Whole Foods, The Amazon Effect

It's possible to locally source fresh meat right at home.

Sometimes that Patsy Ramsey shit works. Sometimes it doesn't.

They carry more cheese in cheese-sweat heavy plastic, too. I've stopped buying cheese there. I can't get chicken that was ground in-store anymore.

Better getting meat from Australia & New Zealand than China.

I stopped shopping there after Amazon took over. Decrease in quality of food and the store was dirty.

No R4, aside from the fact that virtually no meat is exported from China, thank god, all meat from ANZAC is subject to cruelty as it all halal slaughtered.

Not to mention that ANZAC is complicit in live animal death ships to ME countries where the animals are trapped in stifling confined quarters with no water. There are videos of the animals screaming for relief. The “people” who support this trade have no souls. No, no ANZAC meat for me.

I've become more vegetarian.

I never thought I'd see the day when DLers would admit Whole Foods is no better than Aldi.

To be fair, r8, WF has worked to get there.

What is with the Aldi troll?

Their stores are laid out weirdly and everything looks like a clearance aisle.

The last time I got bagged salad from there, I nearly died of explosive diarrhea.

When you think of Aldi, think about that.

Isn't Whole Foods owned by some conservative piece of shit? Fuck them. I hope they go under.

R11 he was libertarian and yes they sold to Amazon last year.

Unless we have first hand information coming from a Whole Foods employee that was there during the transition and cites examples of Amazon making new policies to the detriment of the stores I’ll hold my judgment. Saying “the store is dirtier now” is knee-jerk frauism.

I never shop there, but my neighbor is a devotee and she was telling me that they've reduced the staff levels (and replaced a lot of veteran employees.) And that they've cut back on bulk items.

They’re always out of stuff now. A worker told me they’ve changed the way they stock so there’s no excess, nothing wasted. Practically, this also means the shelves are 1/3rd bare and you can ko longer count on them having what you went there to get. The worker also told me, happily, that the storage area is really clean now and it’s much easier for them to find stuff.

There are also all these assholes ramming through aisles for deliveries now. They’re rude and smash into people with their carts and I hate them.

I go to WF almost everyday day for breakfast at their hot bar just because is right by my house.

It has absolutely gone down the toilet since Amazon took over.

One thing I noticed about a month after Amazon bought WF is that the workers in the store were not as happy and pleasant. I think they were asked to raise their work output probably like the workers in the Amazon warehouses.

I have been shopping at Whole Foods since it opened in DC maybe 20 years ago. There were periods of time I shopped there very day.

So yes I cN tell that the quality of the store has decreased: stocking cna be a problem, certain items were reliably delicious and with quality ingredients are now not, some employees who never would have been hired in the old days are part of ataff and they are not up to the standard of the older days.

I have complained about each of these issues. I now call the store I most frequent to inquire as to delivery days before I go.

[quote]They’re always out of stuff now.

I noticed this too, especially with bulk items.

WF used to be my main store for groceries and now I barely shop there.

Farmers market all the way.

No more free samples, except on Saturday afternoons from 12-2.

Blow me, Bezos, I want my free hit of guac when I walk in the door.

I never to to Whole Foods but I went there yesterday looking for green lentils, like the French ones which they didn't have. Their prices were higher than another store, I bought the green lentils they had and then drove to Aldi to buy the rest of my stuff. Aldi has really improved over the years and I rarely get anything crappy there, plus their prices are better than anywhere else.

Stopped shopping there primarily because of Amazon.

They are opening a Sprouts near me in a few months. I've pretty much stopped shopping at Whole Foods, but I'm lucky because I have so many options for groceries.

Fill in the blank: "If it weren't for __________________, I would never have to go to Whole Foods again."

For me it's their 6-pack of 1L bottles of Italian Sparkling Water. Just $5.94, about half the usual price of San Pellegrino.

What's the thing that keep you going back to WFM?

I mean, you shouldn't be eating fish or meat anyway so...

I was in there for the first time about a month ago.I found it very cult like and uncomfortable. I gave it another try about two weeks ago and found the store uncomfortable and cult like.Two days ago I went in again and left. Just a very uncomfortable atmosphere and little too cultlike.The place kind for gives me the creeps.

My WF has also reduced the cheese selection. You can no longer buy any American or Canadian cheddar there—and I'm in New England. Sadly, the independent supermarket in my area (Providence, RI) was sold to Stop-n-Shop this past year, and so that too has gone down the shitter. Half the stuff I was used to getting isn't available anymore, often with no adequate substitute to be had. Oh, but you can get the Stop-n-Shop generic brand of anything.

Yes r24 I agree. The Italian sparkling water is a great deal. They also have good coffee about 5 dollars a pound cheaper than Starbucks. The hot preprared food is hit or miss. Go early while it is still fresh. I noticed that the prices went down a bit lately.

WF is not as crowded as it once was. I put on my best yoga clothes and stand in the aisle with my baby in a stroller, but I'm not blocking as many customers from getting by me while I stare at the quinoa selection anymore. Ruins my day.

WF was struggling before the Amazon acquisition. The heyday for them, in my opinion, started ending around 2012-2014 or so. Prices kept going up and quality kept going down (most obvious on the hot bar and prepared foods - seemed to change a lot right around then). Also, as they grew as a threat, more competitors emerged in many markets, and the competitors tend to stock a lot of organic AND regular produce (along with regular dish soap, tide, etc...), so sometimes it's easier just to shop in those stores altogether.

This new inventory system sounds absolutely ridiculous. WF had stock problems long before this too. Some stores were much worse than others about stock. Grocery stores can decide to cut the waste & that's great - but then if it forces customers to go to 2-3 different stores, wouldn't they rather just cut WF out of the equation.

[quote]Prices kept going up and quality kept going down (most obvious on the hot bar and prepared foods - seemed to change a lot right around then).

It's been ages since I bought anything from their hot bar, but I remember their prepared food always being full of salt and pepper (often cayenne pepper). I find that's the case when taste is lacking (in food).

There’s always huge checkout lines now. My husband waited around 20 mins the last two times he was there because they are understaffed. He complained to the manager who basically said there was nothing he could do. My husband told him to open up another checkout station and work it himself or pull someone off the floor. The guy looked at him like he was nuts.

[quote]often cayenne pepper

Yes, I've noticed the same thing. They make many things too spicy, for no reason. They also got rid of a lot of items that they had for years. A long time ago, I got a survey from them & replied - and to my surprise the store manager wrote back to say that he agrees the hot bar declined & they are forced into a gross margin game with food weight (like mashed potatoes, lasagna, heavy / cheap Indian food and so on) while getting rid of the boneless chicken breast & many other things.

There were two near me, and strangely, one had an amazing hot bar but the other one was always crap. I am not sure if they were allowed to manage them independently back then. Way way back in the day... around 2007-10, it was where tons of staff from Mass General (Boston) and surrounding offices would eat. The hot bar was basically their cafeteria & the food was very good. It declined drastically since then (less variety too)...and few people go there anymore. They'd rather just eat hospital cafeteria food at this point.... so that tells you something to put it mildly.

The comments are funny. IWF is the closest grocery store to me and I occasionally go to other stores here in DC> Nothing much has changed. They no longer make the very uneven guacamole and have re-arranged the produce but it's really about the same. They use many of the same vendors who service Giant and Safeway---the main difference is the more rapid turnover. WF has never guaranteed you'd get sweet berries and the onions and garlic often aren't very good. The baked goods have always been uneven and the selction and even recipes vary a bit by store. The most noticable chnage has not been the selection or pricing but tghe fewer numbers of samples! I'm sure Bezos, like any new owner, has felt compelled to move some dustaround and look for some economies, but WF has always been overrated and just the place for people whove never really learned how to shop.

[quote]just the place for people whove never really learned how to shop.

Where did you buy Parmigiano-Reggiano near Dupont/Logan before Whole Foods opened?

I still go there for packaged salad, apple cider & liquid soap. But that's about it. My local fruit/vegetable market has way better quality & cheaper prices than WF.

[quote]No more free samples, except on Saturday afternoons from 12-2.

I went in today (for the first time in MANY years; mostly to check out how the Amazon Prime discount works) and they had some kind of free sample/tasting counter.

There were four "Express Checkout" lanes; not a single one was staffed or open. The regular lanes that were open all had at least four people waiting in line. For the prices they charge, I think we have a right to expect better service.

Daily shopper here. There are many times they are out of basic stuff: eggs, butter, heavy cream, oatmeal. Their water fountain doesn’t work. I’ve run into some nasty attitude from some of their employees, although some are very pleasant. One time their ground beef was absolutely riddled with ground-up bone, which I didn’t discover until dinner was cooked and served. I was SO ANGRY and all the customer service person did was refund the price of the ground beef. I’m still salty about that because I had to cook a whole new dinner and wasted a bunch of other ingredients (it was a lasagna).

On the plus side: I’m happy with their specials/sales. They employee dead people. They have a great deal on avocados and about half the time they are perfectly ripe.

^^ DEAF people.

[quote]I had to cook a whole new dinner and wasted a bunch of other ingredients (it was a lasagna).

Not lasagne. Don't they KNOW?

[quote] Sometimes that Patsy Ramsey shit works. Sometimes it doesn't.

Especially when someone doesn't know how to sign the fucking signature right, like R1

It's slid rapidly downhill. The hot bar used to be really nice at our store and it's now the same shit for a month. They don't rotate in any of the nice selections that they used to.

They killed a local company that had been supplying 30 stores with packaging, because Amazon took all of that over. Cunts.

I used to eat at the hot bar 3 or 4 times a week. Now it's too much Indian food, and this rather delicious stew called Chicken Stufado. But everyone picks out the chicken and leaves the veg behind. I once cut a bitch over it. She ran shrieking to the customer service to complain about me, whereupon I followed her and let them know why I'd gotten in her face. Guess whose side they took.

Looked for sun dried tomatoes only 1 package was available. No nutritional yeast and took a week to come in. And no dry roasted peanuts and no fresh chocolate PB. Just no stock at all.

I am surprised about the comment about cult like atmosphere. I think it feels like Walmart.

I’ve been wondering about hoe WF has changed since Amazon took over. I stopped going around that time because I expected the worst. Looks like I was right.

Though there were a few optimists when Amazon's purchase of WF was announced, I think the majority were correct in thinking that this would not go well. The two cultures were like oil and water.

Amazon wanted to make it seem all fun in the beginning when they had all the signs up & were selling oranges for 25 cents or whatever discount they had for a few weeks during the rollout. Then the leaks about the inventory system conversion started coming out, among other things. It certainly didn't take long.

Amazon also needs to realize that once they lose these customers (to other grocery stores that have stepped up their organic and specialty produce), they are likely not getting them back... unlike their website, which has replaced a lot of retail. The value in amazon.com is completely different than the value that the consumer gets from Whole Foods and it seems like they are not understanding this at all.

R44 hardly WalMart is always stocked

The last time I was in a WF was in 2004 and it was the WF just off Van Ness in San Fran. I loved going into that store on my SFO layovers and dragging bags of food and other stuff back to Orlando where I was based. It was like food shopping at Neiman Marcus to me.

I live absolutely nowhere near a WF, so I am a Publix shopper, but I always held hope that some day I would get to shop at WF again.

You guys have shown me that I am not really missing anything. Thanks.

[quote]They employee dead people

I knew there was a reason why their customer service went downhill.

"Cultlike"? Not the one where I shop.