Whole Foods is getting back to whole foods

Finally! Whole Foods is going to refocus on whole foods!

When I lived in Nashville, we enjoyed the bulk food bins at the closest Wild Oats. They had a huge aisle full of bulk options, and the store had a delicious crunchy feel. For those of you not deeply immersed in hippie-speak, in this context, crunchy refers to the store’s catering to the health nuts, the hippies, the home-made granola types.  I might share a few characteristics of that target market myself :)

But then Whole Foods bought out and closed the Wild Oats. They re-opened their gourmet food store nearby, in a high-end outdoor mall nestled among upscale gift shops and boutiques I couldn’t afford. Gone was my long dull aisle of boring bulk bins. In their place, I could buy a thousand delicacies – an olive bar, specialty desserts, little fancy jars of jellies from England.

When I competed for grocery cart space with the other shoppers, it was clear which of us was the target market, which of us belonged. It wasn’t people who were trying to eat natural foods for their health. It wasn’t people who cared about organic food. It just didn’t seem to be people who were relieved to find a place that sells coconut oil, flax seeds, decent apples, and sugar-free full-fat yogurt all in one place.  (Okay, seriously, that is an actual grocery list from my past!)

Don’t get me wrong. I love gourmet food. I love imported delicacies. I freakin’ LOVE olive bars. But not at the expense of my precious bulk bins. I need my raw nuts, my oats, my lentils, my banana chips – and I need them in bulk.

When the Whole Foods CEO announced that they would refocus their business on healthy food rather than expensive food, I felt hopeful for the first time since we quit shopping there. Maybe Whole Foods will truly get back to its natural foods roots. (For an excellent article on the history of Whole Foods, check out this Saveur article.)

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