Whole Foods Market

Most people have heard of this chain of stores. I shop here alot. I personally wish they'd have more organic produce & products though. For one small example, they have tons of non-organic prepared hummus products but not one organic option/version, even though the same brands make an organic version, grrrr. I don't really understand why they (and some other big chain stores) have TONS of non-organic products, organic is not much more expensive, and why would their customers go here for non-organic stuff when they could just go to any regular grocery store? Maybe because it's at least GMO-free I guess. But that's not good enough nowadays, why is everyone so ignorant? Apparently it's okay to eat the worst pesticides/herbicides the world has ever had including glyphosates, as long as it's GMO-free. Hello world, you should go organic, duh. The whole thing urks me. Whole Foods hasn't made the organic commitment. They do have alot of organic produce though so I do find alot of what I want, but you have to double check the labels - I accidentally bought non-organic apples once, dagnabbit! I threw them out, I won't even put that stuff in my compost pile. They have food you can buy and eat in the store (they have tables), but I've never done that so I can't comment on this aspect. I don't eat meat, but they sell alot of meat. Sometimes the whole store kind of smells a little bit like a fish market lol but whatever, it's understandable. I've ordered some bulk cases of stuff and they were efficient about that. I like their house brand of tomato sauce & apple sauce.


Updated from previous review on 2016-04-11

Bend's store is mid-size to smallish, so selection is pretty limited. The prices are high. There's a small cafe inside the store. The selection of non-food items (like clothing, candles, etc) is very limited which is disappointing. Cashiers have a bit of an attitude. I only shop here for specialty items because of the high expense. Wish the store had a more welcoming attitude. I do like that they have a free snack choice (apple, banana) for children under 12 to eat while shopping and they do offer lots of free samples to let you have a taste of something before you buy, which are great features. I have been in much better Whole Foods Markets in California for selection. If you want healthy items for a good price, though, shop at Trader Joe's in Bend.

I notice more and more vegan/gluten free products disappearing from here all the time. The cafeteria area is useless as the vegetarian items are in the same cases as meat items (and probably prepared on the same surfaces) allowing for cross contamination. I would not think of touching any of their prepped food unless they started keeping it in a completely separate section.

I always find what I need at Whole Foods and I love that the employees know what they are talking about. :)