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Cultural capitalism sucks

2&2 Slider To Leyritz said:
Oh it is defintiely too expensive, and I do think that is a specifically contemplated part of their business model. People will pay extra for things just to say they do, and that attitude overlaps with their existing hipster, yuppie, and and soccer mom clientele. So they intentionally charge more than they have to, because they know some people will pay it. It's like why does the yuppie go to Morton's ... is the food any better than probably 12 other steakhouses in the same city that are 1/2 the price? Not really. But he goes there partly so that he can say "last night we were eating at Morton's and ..." And is the Louie Vutton bag that the soccer mom carries any better than a purse from Kohl's? Hell no, but she'll pay 50 times the cost just to be able to wag it around. So if Whole Foods goes under, then another similar place will rise up with purposefully high prices to take its place. There is a distinct market for douchiness that isn't going away.
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Aside from the 'douchiness' angle, I agree with this mostly. If you do watch that video, you'll see it fits a lot of this. The Starbucks tag "You're not just buying a cup of coffee, you're buying a lifestyle" is essentially saying you can buy into a way of being. So people see you with a starbucks to-go cup and immediately know something about your status. The Whole Foods bag is ubiquitous in my neighborhood, but a big part of that is that there isn't another grocery store within 15-20 blocks. I can drive to Trader Joe's and save a little $, but that place is always a shitshow.
 
Decided to swing by Whole Foods HQ after work to grab dinner and check out the talent. Thanks for the heads up Townie!
 
TownieDeac said:
Aside from the 'douchiness' angle, I agree with this mostly. If you do watch that video, you'll see it fits a lot of this. The Starbucks tag "You're not just buying a cup of coffee, you're buying a lifestyle" is essentially saying you can buy into a way of being. So people see you with a starbucks to-go cup and immediately know something about your status. The Whole Foods bag is ubiquitous in my neighborhood, but a big part of that is that there isn't another grocery store within 15-20 blocks. I can drive to Trader Joe's and save a little $, but that place is always a shitshow.
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It all goes along with a larger cultural ethos exacerbated by social media - in our society it is more important to be seen as good/doing good than to actually do the hard work of doing good. So we change our facebook status to the cause du jour (Kony, childhood cancer, etc.), buy toms or product (red) shirts that proclaim we bought the socially conscious product, not really bothering to either educate ourselves on the issue or make any lasting lifestyle change that would alter the system - more to project to the world the kind of person we want to be seen as rather than changing to actually become that person.
 
TownieDeac said:
Aside from the 'douchiness' angle, I agree with this mostly. If you do watch that video, you'll see it fits a lot of this. The Starbucks tag "You're not just buying a cup of coffee, you're buying a lifestyle" is essentially saying you can buy into a way of being. So people see you with a starbucks to-go cup and immediately know something about your status. The Whole Foods bag is ubiquitous in my neighborhood, but a big part of that is that there isn't another grocery store within 15-20 blocks. I can drive to Trader Joe's and save a little $, but that place is always a shitshow.
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isn't this why the ice bucket challenge works and why suzy komen made a bazillion dollars for a middle of the road cancer?
 
ImTheCaptain said:
isn't this why the ice bucket challenge works and why suzy komen made a bazillion dollars for a middle of the road cancer?
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Insofar as it convinces some politicians that funding biomedical research is unimportant in the face of high levels of private funding, I could see that.
 
Also the hummus tag is utterly perfect. I eat so much Whole Foods hummus. An unreasonable amount by any account.
 
TownieDeac said:
You can eat very healthily and cheaply off of Whole Foods. My grocery bill, when I wanted it to, was <10% more expensive than the Shop Rite I used to go to when I lived in South Philly. Now that Whole Foods is the only walkable option in my neighborhood, it's where I go for all my shopping. My bills haven't gone that high. The temptation just becomes to buy more things you don't have at other stores. It's not more expensive than going to a good butcher.

I miss having a big yard where I can grow my own food.
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You can eat just as healthily, and save 10% off your food expenses by shopping at a regular grocery store. Just because you go to Harris Teeter doesn't mean you have to buy 10lbs of ground beef and a case of Mountain Dew.

Whole Foods does everything right besides provide a product people want, they should go under.
 
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The Whole Foods in SouthPark has an excellent beer and wine bar, seriously. Dirt cheap for great draft beer.
 
TownieDeac said:
http://eater.com/archives/2014/09/16/whole-foods-is-struggling-who-knew.php

Whole Foods is struggling, which sucks. They have the best employment practices of any big grocery chain, their supply chain is responsibly sourced, and their corporate ethos is admirable. The issue is that these ideals don't scale well against cost-cutting competitors.

This saddens me, and leads me back to a video I've watched a lot.



Thoughts?
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Jesus, I wanted to watch the video but that dude is unlistenable
 
WFcatamount22 said:
You can eat just as healthily, and save 10% off your food expenses by shopping at a regular grocery store. Just because you go to Harris Teeter doesn't mean you have to buy 10lbs of ground beef and a case of Mountain Dew.

Whole Foods does everything right besides provide a product people want, they should go under.
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yeah, but if you shop at Giant or Harris Teeter you're a slave to the MAN
 
No love for Fresh Market? I hit them all the time for things you simply can't get anywhere else.
 
My go to market here is a family owned chain of about 7-10 supermarkets in the LA basin called Jons. It is wild. They pride themselves on having products from all over the world at good prices. Their deli has everything from Philly's Dietz & Watson to Egyptian cheese to Russian sausages and Hungarian salami. They make homemade salsa, sausages, chorizo. They have booze and candies from all over the world. Their fruits and veggies are rally good. About every other week, you can get two pineapples for $3.
 
94Deac said:
No love for Fresh Market? I hit them all the time for things you simply can't get anywhere else.
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like what?

Very rarely, I will hit Fresh Market for a really nice cut of meat for a special occasion, like a beef tenderloin for a big Christmas dinner. Other than that I find the place to be extremely overpriced and there's nothing much there that drives me to drop the extra dollars.
 
94Deac said:
No love for Fresh Market? I hit them all the time for things you simply can't get anywhere else.
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I live about a mile from a FM, I pretty much only go there for meat/fish though. Their meat/fish, 90% of the time, is a cut above any other store near me. I might buy one or two other things there if it saves me a trip to Ingles/Harris Teeter, but rarely do I buy anything from there that isn't meat/convenience items snagged while buying meat.
Of course, that being said, unless it's chicken (for which I see no reason to pay a premium for) I almost exclusively buy meat from FM
 
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Deacon923 said:
like what?

Very rarely, I will hit Fresh Market for a really nice cut of meat for a special occasion, like a beef tenderloin for a big Christmas dinner. Other than that I find the place to be extremely overpriced and there's nothing much there that drives me to drop the extra dollars.
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Certain sauces, canned items, cheeses, and dairy/meats/seafood/deli. They have a fantastic selection of vinegars, oils, pastas, and pickles. Brands you just can't get at Kroger or Publix. And that's what they're targeting.
 
Man I love this board. Professionals who graduated from a leading university sneering at Whole Foods because they can save 10% at a regular store, and waving off the customers who do shop there as trendy phonies, who later on will toss the jacket of their $800 suit into the back seat of their luxury SUV and head off to drink craft beers at $7 a pop while playing golf at a private course with a $1000 set of Pings in a Nike golf shirt and rag on people for being trendy. Fucking love it
 
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