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.

As you can see all of these prices are substantially less than WholeFoods Market. I find this disheartening and disappointing.

I shop WholeFoods at least once a week spending between $125 and $250 a trip and as I gear up for a 30 day raw foods diet trial I expected to shop at WholeFoods even more frequently.

I understand why the produce and meats are higher at WholeFoods, you pay for quality, and I don’t have any qualms about paying more for higher quality. What does bother me is paying almost double for a vitamin supplement I can easily obtain elsewhere. I’m troubled by the results of my research into the price of this one supplement, which makes me now want to double check the prices on all supplements I’ve bought at WholeFoods along with staples such as Amy’s and frozen foods such as Kashi and Ethnic Gourmet.

Sure I could have returned the product and received a refund however by the time I realized the huge difference in the price I had already use over half the bottle.

I have already sent an email to corporate and to the Santa Monica store (basically the same information I provided here) via the contact feature on the Whole Foods website and haven’t received a response to my concern and it’s been over two weeks. At this point I don’t feel Whole Foods is concerned about losing business due to the prices of the supplements they sell

* At Whole Foods: Udo’s Choice 3-6-9 DHA Oil, size 8.5oz, costs $19.99 plus tax.

* At a competitor, Udo’s Choice 3-6-9 DHA Oil (the exact same product), size 17oz (double the amount of product!), costs $18.31 at regular price. With a readily available discount code that provides 8% off, the net price is $16.85.

Even adding $4.99 flat rate shipping for the competitor’s product, buying this item from Whole Foods is essentially paying DOUBLE for the same product!

Don’t get me wrong. I WANT to like Whole Foods.

But I would love to hear Whole Foods address the high pricing of this item.

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.

I have learned more about food and nutrition from whole foods market than i have in my 30 plus year in the food service industry.

I shop at my store everyday. i will not buy meat or produce from any one else.

since the beginning of my employment in November 2007 I have lost 20 lbs and I’m living and eating healthier.my energy level is amazing now that i eat clean, untainted foods.

The prices of our 365 organic line are about the same as the name brand stuff you find at other retailer, the difference being, theirs is not organic and probably full of preservitives and artificail colors and flavor.

i’ve done everything from fast food to fine dining and grocery retail over the past 30 years,

it is a pleasure to finally work in an establishment where i can give our customers honest answers about the quailty of our food. i love the fact that i never have to make excuses for our products. i have personally prepared foods for our cold case, hot bar and deli and i can proudly say that we do everything in house from scratch with the best ingredients. nothing is pre packaged or pre-made.

no other grocery retailer can say that!

thanks to WFM for making me a part of the family

Chef Deanna Satterwhite
Napa, CA

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