. So you can see why the prices at a Whole Foods Market are going to be a little higher.
Questions dot their history about the claims they make of their food and products being of a natural/organic quality. Articles in the Wall Street Journal have claimed that Whole Foods has become more concerned with competing with other big box grocery chains and less about the quality of their products. It wasn't until 2011 that Whole Foods was required to meet the 95% standard of certified organic ingredients in their products they labeled as organic. And they are not without controversy involving business practices, product selection and failure to support farmers and suppliers.
The most recent uproar regarding Whole Foods is a price scam accusation by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. They claim that 8 Whole Foods stores in the NYC area consistently listed improper weights on their pre-packaged foods resulting in overcharged pricing by as little as 80 cents to as much as $15 an item.
After first denying any wrong doing, Whole Foods has just come out and admitted mistakes being made with the way the operation works. They claim, of course, that it was unintentional, that the mistakes sometimes overcharged the consumer and sometimes undercharged them, and attributing it all to human error. The same human error in 8 different stores. And, of course, no one ever stumbles upon this error until someone gets caught.
Now, I can understand human error, it happens. This is what I don't get. When I go to the butcher counter at any grocery store and ask for a pound of shrimp, the butcher fills up a bag with shrimp and sets it on the scale. Most of the time it's not exactly 1 pound, so the butcher will either add a couple of shrimp, take a couple out, or ask me if that's close enough to the pound I wanted. Whether it's a little over or a little under is then my choice. When I give him the OK, the scale prints out a label with the proper weight, that I saw with my own 2 eyes, and the price per pound and total price.
Question - does Whole Foods not have these types of scales?
Now to be honest, who of us grabs a pre-package of porterhouse steaks and then puts them on the scale to see if the weight matches what's on the label? And I honestly don't know how Whole Foods operates, but I'm assuming they aren't just holding the product in their hands and guessing a weight. If so, I can see where the human error comes into play. But having a scale and missing on the weight, so much so that a product can be $15 over priced, that's not human error, that's highway robbery.
So there's that information for you to do with what you will. And believe me, people are doing just that. Social media gives us all the opportunity to hear what people have to say about anything almost instantly. Or at least as instantly as we click on that medium. And I just don't get "those people" who blindly support Whole Foods because they feel the products are better for them and can't get them anywhere else, or they aren't as easily accessible.
For the sake of this argument, let's just assume that the organic products they sell are what they claim they are, better quality, better for you. With that, I have no qualms about the prices being higher than the Kroger down the street. The higher prices for better quality is fine, but charging $12 a lb. for organic beef is one thing. Charging $12 a lb. and getting well less than a lb. is another. That's disception, dishonesty and flat out stealing.
Human error? The only human error I see is people rationalizing that they're OK with someone stealing from them as long as they still get some sort of benefit from it. Crazy freaking world.
The most recent uproar regarding Whole Foods is a price scam accusation by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs. They claim that 8 Whole Foods stores in the NYC area consistently listed improper weights on their pre-packaged foods resulting in overcharged pricing by as little as 80 cents to as much as $15 an item.
After first denying any wrong doing, Whole Foods has just come out and admitted mistakes being made with the way the operation works. They claim, of course, that it was unintentional, that the mistakes sometimes overcharged the consumer and sometimes undercharged them, and attributing it all to human error. The same human error in 8 different stores. And, of course, no one ever stumbles upon this error until someone gets caught.
Now, I can understand human error, it happens. This is what I don't get. When I go to the butcher counter at any grocery store and ask for a pound of shrimp, the butcher fills up a bag with shrimp and sets it on the scale. Most of the time it's not exactly 1 pound, so the butcher will either add a couple of shrimp, take a couple out, or ask me if that's close enough to the pound I wanted. Whether it's a little over or a little under is then my choice. When I give him the OK, the scale prints out a label with the proper weight, that I saw with my own 2 eyes, and the price per pound and total price.
Question - does Whole Foods not have these types of scales?
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| Umm, this one feels about 1.2 lbs. |
So there's that information for you to do with what you will. And believe me, people are doing just that. Social media gives us all the opportunity to hear what people have to say about anything almost instantly. Or at least as instantly as we click on that medium. And I just don't get "those people" who blindly support Whole Foods because they feel the products are better for them and can't get them anywhere else, or they aren't as easily accessible.
For the sake of this argument, let's just assume that the organic products they sell are what they claim they are, better quality, better for you. With that, I have no qualms about the prices being higher than the Kroger down the street. The higher prices for better quality is fine, but charging $12 a lb. for organic beef is one thing. Charging $12 a lb. and getting well less than a lb. is another. That's disception, dishonesty and flat out stealing.
Human error? The only human error I see is people rationalizing that they're OK with someone stealing from them as long as they still get some sort of benefit from it. Crazy freaking world.
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