Whole Foods is a popular, big chain, natural grocery store. They offer a large selection of organic produce and often have sales on it. They also offer sustainable meat options. They even have a welfare grade on their meat to tell you how the animals were raised. They are going to require GMO labeling on their food, but not until 2018 which seems a bit lenient to me. They also supported Proposition 37 being passed in California. They don’t have plastic bags available, just paper bags. Overall, they seem like a company that is trying to be sustainable, even though they are a large chain grocery store and I don’t think any large chain grocery store can be environmentally sustainable, especially when they have large building (energy and resource consumers) and parking lots (promoting driving).
They also have some issues. Their CEO has made some ridiculous comments on global warming. You would think a company concerned with sustainability would think global warming is a serious issue, but who knows. Maybe it has to do with just wanting to take the easy route and there is no easy route with global warming. Also, their prices are ridiculous. There is a reason people often call them “Whole Paycheck”. This is the main reason I avoid shopping there on a consistent basis. I sometimes go to Whole Foods for meat, since their meat has good labeling or cheese because they have a very large imported cheese section. I am all about paying for more expensive quality food but Whole Foods seems to be upping the price just because they can and they know people (well off white people) will pay for it. So while Whole Foods does have good products and a great salad bar I avoid them like the plague knowing they are distorting prices.
