Whole Story

When it comes to 'Whole Steals'.... That might be just a bit of a stretch at my local store (Toronto, ON). But I am a regular customer who really appreciates the Whole Foods commitment to organic, fair trade, local etc., and am ready to pay a bit extra for that. I think in many areas of the store, the prices have become much more competitive in recent years, especially through the 365 lines which are much more extensive here than they used to be. If there was one product I would say you have price problem on, its Organic butter. Unfortunately, you don't sell the 365 Organic butter in Canada (at least in Toronto); at $9.00 a pound, its a bit steep. I can find organic butter at other stores (their private label) for about $1.00 to $1.50 less per pound. Best value has to be on the salad packs, dressings, and the natural pork which to me are at comparable prices to any other grocer, but better quality.

For a while I thought that Whole Foods was a pricey store until I did a little comparison shopping of my own. The produce was same or less than my local supermarket. Besides that the produce was much fresher. I like that Whole Foods supports a lot of local farms and businesses. It not only benefits our physical health but the financial health of the community. Other products were also reasonably priced - you definitely get what you pay for at Whole Foods. I also liked that no matter what time of the day I go the shelves and produce areas are well stocked and all fruits and veggies are fresh. The smell alone makes you want to eat healthy. I only wish that there was a Whole Foods nearer to me. Thank you and keep up the good work. Loretta

Let's acknowledge the 800 pound elephant in the room. WFM has the unfortunate moniker of "Whole Paycheck" attached to it, and has for many years. It is largely although not totally undeserved. 1) Let's acknowledge that WFM is a premium food market and shopping experience. One will inevitably pay more for such an experience. 2) Let's acknowledge that WFM takes extreme measures to ensure the freshness and quality of its products. One will inevitably pay more for these products. Great. So how does one explain the myriad of private label 365 products that are beyond competively priced. I'm thinking about 365 brand EVOO in particular, or 365 brand marina sauce. The latter, at a mind boggling $1.99/bottle, is a staple in my house. 365 brand frozen pizzas are also very inexpensive. And what about the fact that the Rosie's organic boneless skinless breasts in my local CA WFM are less expensive than the Safeway brand organic boneless skinless chicken breast. A NY Times article I read recently had a skewed perspective from a customer who said one can only save money at a Whole Foods by eating rice and beans. Not true. Yes, one does need to see what's on sale and be judicious. Case in point, I wasn't willing to spend $12.99/pound (or was it $13.99/pound) for flank steak, but the round bone lamb chops, at $5.99/pound, were very competitively priced, and beautiful. WFM gets some of my shopping dollars...not most, and not all. But I will vigorously defend any inaccurate claims that WFM gouges its customers, and appreciate its efforts to convey the value it provides customers. This value has been noticeable long before the current economic situation began manifesting itself.

@Eguled We initially did not approve your comment because, in general, we answer specific pricing questions offline by connecting the commenter with their local store. But since our blog entry was specifically about price competitiveness, we agree with you that we unfairly didn’t allow the comment. It’s here now and we are working with the store to post a reply. Thanks for writing.

@Ingemar, Thanks for sharing your concerns with us about pricing on Green Foods Green Magma Plus. We do our best to be price competitive and we apologize that isn’t coming through to you right now. We want to share some general information here about our pricing, but your best bet to handle your specific issue is to talk to the Team Leader for the Whole Body team at the Whole Foods Market store where you shop. We are a decentralized company and much of our product buying and distribution is handled on a regional basis. Your local store’s Whole Body Team Leader will be best positioned to check into your specific price concerns. We try to give the best price we can everyday and our regional coordinators do a great deal of comparison shopping and industry research to ensure that we are offering competitive prices. So why do prices vary between retailers? It depends on a few things, including the overhead costs of the retailer (rent, labor costs and employee benefits are big ones – including number of employees staffing the store and the benefits and rates of pay those employees earn). Another big piece of the puzzle is cost of goods. That means how much the retailer pays to their vendors for the item you want to buy. Volume makes a difference. If we sell a lot of a certain product, then chances are our costs will be lower from the vendor and then our retail price can be lower too. Also, we may have a Brand A vitamins at better price than the same vitamins in Brand B because we sell more of Brand B and that volume helps lower their price. It often is helpful to check out other brands and it’s smart to ask our team members for guidance on the best deals in the store. Here’s a test you may want to try: instead of looking at one product that you purchase, look at the overall cost of about 20 items and compare those same 20 items to our competitors. We do this test all the time. On those products, some will probably be less at our stores and a few may be a bit higher. But on the overall 20 items, we aim to be competitively priced. Sometimes we get asked about price comparisons to online sites. We don’t try to match prices of online retailers like we do local competitors. Their expenses work off of a completely different model than ours – going for huge volume of sales with low overhead and loss leaders drawing in business. (A “loss leader” is a product that they lose money on in order to get you in to buy something else that they make money on. You’ll see this with bricks and mortar competitors too.) Online is certainly a way that people choose to go. We believe our stores offer other advantages. We are a physical store that you can walk into and actually look at and pick up the products, discuss them with our knowledgeable team members, try them out and even easily return them if not satisfied. Did we mention no shipping and handling? We hope this has provided a bit of the behind-the-scenes look at our pricing. Again, we encourage you to contact your local Whole Body Team Leader with your concerns about Green Foods Green Magma Plus. If our pricing is out of line with your local competitive market, we definitely want to know! We greatly appreciate your support of Whole Foods Market and encourage you to continue helping us be a better store with your comments and questions.

my mother and i started shopping at whole foods in san maTEO EVERY SINCE I WAS 3 YEARS OLD!!! WE LOVE THAT ITS FAMILY ORIENTED. it is a beautiful experience to bring family together.

How can I find out the price for goose per kilo? I have spent twenty minutes now trying to find out via your website. Without success.

I was just wondering if it's possible to track the prices of Whole Foods Produce prices...