This evening, Misti and I scoped out the new Whole Foods store
in the Lamp Post Plaza shopping center at the corner of Washtenaw
and Stadium.  I'm very fond of the People's Food Co-op, which for
several months has been operating in terror of when Whole Foods opens,
so I really wanted to hate Whole Foods.  I was all set to pooh pooh
their product line or their commercial nature or anything else I
could find to pooh pooh.  Instead, what I found was a clean store
full of an immense variety of natural foods products and nice,
dedicated-seeming employees.  Against my will I'm quite impressed.

13 responses total.

 Watch that toilet-talk, Valerie!

Since you're on the board of PFC, perhaps you should bring this up
at your next meeting.  Don't think that the PFC is immune from 
competition just because you're non-profit.

Believe me, Dan, the PFC is all too aware of the danger the Whole Foods Store
poses to it's contuinued health.  As Valerie says, the board and many
members have been in fear for months of what WF would do to the PFC
when it finally opened.

I wanted to hate the new place too, because I've been a regular
Arbor Farms customer for a couple of years now.  Instead I was
very impressed.  The produce looks wonderful.  The staff is helpful.
The prices are reasonable (lower than Arbor Farms in general).
I don't know what to do.

What arabella said!!!

Aha!  I found one item that is cheaper at Arbor Farms:  Celestial
Seasons bottled iced tea costs $.79 at Arbor Farms and $.89 at
Whole Foods.

   I was there the other day, and I must say I was pretty much blown
away by the combination of quality, prices and sheer size of the place.
The fact that they have a lot of high-quality meats appeals to me, a
lot.  I'm dreaming of Coleman's natural lamb, smothered in mint sauce
already...
   I'm worried about the Coop, too.  In general, I'll go to the coops
first for things.  Then get the things that I can't get at the pfc
at WF.
   Overall, would I want to buy something at WF thats sold elsewhere,
like beer?  Sure--it'll inflate their sales figures and make all the
other food distribution systems take notice.
 
   Lastly, the really cool things about the meat department was the
smell, or rather, the lack of it.  Try that at Meijer.  Hah!

actually, if there's something you can't find at the people's food
coop, there's a book where you can write down product requests.
in general, i've found they're pretty good about getting in the
things i ask for.

Back in NC, there was a Whole Foods about a mile from where I lived and I
shopped there perioically.  Since moving back to MI, I've been the AA store
twice so far and tried a couple other times--but couldn't find any place to
park!  Between Whole Foods, Barnes and Noble, and the other stores there, that
parking lot gets and stays full, it seems.  So I hardly ever try going there
anymore.  I miss my store in NC with adequate parking. :-)

Try the Food Coop on Fourth after 5 pm (free parking in the County lot) or
Arbor Farms on Stadium.  Arbor Farms is locally owned, good folks, and a
pretty good selection.

Trader Joe's is pretty good, too, except for the produce.

I never make it to Whole Foods here - there's only two stores in 
Phoenix, both really out of the way, as is Trader Joe's.  Fortunately, 
we have this chain here called Sprouts, which is basically the poor 
man's version of WF.  

Poor man's version of WF is good. We've got a No Frills here which puts Kroger
to shame - yes it's that bad.

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