Whole Foods Market

Hard to find anything. Products are squeezed into any available space eith no apparent rhyme or reason.

Whole Foods had an excellent selection of high quality foods in a very clean, friendly environment. Naturally, it's more expensive than Safeway, but I find it worth the extra cost.

Overrun by slow Amazon Fresh/Instacart shoppers blocking the aisles, along with staff restocking shelves during business hours. Small selection, long lines, crowded, often out of stock (good luck getting bread after 8 pm on some days). Safeway across the street is better in every regard, even if you're looking for locally grown and organic.

I normally shop at a small mom and pop because they have everything I need, but I shopped at whole foods for my Christmas meal because I did want some meat that my usual place doesn't carry and some champagne.nWhen I walked in and looked around, I thought, it's nice shopping in a place with such variety! And, I have to admit, prices were cheaper for the same things I buy at the small mom and pop (as I looked around to compare). Which is a long way for the business model to come from what I remember a decade ago, when it was dubbed whole paycheck due to its exorbitant prices.nAnyway, back to my Christmas meal: bought a two bone prime rib roast (4.5 lbs -- which was apparently small, because I have family members who also bought a 2 bone roast, which had 2 lbs more meat on it), which turned out to be about $65. Fine, I thought, because I wanted a special meal. Cooked the thing perfectly medium rare, too. However, it turned out that the meat was tough. In many spots. Not all of it, thankfully, but enough to tell that many bites were of just tough meat. That was very unfortunate. And definitely not worth $65.nSo, overall: nice selection and competitive prices to where I normally shop. Tough, expensive meat, though, and apparently small cuts. Not sure it's enough for me to want to contribute to the demise of a local mom and pop small business by shopping here, though.

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