Whole Foods Market offers a variety of clothing options for both men and women, including basics, organic cotton and hemp clothing, eco-chic clothing, and women’s clothing. The brand Loomstate and Of the Earth are known for their high-quality, easy-to-style clothing. Kate, a Whole Foods Market supplier, sells dresses made from upcycled saris in the parking lot at Grateful Dead concerts and organic cotton T-shirts in the aisles of 400 stores.
The store also offers high-quality meat, supplements, and other products for various lifestyles. The store offers in-store pricing, weekly sales, and local products by selecting your store. The Pact brand is known for its organic cotton wear for men and women, and Satva is a supplier known for crafting clothing for those who lead a more sustainable lifestyle.
The store also offers local, organic, plant-based, and vegan options, as well as products by sale, section, and special diets like vegan, keto, and gluten-free. The store is located in Los Angeles and measures its impact in footsteps, not a footprint, and assembles each garment in under one hundred footsteps.
📹 How Amazon Changed Whole Foods, Five Years Later
Five years ago, Amazon bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Since then, there’s been a lot of changes, including a new CEO …
Who is the target audience for Whole Foods?
Whole Foods Market targets individuals and families with high incomes, a healthy lifestyle, and environmental consciousness. The target group includes college-educated individuals, wealthy customers, and young families living in upscale areas. The Fremont store primarily targets young families, new college graduates, and retirees, who enjoy sampling the products and having brunch.
The company is also targeting millenials, new college graduates with liberal or progressive values, who are more conscious about saving money and willing to travel and pay off college debts. Whole Foods Market is the first grocery store to be certified organic in America, voluntarily certifying all its stores and operations. It differentiates itself from competitors by relying on stringent high-quality standards and is certified by California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), an independent, USDA-accredited third-party certifier.
One of Whole Foods’ key positioning strategies is its supply chain, procuring products from local and global producers and ensuring they are manufactured without violating labor laws, human rights, or animal rights. The company is also the first grocery store to be certified organic in America.
Who typically shops at Whole Foods?
Whole Foods, a grocer with over 500 stores and 105, 000 employees, generates $17 billion in annual sales. Despite high customer turnover, it added more new customers than lost last year. The average shopper is a 29-year-old West Coast woman earning $80, 000 per year. Users can access personalized feeds and opt-out at any time by visiting the Preferences page or unsubscribing at the email’s bottom.
Is 365 Whole Foods expensive?
Whole Foods Market’s in-house brand 365 offers affordable shopping options, matching the price of regular stores on snack foods and household goods. Customers can also swap 365-branded items for luxury brands for even more savings. The quality of 365 brand items is indistinguishable from more expensive brands. The best 365 by Whole Foods Market buys include produce, such as carrots, lettuces, and bagged ready-to-cook items like Brussels sprouts. The store also offers peeled garlic, which can be frozen in a resealable bag for convenience.
365 brand dairy staples like milk, butter, cream, cream cheese, snacking cheeses, and eggs can save customers enough to buy decadent cheeses like clothbound Cheddar or ripe Camembert. The store’s cheese counter offers crumbled feta and whipped cream cheese, making it a great option for those looking for a more affordable shopping experience.
Is Whole Foods still owned by Amazon?
Whole Foods Market, a subsidiary of Amazon, is an American supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company’s product range is free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. The “Kale Green” logo has been utilized by Amazon since the company’s acquisition of Whole Foods Market in 2017.
Does Whole Foods have a store brand?
The 365 by Whole Foods Market product range offers a comprehensive selection of premium quality items at competitive prices, providing customers with a more diverse and enriching grocery shopping experience. It should be noted that not all stores have dedicated parking spots, and customers may be required to arrange for pickup. This information can be accessed via the Amazon app upon check-in. Additionally, the establishment offers a selection of autumnal products at competitive prices, including pumpkin spice items.
What does 365 mean at Whole Foods?
Whole Foods offers a variety of organic, natural, and locally-sourced foods under its 365 Everyday Value brand, which claims to “fill your pantry without emptying your pocketbook”. All 365 products are certified organic or enrolled in the Non-GMO Project, which verifies the absence of genetically modified organisms. Whole Foods is a strong proponent of GMO labeling, a popular topic in the natural foods community.
The company’s quality standards are among the top in the industry, and it maintains a list of ” unacceptable ingredients” that it claims will never appear on its shelves. This commitment to transparency and quality is a significant aspect of Whole Foods’ commitment to its customers.
Is Whole Foods owned by Walmart?
Whole Foods Market, the largest American chain of supermarkets specializing in natural and organic foods, operates stores in the United States, Canada, and the UK. The company’s corporate headquarters are in Austin, Texas. The first Whole Foods store opened in Austin in 1980, after John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, owners of SaferWay health food store, joined forces with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, owners of Clarksville Natural Grocery. The store offered a wider selection of food and was damaged by a flash flood.
Mackey assumed leadership as the company expanded, opening new stores in Austin, Houston, and Dallas. The first expansion out of Texas was with the purchase of the Whole Food Company of New Orleans in 1988. Whole Foods became a national company within the next decade by purchasing local or regional
natural food chains, including Wellspring Grocery, Bread and Circus, Mrs. Gooch’s, Fresh Fields, Bread of Life, Merchant of Vino, and Harry’s Farmers Market. Shares of the company were first offered to the public in 1992.
Is Whole Foods like Trader Joe’s?
Although Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are similar chains, they differ significantly in terms of their core offerings, customer base, and operational approach. Whole Foods is a full-assortment chain that specializes in natural products, produce, and organic ready-to-eat foods.
Who are Whole Foods largest suppliers?
Whole Foods Market has honored 16 top suppliers with its 2023 Supplier All-Star Awards for their commitment to quality, innovation, value, and sustainability. The winners include ALOHA, Amylu Foods, Atlantic Sea Farms, Bridor, Chetten House, Bronner’s, FoodMatch, and Forever Cheese. The awards highlight the commitment of these suppliers to enriching customers’ shopping experiences, advancing the brand’s purpose, and pushing industry excellence boundaries. Whole Foods Market’s chief merchandising and marketing officer, Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, congratulated the winners for their recognition.
Who manufactures the whole food 365 brand?
365 Organic, a corporate private label for Whole Foods, is now owned by Amazon. The brand receives the most points for organic brands, while split operations receive fewer points due to poor segregation at the processor and farm level. Store brands, which include poultry products privately labeled by grocery chains, often lack transparency due to their variability in sourcing. Store brands may source meat from factory-scale producers due to price differences, making it difficult for consumers to determine the origin and production process. Cornucopia recommends caution with store brands like 365 Organic, advising investors to contact stores to confirm the supplier and encourage transparency about sourcing, even when it changes.
Do Millennials shop at Whole Foods?
Whole Foods, a popular grocery store, has a strong social media presence with 3 million followers on Instagram. The store’s typical shopper is a highly educated millennial woman who buys more kombucha than the rest of the country. The company posts videos showcasing its cult products, such as the Chocolate Chantilly Cake and roasted broccoli with Caesar dressing. Whole Foods’ brand recognition and audience understanding make this broccoli video one of the most popular.
📹 How Whole Foods Changed Organic Food
Whole Foods has managed to make a name for themselves within the health food industry, but in the process labelled everything …
I worked at Whole Foods as a bread baker when Amazon bought Whole Foods. Within six months, instead of making the bread from scratch every day, they shipped us frozen bread made in Austin, and all I did was put in on trays and warm it up. The quality went way down, and the prices went way up. Don’t be fooled into thinking their bread is baked fresh every day, because that is a lie.
From an employee perspective, who had worked at Whole Foods prior to the acquisition from Amazon and then after, there has been a noticeable difference. Whole Foods used to care more about their products, customers and overall setting but since Amazon took over, it’s all about metrics and quantity over quality.
As a wholefoods employee for more that 5 year I can say that change that amazon has made into wholefoods has been bad, we lost a lot of out good benefits that we used to have the culture has changed and it just has turned more stressful, the morale and culture has changed, I’m not going to lie amazon has bring some good stuff into wholefoods but it’s hasn’t been the same.
People don’t believe me when I tell them that back in the early ‘90’s when I lived in CA all of the Whole Foods had someone doing chair massage session costing a buck a minute, truly local products and produce, and REAL Health foods second to none. The staff were more hippie types and were well versed in health and nutrition advice and they actually knew the products. Amazon ruined a very it and I hate shopping there…if you can even get to the shelves which is a challenge here in NYC due to so many of their own people filling delivery orders.
It’s interesting that this article goes out of its way to mention that the standards for food sold there since Amazon took over have improved, since my sister, an avid and longtime Whole Foods customer, just told me recently that she had to stop buying many products at the hot foods bar and in other areas because products that were formerly made with olive oil are now being made with canola oil, which is definitely a step in the wrong direction from a nutritional standpoint.
Selling WF to AMAZ is like selling Borders bookstore to Kmart. The energy shift in both stores before and after was immense. The distinct characteristics made them so unique and attractive become merely shadows of their former selves after the transactions. It is like moving a child from a loving home to a group care.
Its just another example of how Amazon has so much influence over our media now. The producers of this short showed a lack of integrity by not interviewing current or former employees. Amazons policies have directly and negatively impacted their team members for years! High turnover and unionization attempts are just symptoms of the larger problem with Amazon/Whole Foods: That there is a severe human cost to employees when it’s profits over people, Amazon NEEDS regulation!
I use to work at WFM before AMZ and I loved it. It literally was the anti corporation, corporation. We never did commercials, definitely supported local farmers, ranchers, businesses, artist etc. They always paid us well, we could vote leadership on and off our team, wooden nickels ( worth $5) were often given out, free grocery items and swag, field trips to local suppliers, field trips to international suppliers all paid for by WFM, quarterly bonuses, the meat was always expensive but that’s because of the animals welfare standards they had. Now, it’s just a regular corporation, so sad but corporate America always wins. At least I knew WF when it was amazing.
Amazon ruined it in so many ways. The “local” feel that management was able to give each store has been eliminated. The stores used to be an “experience”; it’s now very cold and impersonal. The “bakery” used to evoke an old school bakery by its design but now it’s self-serve. There are fewer “Fresh” items there also.
As a WF employee: you just work for Amazon, whole foods is not whole foods anymore. The prices keep increasing, but no raises for employees and they have a ridiculously harsh attendance policy that makes the turnover rate unnecessarily high. Don’t shop there, go to a cheaper or locally owned grocer and support your community
As a long-time WFM shopper (before and after Amazon bought WFM), I disagree with much of this. Amazon has steadily been getting rid of organic products and swapping them out for conventional (including in the house 365 brand). They’ve drastically reduced variety – which as a shopper with allergies, this really matters. Plus, it was a specialty store and I came there for those unique items that no one else stocked. (such as organic macadamia nuts). They got rid of bulk organic spices, and then they got rid of them in the packets. They’re steadily replacing vegan/vegetarian friendly products and replacing them with meat or Keto stuff and – given that my store is in the vegan capital of the USA – that is not okay. Before Amazon bought them, I knew employees for a long time and they began to feel like friends and a small local grocery store. Since WFM was bought– my store which at the purchase time was the highest producing in my region–employee turnover has been so fast that it often feels like new faces every week. They also got rid of items that you don’t buy often, but you come back for repeatedly, with their “Stock to Shelf” policy. There were many products that I had bought for years that disappeared, and frankly, it made me mad. As for prices going down – that’s a bunch of crap. WFM 365 brand pasta sauce was $1.69. It’s now $3.99, with similar price changes all over the store, and my budget has doubled, so I don’t know where they got the 30% drop from. I’m a Prime member, so I do get the discounts, which most of the time are like regular sales.
just wanna say, they really messed up selling Whole Foods to Amazon. I worked there right after the merger happened, and my coworkers who stayed after the transition said they were extremely disappointed. They started having people work 3 different stations instead of just one (so literally one person running pizza, deli counter, and sandwich) and the quality dropped as well because how can you handle all of that and maintain the same quality as 3-4 workers?
We all must stop falling for these stories and this industrialized countries’ rhetoric. It’s always about the money (that they want to make) and not about the customer or the environment. That’s why I always buy vegetables and fruit at the local Farmers’ market, buy the rest at the nearest supermarket, and make sure to buy products that come in glass containers or tin. Also, I always bring my own bags (they live in the trunk of my car) and avoid plastic packaging -all kinds even biodegradable. The real change happens at home and in your head.
Been a shopper at WF for about 15 years. The hot bar used to be top notch healthy food with some not so healthy foods found there sparingly. Now the hot bar looks like slop shop or a public high school cafeteria in da hood, live and dead flies have a feast in it in the summertime where i live, even the greens, beans and other veggies that used to be stemmed are now drowned in heavy grease and oil. Within 2 yrs the hot bar went from 7.99 lb to now 11.99lb and the food ain’t even half as good as it used to be. Used to go there faithful every Thursday after work but now I go there maybe once a month.
Remember to be a bit lenient on WF shoppers. When I worked there, we wanted to make 60 units per hour, meaning I only had literally 1 minute per item to shop for. For example, if the order was 25 items, it’s 25 minutes I should spend searching, packaging and staging the bags. I now work at Amazon Fresh grocery store and heard their units per hour went up to 90 which is CRAZY. So yes, I’d say they are overworked and underpaid.
It’s truly not as friendly anymore. Only the butcher is so sweet. She hugs me every time. But I don’t like shopping there anymore. Our store isn’t a walk out store yet but it’s creepy to me so I switched and do not shop at wholefoods. It’s cold and alot of workers are rude. I used to enjoy my trip there. Not anymore. Trader Joe’s, Sprouts and Central Market are fabulous. So sad. We are human and crave human interaction. Not there anymore.
I used to spend $200/week on whole foods delivery. Then one day they delivered my grocery to the wrong address and refused to find it or refund me. Never asked for a refund before and have been a loyal customer for 20 years. Haven’t ordered Amazon grocery since. The $200 mess up cost Amazon $10,000+ per year.
I prefer it before Amazon acquisition. I noticed once I had the bad Mochi, breads, cake, food everything was superior before. Quality and soul of Whole Foods is now gone. It’s still a good store but I have found other organic stores and farmers market. I would occasionally go to Whole Foods but not my first choice. PS : Comments are more informative than the article
I worked at WF for about 5 years in the early 2000. We had this thing called gain sharing which was a labour surplus that team members benifted from. So for eg if your department you work for exceeds the profit margin, you distributed the gain sharing amongst the team members. Not sure if they still do that. Now they have merged departments together the customer service and morale have left the building.
I live in San Diego where we have a Whole Foods in Hillcrest. The store isn’t even a whisper of what it once was. It truly feels like shopping for food at Target now, just pre-packaged vegan junk. Plus, the store has gotten super grimey and there are tons of homeless sleeping on the sidewalk outside. It is so sad what has happened to this once juggernaut of food. It use to be a real part of the community. Now no one goes there and we all go up the street to Lazy Acres which still offers real food and is legitimately part of the community.
Now I understand what happened to whole foods! I had just recently been back to New York for a visit. I had found that much of the organic food was very limited since i had visited over 7 years ago. The selection of organic meat for example was very limited. I thought it was because of the pandemic. I guess not.
We need local community gardens and stop depending on someone else to feed us, especially when friends of corporations want us to eat bugs while they eat Kosher, we need to know what we are putting in our mouths and our bodies and at least whilst doing so we know what our own Agenda is for feeding ourselves .
I just had my last day as a WF in-store shopper for the amazon orders and it was intense. My supervisors/TLs were so nice, but due to amazon rules we weren’t even allowed to bring waterbottles with us while shopping orders. Sometimes the system would let 80+ item orders go through that we had to complete and have ready within an hour or sometimes half an hour. I always felt overworked and for $15 an hour (around $12 an hour with tax taken out) it was not worth it. Sad because the employees are so nice and I do think Whole Foods does a good job of carrying ethical brands.
The personality of Whole Foods changed immediately when Amazon bought it. There was a cold veil that hung over every employee in the store. It appeared they were scared to do anything that would interfere with their daily duty list. It was like they were being watched. Many customers love it and some despise it like I do. Every time that I go in I ask myself why. It’s always a pleasure to shop at Trader Joes and Fresh Market.
Headline: Amazon has re-made and ruined Whole Foods. This story has numerous incorrect statements and omits important facts–some of these are addressed in other viewers’ comments, and others are not. I will note just a few. Before Amazon, Whole Foods had experts operating different specialty segments of the products, such as the cheese department. As a frequent customer, I knew all of these people at the store I go to (Wellesley, MA, a relatively affluent town). These specialists added a great deal of professional expertise, and made the shopping experience more productive (e.g., finding the cheese that you will like) and pleasant. After Amazon took over, all of those experts were terminated and replaced by generic relatively junior and inexperienced salespeople having little if any actual knowledge of the products they were responsible for (e.g., cheese). This article’s claims that these replacements are being trained to have the expertise of their predecessors is false (and not just in my store). In addition, the staff (especially the segment specialists) were empowered to give customers free products to try–not just small samples (such as of cheese), but even entire products (an entire chocolate bar, jar of pasta sauce, etc.) It should go without saying that no one at Amazon’s WF is empowered to do that anymore. This article claims that Amazon’s WF has increased the availability of local foods. That is an exaggerated distortion. It fails to mention Amazon’s termination of one of WF’s most interesting features: frequent occasions when the actual producers (farmers, chefs, etc.
Amazon should let Whole Foods be it’s own entity. The constant meddling with Prime memberships and their data collecting approach is very invasive. Third party data mining isn’t going to attract more customers nor is the “easy check out” biometric camera systems. But knowing how impatient people have become,they’ll comply. They just want part time employees to stock the shelves and AI tech nerds to maintain the infrastructure. Sadly, this vapid approach for the next generation of consumers will lose touch with where food comes from.
We basically stopped shopping at whole foods after Amazon acquired them because they kept getting rid of the food that we liked buying. They would replace our favorite brand with either nothing similar or with some other brand we didn’t like. We got tired of going to the store every time thinking well I wonder if they’re going to have what I’m after today?
I’ve been to the Los Angeles location not too long ago and I walked in and walked right back out. I immediately felt creeped out and I just felt that Amazon/Whole Foods was “doing too much” with all them cameras. Maybe I am old school (I’m 27), but I have no problem going into a grocery store like Vons, putting my stuff in a cart, wait in line to check out, and go home.
I’m conflicted about going to Amazon/WF. WF’s bought out a beloved local Organic Grocery Store in our town, but they kept the butchers and home made sausages. Then Amazon bought WF’s. The prices doubled and for about 6 months they took away the fresh butcher made sausages. It was awful. Now Amazon brought in their own brands and have self checkout. I refuse to use self checkout because if I’m going to pay that much for food I want someone to bag it and carry it out for me. I remain conflicted, but I still shop there because of the butchers. I get my fruit and vegetables from the farmers market and all the other items from TJ and Costco. Everyone carries some Organic food now, and a lot still delivers. Amazon is no longer the new shinny object, especially with inflation the way it is.
I used to do all my shopping at Whole Foods. I loved the happy employees and the customer focused layout and service. Now they have things like walls around the bakery and employees can’t do things like give free samples to reccomend a products. They even closed the nice dinning area for grocery storage. Those are just examples but the feel has completly changed…I never go there anymore…..
Big brother perusal your every move. Hope people reject this and they have to go back to normal shopping. All this tech is at the cost of employees and they are displacing a persons job, not a good idea. I like tech, but sometimes it can be overload. Another reason why Amazon/Whole Foods like the automation is that machines can’t unionize!!!!
I shop at WF occasionally but what I’ve noticed about the healthier grocery stores compared a Walmart is that when both stores carry the same brand, Walmart always has the better price. I’ve been noticing that Walmart has been getting more brands that I used to only see at WF and so naturally I’m shopping less at WF and more at Walmart because I want more for my money.. This is what WF has to figure out. How can they compete with Walmart’s prices on the same foods? A food giant like Walmart could continue taking brands sold at WF stores and selling them cheaper OR they could open specific stores that only carry foods with more wholesome ingredients and there goes a great chunk of WF customers bc the prices will be better at Walmart
The lack of sufficient vegan options on Amazon Fresh, combined with the extra fee to order delivery at Whole Foods, means that the Vons across the street actually, surprisingly, gets me better variety for a lower price than Amazon does, while being only slightly less convenient. I was incredibly surprised at the insane amount of vegan options I found, when I could not found vegan cookies and cream ice cream on Amazon with free delivery but at Vons was able to find literally every type of vegan ice cream I wanted, and nearly every other vegan product I wanted too (I knew they were good as I had been finding a lot of things I wanted but until that day when I explored a bit more I hadn’t realised they were that good). After finally getting on Amazon Prime using family sharing, I was considering doing all my own grocery shopping at Amazon instead, but unlike what I am used to, the grocery store right across the street actually has them solidly beat in terms of products I want to buy, all in one place too unlike Amazon where Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh are different carts and therefore hard to fill with sufficient items.
A few years ago I read of a survey done of a Whole Foods Store in California (if I remember correctly). It revealed that about 80% of the packaged produce originated in China (best of luck with the Organic side of thing if that interests you) with many brands bearing very American names and making it very easy for shoppers to be misled. Perhaps things have changed since then but the old adage still is true…buyers beware !!!!!!!
I have to admit before Amazon bought Whole Foods I had never shopped at one. The reputation kept me away as we already had Trader Joe’s. Since Amazon’s purchase it is so convenient to shop when I drop of an Amazon return. My wife likes their prepared food. There still isn’t a killer product that draws me to the store consistently.
I was a loyal Whole foods customer. I would bypass the Publix and Kroger near where I luve to go there. However, over the past 3-4 years, I’ve been very frustrated with the high prices, process of taking away fresh baked goods out of the bakery and doing the baking at their warehouse. The items on the hot bar are constantly the same opposed to previous Amazon days. I’m starting to shop at Publix and Sprouts for more affordable items now. The palm scan also kind of weirds me out for a lot of reasons.
Whole foods is very expensive then nearby grocery stores to me. I get same or better standard / quality products in another stores like Costco, Frys, Harris Teeter, Sprouts etc. so why spend huge $$$ here. No wonder this loot in name of organic products will not get WF market share near or more than current %age than 2%.
We live in one of the wealthiest counties in the US. The premium grocery market is very competitive. I like to describe the premium leaders as Whole Paycheck, King’s Ransom, Arm and a Legman’s, and Uncle Gigaprice (Whole Foods, Kings, Wegmans and Uncle Giuseppe’s). Whole Food looked to be in a great position during the early days of the CoviD pandemic, but it was nearly impossible to place an order. We wound up using Wegman’s curbside pickup, which was very easy and very accessible. Today, the only time we go to Whole Foods is when we have an Amazon return. Most of the people I know get most of their groceries at Costco, as we do. We also have many other options, and use them as well.
I almost never shopped a whole foods because the food was always expensive even before the Amazon take over. At least that was the case where I lived. There’s a Trader Joes near by but it’s not much better in price but they do have nicer staff. The cheapest places are still ACME or Giant. Even though they sell a lot of crap and are textbook example of a run-of-the-mill grocery chain (with dated music and overly bright fluorescent lights) they do have good stuff if you just put in the work to look hard enough.
Whole Foods makes me sad, and I only shop there when I’m trying to find a certain thing I can’t find at Sprouts or Natural Grocers or Trader Joe’s, as well as the usual supermarkets, which increasingly offer whole foods and organic or organically produced items. Doesn’t mean I’ll find it at Whole Foods, however. The glut of items at WF, especially in produce, makes me realize how much they must throw away–because the overstock seems to be only for show. Anyway, to each her own. Less willing to give my money to a disinterested billionaire.
I used to work in a SC warehouse for amazon. I was told bezos didn’t want employees to stay to long because he thought people would get lazy and complacent. I’m not sure if this is the same for wholefoods, but now they went through so many people and fired so many and got rid of actual quality employees, who the hell will they hire if they just fired half a city……
I use to work at whole foods before amazon required them. They combined departments, eliminated positions and a lot of people quit. A lot of the culture and community that whole foods brought and promoted was no more. Extremely sad to see what happened the whole foods through my state. I use to be a beer buyer for a pretty popular location and was one of the more enjoying jobs I’ve had within the industry now before Amazon came into play.
The original Whole Foods was a boutique store for sure. It was clear across town, and was never my regular market. But it was inspiring, had real butchers, all kinds of treats. I had been a single mom, and could now afford a few treats…and it was my fun outing. I have been to the Bezos version…twice. Yuck…
This model is unnatural and dystopian AF. Do we need all of these technologies to get our food? Why are we increasingly distancing ourselves from the simplistic, natural way of living. I rarely frequent Whole Foods before because it was expensive but at least it does have a unique and endearing feel to it. Now it just feels like a warehouse, good bye
I miss Whole Foods, too. As soon as Amazon bought the company I never shopped their again. The biometrics should give people pause: Biometrics is one of the control mechanisms of the near future. These monstrous corporations simply want to control every aspect of human life. Read the book, Nomadland. It aptly describes life working amongst Amazon’s mountain of Chinese junk in their mammoth warehouse. It’s an eye-opener and to me, portends the future for our children and grandchildren.
Thank you for this article. We live near the “new” Glover Park Whole Foods and we usually avoid it now. The previous WF was a community hub, hosted events with other businesses and had lots of specialty items. Now, it feels like a prettier, tech enhanced Aldi but with CCTV everywhere. Everything is 365 Brand and it has so much pre-packaged not fresh items. (no shade on Aldi because they offer good value, they never rep that they are providing a high end experience while Whole Foods brand did in the past). I feel bad for the employees because it seems stressful to work in that environment. One redeeming thing is that the employees are super nice and the pizza is good. Other than that, we go to Giant, Safeway, Trader Joe’s or a local specialty place called Rodman’s. Local businesses matter 💕
I went to the DC store on 14th Street. It all went fine: Priced correctly and there were two of us shopping on one account. The store was relatively small compared to a full-sized Whole Foods. And so they did not have as much stuff as I was expecting. The choices seemed a bit more in line with convenience than “specialty” or “organic.” Getting set up took a little while, but the staff was friendly. It was weird walking out without going to a cash register. I moved out of the city so haven’t been back. If it were 24 hours grocer, then that would have been terrific for me (night owl).
Key takeaways: Amazon leveraging its tech expertise to drastically reduce the operating costs of wholefoods. Mainly by implementing technology to reduce labor costs. Selling a lot more private label goods to increase profit margins (by cutting out the middleman) Centralised operations and moving them to its regional HQs Timestamps: Hi-tech shopping – 7:45 (apparently streamlined shopping experience is a sticky one and has increase food basket volumes) Grocery vs fulfilment centres – 11:55 WF stores are now acting as fulfilment centres where customers can pick uo their orders, thereby increasing each stores service offerings and expanding their customer base. Even turned some underperforming stores into dark stores (full-on fulfilment centres).
This is a surprisingly uncritical examination of Amazon’s effect on Whole Foods. Nothing about their impact on the environment, nothing about their position on unionization, just pretty pictures of the fancy tech and celebration of areas in which they have succeeded. Is this an advertorial or just a failure to find a journalist that can ask interesting questions?
I stopped using Wholefoods after Amazon took over. I am an Amazon Prime member but cannot shop at Wholefoods because prices went sky high AND the quality of their products was abominable. I use Lazy Acres here in Santa Barbara, CA— which has great Organic products. I only eat Organic . I have a fixed income, retired RN.
Glover Park branch! That was the first Whole Foods I went to, and they had just been acquired / transitioned from Fresh Fields. I had just moved to DC and the Glover Park locals were still bitter about it. The sign at the entrance still said “Fresh Fields – Whole Foods Market”. Coming from the West coast I didn’t know about either store but it had some cool stuff, though I mainly went to the Safeway down the hill.
Amazon has destroyed Whole Foods. It has lost everything that was great about it from the 90s- Fresh local produce, knowledgeable and competent employees, earthy and welcoming environment… It has turned into an overpriced Safeway with clueless, ghetto-thug employees, and soulless environments decorated in a Disney version of what was Whole Foods.
So how does the “just walk out” system work with someone who hasn’t downloaded the app? Do you have an attendant at the door who has to confront anyone who isn’t registering with the system when they come in? In DC and LA the shoppers have already implemented a “just walk out” system that involves no expensive technology. It’s called shoplifting.
I worked at Whole Foods back in the late 00’s. It was a company going through bad identity crisis. Most of its workers were hippies and free spirits, customers were image chasing affluent new-yuppies, and its treatment of workers was out of line with its stated goals. Best thing it had going for me was free health insurance. Ultimately the mediocre pay and out of touch management at my store drove me out of there in just over a year.
The Whole Foods I’ve been shopping at the last 7 years just got entirely reorganized, like all products have entirely been moved around the entire store. So many products I used to buy are no longer stocked and everything is difficult to find. Feels like some idiot tech worker looked at some metrics and was like this is a good idea!!! But the experience is just awful now 🙁
I think the people who are only saying that Amazon ruined Whole Foods, without really giving any solid examples as to how, are probably folks who never shopped at Whole Foods but just hates Amazon. In my opinion, Whole Foods doesn’t try to be anything other than what they are. For folks to complain about the price, I have to ask why because their prices have always been high.
Both times we shopped at Amazon Fresh we were incorrectly charged. The receipt takes several hours to arrive in your email and you may discover you were incorrectly charged after the store is closed. The convenience of walk out shopping is neutralized by the time required to monitor the receipt and call customer service to have it corrected. The store was packed the first week and was a ghost town the second time we visited. I think others may have had the same experience!
Jesus is coming back soon is time to look for him while he can be seeked because there will be a day when people are gonna wish they could reach him and at that time it be too late and this palm thing its the beginning of what would be a mark that people are gonna need to buy and sell after God comes for his people, God doesn’t want you to perish there’s still time to look for him and repend and recognize jesus as our lord and savior and we will have eternal life, because this 🌎 is gonna soon be a wreck and those who stay here will wish they listen, he who has eyes open them and see around you, he who has ear listen because God is merciful and doesn’t want anyone to perish he wants us to live forever with him, God bless you all
So I live in Texas and I remember Whole Food when it was based in Texas back in the 80s when it was friendly, good product and good customer service. Now it sucks cause Whole Foods no longer carries the products I love; It has become increasing difficulty to find things in the store; No more case discount on Whole Foods’ 365 products; What you see on the shelves is what you get, and the shelves may be empty; Employees appear to lack training about the products. Since being acquired by Amazon, Whole Foods offers an “extra” discount to Amazon Prime members. Sorry, I’m not going to pay extra just to shop in a store that’s already expensive. The cost of being an Amazon Prime member isn’t worth the extra discount at Whole Foods. Sorry, I’d rather support local business owners who treat their employees better.
I’ve been to the DC store. It was a strange experience. I had to ask the worker there what I was supposed to do because you walk in the door and immediately, there’s a gate. I had to look for my app. If you don’t have that qr code or app or whatever, you can’t shop. The store is about the size of a 7-11, not very big, but just enough to get some basics. I put a cucumber in my cart. I asked the worker how do they know I put a cucumber in my cart ( I didn’t know about the cameras), and he was like ‘they just know’ which all of a sudden gave me a creepy ‘big brother’ feeling and I looked around suspiciously. There’s a counter if you want to bag stuff yourself, and then you just walk out the gate. It was a very strange experience.
Illegal migrants causing rent inflation and afterwards the consequences are housing crash. Statistics display the last housing crash was created by non-mortgage paying Mexicans and Arabs who refused to pay their mortgage after buying their home. Illegal migration by Arabs and Mexicans have a deleterious effect on our economy. Since Arabs eat a lot of beef it also causes directly Food Inflation raising food prices because Arabs have a lot more children than they can afford so they turn to food stamps paid by the tax payer. There is no benefit in Arab and Mexican migration because the “Long Term” effects of overpopulation causes CLIMatE cHanGe. Drying rivers and HEATWAVES.
If they roll that out at the Whole Foods here, I’ll be rolling away from Whole Foods. The quality of their merchandise went down after it was bought by Amazon. Sent me elsewhere. Now I only go into Whole Foods for certain items. I won’t mind purchasing those items elsewhere because they won’t be scanning any parts of my body like that.
Comment section is full of people claiming Wholefoods to be better than before it was bought by Amazon. Well, the same people might be criticizing Wholefoods for some other stuff before the acquisition happened. People will never support good places in their bad times and will cry when those places leave and something worse comes up.
The first WF opened in my neighborhood in the mid-90s and is located 2.5 blocks away. I shopped there quite a bit even though the people who shopped there could be rude bores. There was a good vibe among the employees and they bent over backwards to be helpful. As I’m not much of a cook, I bought a lot of their prepared foods. When Amazon took over, all that changed. There are very few pre-Amazon employees left and the newbies change constantly and their attitudes are poor. The pandemic has taken further toll on the quality and variety of what they sell. The deli counter is only half filled and, as with the hot bar, much of the old favorites are gone and what’s there is unappetizing. They also do not refill pans regularly, so hours before closing time you often just find the dregs. Their produce isn’t that good or plentiful. Although it’s the only grocery store in my neighborhood, I hardly shop there anymore. I have to take at least one bus to a full service grocery store or use Insta-Cart.
All these comments made by bots all say the same thing: 1. I use to work for WF before Amazon 2. I use to work for WF during Amazon 3. I use to shop WF before Amazon 4. I use to shop WF after Amazon 5. Say something bad about metrics and being spied on Like seriously, ya’ll are not complaining when Amazon and Google are listening to every single conversation you have with your phone. A bunch of hypocrites 🤣
Nope. I won’t shop at ANY Bezo owned anything EVER & i was WF TOP beer buyer in 1991! Palo Alto store! We had fun it was fun to work there. Now the store is money money money. & a tiny beer section:( Totally forgot why it opened. To sell pure clean food. Whole Foods is now full of crap. See what greed & massive stores have done. Too much automation thats NOT how people live. We aren’t robots lets bring life back into our lives! Stop w the camras & weight conscious shelves. I’m shopping i’m not in prison. What happened to human touch? To people interacting w people? Do we wonder why selfishness is a mass anymore? This world does not need more “Karens & Kyles”.
They kind of gloss over Amazon returns at Whole Foods, but it was one of the reasons I left. They had supervisors in customer service doing their job and Amazon returns at the same time. Which lead to some wild nearly impossible to manage situations. Then they put in a kiosk that forced customers to use it. It took way longer for customers. Many resented that and some took it out on us. We still had to do all the processing after the fact. Without allowed staffing to have a dedicated person doing the job. It was a horrid work experience.
How many people have gotten food poisoning because WF’s gig delivery drivers (who are not employees and do not get any benefits) are forced to deliver too many orders in regular cars without proper refrigeration? Especially in the summer time. This only got worse as more and more people chose delivery during the pandemic, and will continue to get worse as more people make the lifestyle choice to get their groceries via delivery instead of shopping in person.
Idk if the one in LA uses your Palm but it does use the QR code in your Amazon app and that I’m ok with! It was a really impressive experience to be able to just walk in grab a bag and walk out! Having everything I bought listed in my amazon account. This is clearly the future of the consumer experience and I wouldn’t be surprised if we started seeing it in other types of stores.
Wfm has changed since Amazon. Local brands are done for marketing to make the company look good in the community. If it doesn’t sell it leaves the store. It’s all about the bottom line. Food is no different than most of the brands at other stores. It’s just marketing. It’s still much more expensive than other companies.
I was a shopper with Amazon before they purchased WFM, then a Produce Team employee after the acquisition. Whole Foods used to be clean and the food was cleaned properly, now all they care about is making sure the shelves are properly filled with fruits and vegetables no matter the quality. They deserve their atrocious turnover rate.
I went to Whole Foods last month; Needed to grab 2 Yellow Bananas. I Was surprised by the store… They had remodeled since the last time I step foot inside (Before Covid). So I walked around… saw their HOT FOODS buffet. I was like “Hey, I’m kinda hungry…. so Why Not.” Sign on the wall says: “ALL Hot Foods: $10.99 per Pound. 🤣🤣
Whole Foods is a dying business. I was an an Amazon Shopper fulfilling orders and they ended the job and transferred all employees to Whole Foods or somewhere else within Amazon. In the final days of my job as a shopper, we would barely get more than 15 orders per hour compared to more than 70 orders per hour in 2020-2021.
The original founders of WF cared greatly about the quality of their goods and treated their employees very well (part time workers had health insurance.) For Amazon, it’s just another revenue stream, so cutting corners here and there to increase profit is more valued than satisfying their customers. Also, before the introduction of the 365 store brand, WF carried a much greater variety of products. These small producers have been pushed out and replaced with the 365 store brand. I’m sure this change increases their profitability, but I miss things that they carried before. Just little things, like cherry pomegranate toaster pastries. I thought that the company had gone under until I found them at a small local health food store. I don’t buy anything from Amazon, and it was a sad day when they acquired WF.
I worked at Whole Foods for nearly 10 years in the Grocery Team. I was a Team Member, moved up to Buyer, and was an ATL. I saw a LOT of things change when Amazon bought them, and not for the better. First, Whole Foods knew they were getting bought for about a year before the Amazon bid… the various procedures they were instituting like OTS (order to shelf) and taking away things like Gainsharing made the company look more attractive for a buyout. The article only gives half truths. For instance, “online sales were much better in 2020 than 2019”. So was EVERYONE’S, and the reason for it? Covid. Of course the online sales will jump higher. Another thing the article is not giving the full truth on is the amount of emails from Team Members throughout the company being sent en masse regarding issues of lack of proper help, overexhausting the working Team Members, lowering raises when the time comes, etc. It was going on for a LOT longer than was stated. There were several attempts at bringing a union to the stores, and WF certainly hates them… there were multiple store meetings that dealt almost exclusively in saying ‘they are the worst thing that can happen to us’, and I noted several people who were more vocal about WF having a union were very quickly separated. (Their term for fired.) Another thing this article is incorrect about… there being more local items in stores than ever before. That is categorically false. I can tell you a LOT of local items and vendors were going away.
Definitely got worse since Amazon took over. Lousy service, higher prices, less selection, wasteful, poorly prepared foods, local product selection diminished. Self checkout out nonsense, isles crowded with Amazon delivery shoppers, seafood selections, display and variety is not as good as it was before Amazon took over.🥱
Do not fret in these coming times trust in Jesus wholeheartedly, DENY the mark when it is made mandatory as time goes on they will make this mandatory in all areas this is either phase 2 before the mark or this is the mark either or don’t take it or Let them put anything into you, die for the truth as Jesus died for us. Don’t take the mark.
Shortly after Amazon bought WFM I saw a pallet of Honey Nut Cheerios at my WFs! (I took a picture. I could tell you the date it happened) And that’s the day I knew for sure that Amazon would ruin WFM. I will never scan my hand to pay for something nor to sell something. And no I’m not going to pay with a thumb print or an eye scan either. I’ve read the last book of the Bible; I know how it all comes crashing down.
I love all this talk about Whole Foods and Amazon but very little about the employees. Their turnover rate is through the roof, and the holidays are coming and everyone in corporate buries their head in the sand acting as if all their short staffed and overworked stores are acting as normal. There is no moral at any of the stores you work at, and Whole Foods as well as Amazon they only want people with little to no knowledge of how the store works, otherwise they would have to pay them more.
The hot food court at whole foods has changed. Now a loveless spread of uncreative cooking, with items dished out like in a college canteen. Not to mention half empty trays never filled because there’s nothing made in the kitchen to fill them with. Thanks MrBezo’s, you’re an act on planet earth trying to play God. Not for long hopefully.
I was at the Amazon Fresh today in Westlake Village, California. If this is the future of shopping, God help us. Basically it seemed like an Amazon shipping center where you do the work. There is nothing that held my interest. I just wanted to runaway from this alienating experience as quickly as possible. I will not go back.
I’ve been a WF customer for over 15 years. I travel extensively in the US for work, but call Houston home. The hot bar is a great way to eat healthy while traveling. Unfortunately, the quality and selection have gone down, while prices have increased. In several Houston stores, they’ll start putting up the food an hour or two before closing. I had a regular store in Houston for about a year when I was working mostly remote. I’d get coffee, work on the computer for a couple of hours, grab lunch, and maybe spend a couple more hours working. Had several store employees who knew me by name and who I considered friends. At this same store, there are a few of the old timers still there, but the vibe is def not the same. Still some good folks working there, but I miss the old WF. Way to go megacorp, screwing up one of the few cool businesses in existence.
My whole foods (in Canada) don’t have all the products that are in US stores, nor the prime deals. But it has the highest quality produce in town, and a cheese department that is amazing! Yes, there are high priced items, but also better prices than other stores on some items. Every supermarket is making shopping for groceries a kind of gamble or perhaps, a treasure hunt, to get the good deals. The other thing about WF stores is that they are clean (!) and agreeable to spend time in, thanks to good lighting and so on . I wish Amazon carried the 365 grocery shelf items. Some are excellent quality for excellent prices.
Our local Whole Foods used to have a fantastic, delicious bread selection. My parents literally bought bread only from Whole Foods and would go out of their way to drive there. After Amazon bought it, the bread disappeared. It’s now been standardized and is no different from other stores. My dad actually learned to bake bread himself and we’ve been testing out different local bakeries and farmer’s markets as well to try and find good bread.
We purchase around 95% organic and are in the process of finishing a 30X50 foot greenhouse to start growing all our veggies in. We just planted 10 orchard trees, blueberries, raspberries, and we also buy local as much as we can. Local in my opinion is MUCH better than organic food at the store. All our meat is locally raised as well! It is very difficult to navigate the current food system–you have to be an acute label reader and it takes a lot more time and expense to eat healthy. But it’s so worth it, as I’d rather spend the money now on healthy food than have a lifetime of medical bills
I’m from France but it was super interesting, thank you ! I think there is so much to say about food and the impact of how we eat. For the past 10 years, the growth of plant-based eating (which is a great thing for the main part) has also been the growth of food trends around exotic fruits and nuts. And I feel like we are only now starting to realise the negative impact of it. The question that remains it: how can we make a local and mainly plant-based diet not boring?? Would love to see articles on these topics ! Thank you so much for your work
I primarily shop at my local co-op, but typically don’t get the organic products just because of price. Main exception to that is broccoli and that’s because the conventional broccoli they carry has a lot more stem than the organic, and I don’t want to pay for and waste the part of the broccoli that I won’t eat. If I am at a conventional store I’ll get the organic milk because it lasts forever, but at the co-op I get non-organic local milk because it’s in a glass bottle that I return and then gets refilled. I really appreciate how many of the things that I can buy there are locally produced
This makes me sad… USDA Organic is something that I’ve strived to be able to feed my family. Places like Aldi and their organic food has made it possible for me to afford buying organic. Living in the North, as you are aware, makes shopping at farmers markets impossible for about 6-8 months of the year. We heavily rely upon grocery stores. It makes me sad that we can’t fully trust ANOTHER government agency that’s “suppose” to be protecting us. Thank you Levi for all you do.
It’s become a scam. I worked on a certified organic farm for a couple years back in the mid 90s and there was a lot of inconsistencies with the practices and policies you had to adhere to so we soon gave it up and adopted what you failed to research on – the sustainable CLEAN foods movement and found it more ethical, reasonably affordable and sound than the travesty that the Organic certification had become.