Riding out recession, Whole Foods avoids layoffs, puts local contractors to work

Emperor Norton the Second wrote:

The Sentinel article was probably bought and paid for by whole foods. I suggest people use 10 items they shop for to get a good mix. Use name brand items like Odwalla that will be in all the stores. Don't use store brands. Avoid lost leader and other sale products to get a fair contest. What you will find is that WF requires vendors to mark their products higher than the vendors do elsewhere. They want more margin. In other words, you get the same stuff for more.
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Coulrophobia wrote:

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I have "truly shopped" at all those stores, SCM. I continue to shop at WF and NL, but have dropped Staph -- a store where I was once a frequent customer. The problems at the store are not just "cosmetic". I kind of like the funky appearance of it, in fact. But there are flies in the produce section, the cut produce is prepared in a dirty, open garage or storage shed off of the parking lot, and I am pretty sure that at least some of the meat sold at the Staph meat counter as "organic" is the same, non-organic, meat the is sold by Live Oak Market (owned by the same people who run the SoL counter). This is based on somehing I witnessed at the store, something that also made me wonder about their meat handling. There are lots of reasons I no longer eat meat.
As for prices, generally speaking, much of the produce at S0L is priced lower than the competition, but not all of the dry goods or dairy. Some of the non-perishables at Staph are quite expensive. That's where the store gets much of its profits. The quality of Staph produce varies widely, and I don't trust their "organic" designation. I once saw workers removing the grower's stickers from a crate of avocados. The sign above the display said they were organic. My conclusion? Take a guess.
Staph carries a lot of odds and ends of off-brands from Eastern European or Russian federation countries (jams, pickles, canned goods, etc.). You can find some of them in their "discount row" near the meat counter. I often see these same brands heavily discounted in places like drug stores and bodegas. Sometimes small stores buy odd lots of unclaimed shipments at auctions, and I've wondered whether Staph does this. Many food items that would not pass muster with the FDA get into US stores this way, so you need to be careful. Not only can you not be sure about pesticide use (pesticides that are banned in the US), but some of these countries had heavy fallout from Chernobyl.
I'm interested to see what they do with the new location. I won't be lured back as a customer, however.

Sure thing wrote:

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I think it's safe to say you...

Whats_Up wrote:

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And how many of the 145 employees are actually new hires from Santa Cruz, and not imports from other stores?

woo hoo wrote:

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Hey, Sure thing, you so quiet since I pwn'd you!
Thanks, b/c you were just annoying.
I'll be on the lookout for your hate!

Fred wrote:

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Hey Larry, could you please explain what you mean by above average commitment to the community? What exactly are they doing?

Noogle wrote:

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I think they mean, they spend a lot of money on marketing propaganda, which is later passed on as higher prices

gopher mourning wrote:

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The ostrich eggs at WF are $30 each. Now that's a whole lotta propaganda!

Coulrophobia wrote:

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Do you think anyone ever buys those, or are they there just to add a little cache' to the place?
I suspect the latter. Someone in the store is enjoying ostrich egg omelets every time those eggs reach their sell-by date.

Coulrophobia wrote:

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Do you think anyone ever buys those, or are they there just to add a little cache' to the place?
I suspect the latter. Someone in the store is enjoying ostrich egg omelets every time those eggs reach their sell-by date.