so a friend recently told me that Whole Foods does this totally sneaky thing where they’ll put a bunch of similarly priced items together on the shelf, and include one item that has no pricing info….and the sneaky part is that the item that’s unpriced is SO much more expensive than all the rest! and it’s easy to think that it’s priced similar to everything around it or mistake another item’s pricing and throw it in your basket and then not notice that you’ve paid $23 freakin dollars for a bottle of balsamic vinegar. I’ve been keeping my eyes out and he’s totally right! I’ve done a little bit of my own investigating (read: bringing unmarked items to the cashier and finding out the prices) and every single time the item has been significantly more than the things around it! (in one case from the bulk section all other trail mix was between 5.99-8.99/lb and this one was $15.99/lb!) there’s a reason everyone jokes that whole foods should be called “whole paycheck” but i do believe there are ways to shop reasonably there (refer back to this post for more tips!)
* photo by lou. isn’t it amazing if i do say so myself?
sneaky whole foods!! I never noticed that, but now I'll be checking!
Great to know! Thanks, Sarah! (And yes, amazing photo
Ok, thats bonkers!! I swear thats probably happened to me a gazillion times! When I'm in a rush I don't pay attention if the item I throw in my basket has a price sticker or not, and I've wondered many times why my total seems so high. I've heard that Whole Foods takes part in some other questionable practices, that they label foods "organic" when they are far from that and they are not as supportive of smaller, family farms as they have us believe. Grrrr.
Thanks for sharing
<3 Kate
http://www.theforgetfulwife.com
you have to check all frozen labels from whole foods items too — tons of them are "a product of china", be careful! thanks for the tip
Oh – Fancy That.
thanks for the heads up ladies! argh! i hate hearing more bad news about whole foods. farmers markets are the way to go when you can i think, and then whole foods for what you can't get there…. c'mon whole foods, get it together!!!
i love that photograph. i only just found your blog through design sponge a few days back and had been looking at lou's work on his site. can i ask where he took that picture?
I KNEW IT!! That just happened to me with their coffee, and I was so pissed!! No more autopilot shopping at Whole Foods.
I've had a similar experience and I've also noticed that they will rip you off at the meat and deli counter as well…make sure the label they put on the meat matches what you ordered. Several times they have used a label for a more expensive product, and of course I don't notice until I get home.