America’s Angriest Store

[Mosby]

I’ve shopped at Whole Foods in every time zone, in at least 10 different cities: LA, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Austin, Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, DC and Richmond, VA. I love Whole Foods. Scratch that, I love the products Whole Foods sells, no matter what other people might have to say about them. Maybe the simplest way to phrase it is, I love whole foods. Whole Foods as an experience, that’s a whole other matter.

But here’s what sucks for Whole Foods: it has nothing to do with their employees. Across the board, across the country, they have been helpful, knowledgeable, and cordial. I’ve received phenomenal service in every department: from the beer fridge to the butcher counter to the bulk aisle. I now know everything there is to know about lentils, for instance, thanks to a guy stocking roma tomatoes in the produce section of the downtown Milwaukee store, who took the time to explain why he used red lentils for his curried lentil dish a couple nights before.

The problem with Whole Foods is their regular customers. They are, across the board, across the country, useless, ignorant, and miserable. They’re worse than miserable, they’re angry. They are quite literally the opposite of every Whole Foods employee I’ve ever encountered. Walk through any store any time of day—but especially 530pm on a weekday or Saturday afternoon during football season—and invariably you will encounter a sneering, disdainful horde of hipster Zombies and entitled 1%ers.

https://medium.com/race-class/d778c31aa9be

[MineralMan]

1. But it sounds like the writer is one of its regular customers.

Is that writer one of the angry ones, too?

[Iggo]

2. Also useless, ignorant, and miserable.

[L0oniX]

3. !

[MineralMan]

5. Sounds like my local supermarket on any

weekend afternoon. That's why I shop early in the morning, during the week. Nobody in the store. It works a treat.

[HipChick]

10. I am with you...I only shop during the week, mid morning or early afternoon

when folks are still stuck at work..

One of the advantages of working from home..

I had an emergency yesterday, and had to go to the store...people were rude,nasty..block the aisle with their carts, and would not move when politely asked...reminded me of why I don't go there at weekends..

[MineralMan]

14. If I have to shop on a weekend afternoon,

I head for the "gourmet" grocery in a nearby tony neighborhood. I don't buy much there, because its prices are about 20% higher overall, but it's never crowded. Probably because its prices are about 20% higher. Still, when a guy needs a gallon of milk and some bread, it's a lot more peaceful there.

My problem is with it's bakery section. All those expensive goodies right out there on display. I'm afraid I bought a box of very pricey mini cinnamon rolls yesterday while I was in there. Tch-tch on me.

[HipChick]

17. LOL! Sunday is my cheat day anyway...

A little bit of what you fancy does you good anyway...

[MineralMan]

19. Sadly, I've been working on a deadline.

By the time I got back upstairs to the kitchen, half of the mini cinnamon rolls were mysteriously absent. Neither of our dogs looked guilty, but I believe I saw crumbs on my wife's chair.

I shall have to speak pointedly with her about MY mini cinnamon rolls.

[awoke_in_2003]

30. My days off are Sunday and Monday...

it is great having a weekday off.

[Scootaloo]

11. Sure sounds like it

[Scootaloo]

25. Uh.... right

[cheapdate]

4. The irony that the writer himself is a Whole Foods shopper

apparently escapes him.

[distantearlywarning]

6. Seems like the author fits in well with the other customers he despises so much

Self-absorbed, entitled, whiny, and likely very unpleasant to interact with in person. This entire article was very funny, but probably not for the reason the author hoped.

[marions ghost]

7. Divisive crap

I have my own issues with Holy Foods (mainly pretending to be so pure when they're not exactly) --but their customers are no worse than customers anywhere else.

A Saturday afternoon in football season is NOT a good time to go shopping anywhere.

[Mosby]

13. I think he's trying to be funny.

I don't shop there, I have a lot of other choices and prefer not to suppert some RW nut.

[marions ghost]

16. Unfunny &

Divisive. I know people from every walk of life who occasionally go to WF for something or other.
This article smacks of all that rightwing "elitist" rhetoric.

But I see you've made it about your pledge to avoid right wing businesses. Mkay.

We're all pigs at the end of the trough in Murka.

[AngryAmish]

20. I know exactly one person who solely shops at WF.

She is kinda nutty but nice as the day is long.

WF is for certain specialty items. Seafood, coffee, some cheeses. The wine is good. Nice beer selection but others are better.

Oh, they also have the best chicken nuggets.

[marions ghost]

31. Right it's a specialty store

for some things you can't find elsewhere. The food bar is usually good. I try to go quickly past the bakery. For ordinary stuff I go to other groceries and Costco.

So to tar everybody in a WF with a big elitist "1%" brush is uninformed.

-----------

Whole Foods is listening to consumers RE GMO food and GMO labeling, and for that reason alone I will continue to support it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/08/whole-foods-gmo-labeling-2018_n_2837754.html

Whole Foods has announced that by 2018, all products in U.S. and Canada stores must be labeled if they contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This is the first national grocery store to set a deadline from GMO labeling.

“We are putting a stake in the ground on GMO labeling to support the consumer’s right to know,” said Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, in a press release. “The prevalence of GMOs in the U.S. paired with nonexistent mandatory labeling makes it very difficult for retailers to source non-GMO options and for consumers to choose non-GMO products. Accordingly, we are stepping up our support of certified organic agriculture, where GMOs are not allowed, and we are working together with our supplier partners to grow our non-GMO supply chain to ensure we can continue to provide these choices in the future.”

Genetically modified organism have been manipulated through genetic engineering by introducing changes into DNA structure.

This announcement comes at a time where interest in GMO labeling is at an all-time high. During the November election, a mandatory GMO labeling initiative -- Prop 37 -- was introduced in California. Millions of dollars poured in from various corporations such as Monsanto and PepsiCo against the ballot measure, which was ultimately defeated.

A recent poll by The Huffington Post in partnership with YouGov found that a huge majority -- 82 percent -- of Americans want labels for GMO food.

[Scootaloo]

21. "I [...] prefer not to suppert some RW nut."

[undeterred]

8. ...

[MineralMan]

9. Not even close. You want an angry store?

Stop in at the convenience store at the BP station not far from my home in St. Paul after midnight. It's on a main drag and on the edge of a somewhat troubled neighborhood. The late night patrons are not a friendly lot. In fact a few weeks ago, a customer there got shot by another customer for some offense or another.

That's angry. I only patronize that store during daylight hours, and rarely, even then.

[Scootaloo]

12. And here I thought the local Chevron / Meth Lab was a scary place

Well... it is, but nobody's been shot...

[MineralMan]

15. The after midnight crowd there is very different from

the daytime crowd. It has something to do, I suspect, with the three nearby dive bars. Nothing good happens in that entire neighborhood after midnight, I'm afraid.

I don't go there much, and I turn in early.

[jmowreader]

18. No. Not even close.

The angriest store in America is the end of the Home Depot, Lowe's or Menards that has the things to fix your broken house. No one wants to fix the hole in the roof. They don't want to spend money or time on it, and they're always pissed off at how much of both it's going to take. But they HAVE to do it. It's worse than paying taxes because everyone understands they have to pay taxes.

[Zorra]

22. I wouldn't be caught dead in a Whole Foods. I shop at Natural Foods Grocers,

Trader Joe's, New Frontiers, and I prefer natural foods Co-ops, but there are none in my area.

Whole Foods is a scam joint that takes advantage of Republicans and RW Libertarians tragically struggling to look hip.

[Paladin]

23. If a Whole Foods store sets you off like this, seek professional help. (nt)

[frazzled]

26. No hipster zombies or 1%ers at my Whole Foods

Now, maybe if I shopped at the Lincoln Park WF I might run into a few of those types, but hardly that many. I shop at the Roosevelt Road WF, however, and I'm more likely to run into an African-American grandma and a couple of Columbia College students in the bulk aisle than I am any zombies.

To out the false classism of this article, I might also point out that 1%ers rarely shop themselves: they have "help" to do that for them.

I'm beginning to think people use the term "one percenters" to refer to anyone earning more than, say, $60K per year. To be in the top 1% you had to have an adjusted gross income (that means after all your deductions and shit) of more than $388,905 for the year. Not wealth, but income for that particular year. And that's the rock bottom of the 1%. It goes up--way up--at the top of the 1%.

[distantearlywarning]

28. It's laughable - the author shops there himself!

But he doesn't think of himself as a 1%-er. Every single other person in the store earns almost 400K a year - he knows it! But not him. He's not one of THOSE people, no! LOL!

I have seen this lately too - this sincerely held (and completely crazypants) belief that anyone who earns more than you do is a "1%-er" and therefore responsible for all the ills of the world. The reality is that most of us don't know *anyone* who is actually a 1%-er (unless you live in DC or SF or some other place where the COL is so high that 400K is merely an upper-middle class salary).

[chade]

29. Maybe everyone is angry at that WF...

Because they have to live in Wrigleyville all the time.

[jsr]

27. Meh

[LeftyMom]

33. That store is awesome.

Unlike Whole Foods, which is overpriced and has weird gaps in their selection.

[Liberal_in_LA]

32. not true. richer than average but not mean

[Nay]

34. I don't see this. I occasionally shop at the Richmond store and I've never

seen 'angry' customers. I wonder if the writer is just seeing himself in a mirror or something. Every once in a while, every store will have an asshole customer, but I don't see whole foods as being a special magnet for them.

[BainsBane]

35. I don't shop at Whole Paycheck

There are so many better options: coops that sell locally produced eggs and meat, produce in the summer. I also frequent local bakeries and butchers, small shops. I shop at Trader Joes for some things. their prices are good. I think I've set foot in the local Whole Foods twice.