Although I have been privately criticized for my love for Whole Foods (because there are other, local grocery stores that care more about local food), I love it. You can imagine my disappointment when I walked into the Whole Foods on Arapahoe and Broadway in Boulder on Earth Day to this:
Really? Promoting Earth Day with stacks and stacks of bottled water?!? SO disappointing.
There are two reasons I love this particular store:
- The employees are awesome: uber helpful and friendly
- It’s small. Normal Whole Foods are enormous, but this used to be a Wild Oats. I hit the produce, then walk down one aisle, and back up the next - then head to the checkout. Done.
I also believe that Whole Foods are “necessary” in the sense that having a giant national chain will bring local and organic food to the masses, raising awareness and acceptance far more quickly and successfully than a smattering of local grocers ever could.
However, someone screwed this one up. Bottled water is never environmentally friendly.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I think most will agree that bottled water isn’t environmentally friendly, and unnecessary. Having grown in up Woburn Massachusetts post “A Civil Action”, I basically grew up on bottled water, and thus have acquired a taste for Poland Springs water. While investigating a purification system for the house, I’ve cut down the Poland Springs consumption to a minimum, but your post reminded me of the “Ethos” brand from Starbucks…. A nickel per $2.00 bottle funds clean water projects? I thought I could remember another product similar to this where they were desalinating seawater, but while looking this up, I came across two other items for your ridiculous food products. Bling H20 and Deep Seawater from Hawaii….. .
Question for you: Whole Foods contracts with local farmers to provide much of their produce correct? What happens if/when a farmer is unable to provide Whole Foods with the required amount of product? In other words, if the farmer is under contract to provide the store with X lbs. of say corn, and they are unable to do that due to weather or what have you then what happens?
From what I understand, it is up to the farmer to then supply the missing amount from an alternative source or risk losing the contract with the store.
Here is the issue: in some cases the farmer can go ahead and purchase produce ( corn in this case) from almost any source he wishes which may include out-of-state growers. But, even if that is the case, the store will still sell the produce as “provided by a local grower” even though that is not actually the case.
What is Whole Foods policy on this? I ask because I am afraid that many folks out there who purchase from their local market are unknowingly being misled - thinking they are buying food ‘grown’ by a local grower vs. food ‘provided’ by a local grower.
Any thoughts RE?