Whole Foods: It's Like Crack, Only It's Good for You

Holy bean sprouts, Bat-friends, I almost short-circuited most of my neural pathways in Whole Foods today. 

But we knew that would happen, didn't we?  When it comes to things I love (good food, well-crafted prose, and Jon Stewart), I am incapable of any sort of critical distance.  And one of my very favorite things to do, especially when visiting a foreign country, is to spend an hour or two looking at every single item on the shelves of the local supermarket.  Actually, that's more of a hypothetical since it's so hard to shake my family while on vacation, and they don't share my unbridled passion for grocery stores. Even distracting them with something like rabbit dog food or chickens with their feet and heads left on is only worth five minutes, tops. Short Pump might as well be a foreign country to me, since I never seem to get any farther west than Target at Libbie.

Nonetheless, I thought, as a veteran of the Whole Foods in Charlottesville, I wouldn't be that impressed with the new one here in Richmond.  I wanted to go to the press opening the day before the official one, but someone forgot to register me and the only tours they had left were after 5:00 pm.  With my demanding chauffeur schedule (thank you, Richmond Ballet), that just wasn't going to work.  It probably would have been a good idea, however, to do few little desensitization exercises before I went today. The visual overload was profound. Not to mention the number all those choices did on my psyche.

I can barely believe how much I spent on dry-aged beef.  Even with the $10 discount if you spent $40 or more (!) at the meat counter, it was a very, very foolish thing to do. Ditto the avocado oil, the Pellegrino sodas (lemon), the chocolate, the duck, the many different kinds of greens, and the fish--particularly bad since I was overcharged $5/pound for it (I know, I know). Please don't tell any of the many CSA's I belong to that I was there.  I'm deeply ashamed of betraying them like this.

However.

Whole Foods is, indeed, very far away. That's good for me and good for everyone out there in Edge City.  I don't need to waste the gas and wallow in regret on a regular basis.  I think Ellwood Thompson will be just fine when the excitement dies down, and its carbon-conscious customers start to feel as guilty as I do. Actually, they've probably all beat me to it.

Ukrop's, I'm confident, will again up their game.  They always do, and I love them for that.  With its expansion, we know E-T is already on top of the new competition, and I'm grateful for their foresight.  It's a great big new world out there in the grocery store universe!

In addition, the two stores have one thing that Whole Foods has yet to understand is a deal breaker for most Richmonders: Bag boys. Or bag people. Or maybe bag-granddads. Who sometimes sing.  Richmonders like to chat AND they don't like to push carts in parking lots, so the bag carrier serves a unique and much overlooked social/utilitarian function in the daily rounds of local life.

In conclusion, I'd like to thank Whole Foods for coming to Richmond, or at least coming near our dear city. Even though I don't have the time or money or mental fortitude to shop your aisles, just knowing you're there makes the food world better for everybody. I like choice, even if I choose to abstain.

Comments

[Ann]

We haven't been out there yet - the gas budget and the grocery budget just can't handle it. I know Peter always enjoys what he calls "visits to the food museum" where he slowly looks at each product and reads labels while the family waits not so patiently.

[janelle]

Thank god somebody out there shares my eye-boggling delight for grocery stores. Especially good ones. And Farmer Markets, where all the eye candy means I walk into people all the time. Good point, eh, it is like crack.

So what are you doing with the avocado oil?

[Teresa]

Abstain?? Surely you jest! I understand my carbon footprint will enlarge but this is one I will somehow be forced to manage. Driving to Fairfax or DC for the past 8 years to gain access to Whole Foods was surely a pain in the $$$ but I only went 4-5 times a year with a huge ice chest in the trunk. Now that they are in Short Pump is it possible that I can make myself feel 'small footed'? I also went a bit mad while shopping there on opening day. My plan was to spend $50 and not a cent more. I failed. Ya know Brandon I will be required to shop there weekly due to the 'ingredient short list'. Sliced white bread with only flour, water, yeast and sugar. Boxed cake mix with only 6 ingredients. Oops - this is not my blog this belongs to Brandon!! I agree with you Brandon. Whole Foods is a welcome addition to Richmond. Now for Trader Joe's......

Argh!! Perhaps you could start a 12 step program for grocery store addicts?? I'd come to meetings....... Can you say Skyr?? OMG!!!

[Brandon]

Good question, Janelle, good question. Um . . .

I must confess, Teresa, I was back at Whole Foods yesterday. That makes exactly 24 hours that I was able to resist its allure. And I was thinking about something I wanted to pick up there today.

[veron]

You know where I live Brandon, so you know I don't feel guilty about driving to Whole Foods because it's about 2 miles away :). The first two times I went I spent two hours each...like a little girl checking out the selection of candy...
I brought home an ostrich egg which I will use for show and tell before I turn it into an omelet or ice cream.
Enjoy your dry-aged beef :D!

[veron]

oh...I forgot to add that I still refused to buy the almost $5 black mission figs when the hubby got it for 2/$5 at the Fresh Market!

[Deborah Dowd]

We stopped at the Whole Foods on our way back from the mountains on Sunday- big mistake! It was packed and I couldn't leisurely peruse the aisles the way I wanted to. However,it didn't stop us from buying about $40 worth of cheeses (okay, okay,I know it was a bit much!)
I did find that the bulk food section at Short Pump was not as extensive as the Charlottesville store (a disappointment)

[TeresaF]

*snort* I drive up from Newport News. Then again, I used to drive to the Alexandria store, which is the best Whole Foods store I have ever visited.