So despite my husband declaring that it is a store inhabited by snobby old bitches, we found ourselves at Whole Foods for the third weekend in a row. And, I gotta say, I pretty much love it there. I love the produce department where you can sample sweet, tangy oranges, crisp grapes and juicy pineapple to your hearts content, the pungant cheese department where they have more cheese than I’ve ever seen in one place in my life, the abundant selection of wine, the extensive selection of meats in the meat department, the tantalizing treats in the bakery along with the fabulous selection of bread… I could go on and on and on.
But holy jeebus, it’s expensive.
We picked up a package of diapers for Liam (we don’t have quite enough cloth diapers for him to wear them full time), a bag more of the same apples we got and loved last week and a bag of oranges for $20. GULP. Still. It’s a beautiful store and I wouldn’t mind very much if I could just set up a tent and LIVE THERE.
It’s different from Wild Oats (which is what we had before) and Trader Joes (which still exists in town, as far as I know). We always felt out of place sohpping at either of those stores. Like perhaps we weren’t a part of the “club” and would be outed as total frauds. And those stores just didn’t feel quite as accessible. The aisles were crowded and unorganized, the store at large was pretty small and the selection was wee. Not so with Whole Foods. No, Whole Foods is a mecca of consumerism. And they even have a fireplace and some couches up front for if you need to sit down and take a load off for a few. Now that’s a concept I can get behind!
As we were driving home, we realized our shopping can neatly divided into one of four categories. The vast majority of our shopping is done on the supah-cheap at Walmart. Then there’s the bulk and other budget-related shopping which is done at Sam’s Club. We go to Whole Foods for our fancy-schmancy stuff. When there’s an ingredient that we’re unlikely to find elsewhere or when we really want to get quality, that’s where to go. And then we have our mid-week Emergency Shopping that is done at the Smith’s that is just five minutes down the road. It is neither cheap like Walmart so it’s out for our majority shopping and the quality isn’t that fantastic so it’s not a fancy store by any means. But it is close and that’s something neither Whole Foods or Walmart can boast.
And wow. Yes, I just toally did an entire blog post about grocery stores. It’s a slow weekend around here, what can I say?
