Whole Foods pisses me off 01/30/2010

4 Comment(s)

 

We have a supermarket chain store here in LA called Whole Foods. The name is self-explanatory, it only sells wholesome foods - You wouldn't find a bag of Dorritos anywhere in there and you definitely wouldn't dare ask if they sell cigarettes for fear of being booed at and bombarded with tomatoes.  Their products come from local farmers and are not contaminated with pesticides, artificial flavors or colors. They are completely and utterly 100% organic. So far so good right? The bad news is that you literally have to apply for a loan to shop there.

Ever since Whole Foods moved into my neighborhood, I have discovered a whole, I might add, very pasty looking community that I never knew existed.  People who shop there obviously have well paid jobs, take their health extremely seriously and feel very concerned about everything. So many petitions get signed outside their doors. But here's the other thing I have discovered...No one is very friendly in there. The staff are nice, but the customers seem to walk around with a "I am a very important person" badge pinned to their Beverly Hills vintage clothing.  They give their signatures freely in support of gay marriages, Haiti, legalizing marijuana - all things I also am in favor of  yet in the parking lot their true colors shine blindingly through their rear view mirrors. It is indisputably the meanest car park in the whole of Santa Monica. Because it's always so busy, everyone is cutting in front of each other to get that one empty parking spot. If you are backing out of a spot and almost have most of your car out, on coming cars won't stop to let you finish, they'll just whiz on past and if you bump into them they'll probably sue you for whip lash.

Yesterday, I was taking Liston to a park and wanted to get some bananas before we walked home. Because we were so close, we went into Whole Foods. While I was there, I got a bit hungry, so picked up a bite to eat and went and sat outside. Halfway through my lunch, a homeless man came up to my table and asked me for some money. I didn't actually have any because I had paid by credit card so I gave him a banana instead. Then he went to the man next to me and asked him for some money. He also said no but had no fruit to hand over. When the vagrant left, the man next to me said "He can stand, he can get a job" and that was when I knew I would NEVER go to Whole foods again.

The interesting thing is that 10 ft away there is another smaller supermarket called The 99 Cents Store. Again the name is self-explanatory. Their customers (which includes me) will use the $10 it costs for a bag of cherries at Whole Foods to buy an entire weeks shopping. Because the food and items sold are all under a dollar, there is always a steady flow of homeless people who shop there. This is where my banana bearing homeless guy went. As I sat outside Whole Foods finishing off my lunch, I realized how this strip mall was a microcosm of LA. How you can have two opposing supermarkets right next to each other and one seems to blatantly ignore the other. Neighborhoods here in LA work the same way. We all live very close to each other but we don't mix. I know some will say that this is not true but underneath it all, it really is. When I worked in Compton there was not one white face in any of the 72 classrooms I managed. When we went to check out a preschool for my now 12 year old daughter in Montana (a fancy area) and asked if there were any African American students in the school, because what we saw was alarmingly white, the director of the school "reassured us" by saying "Don't worry we're North of Montana".  As Marcellus said in Hamlet "Something is rotten in the State of Denmark" so let's not pretend it isn't. Maybe it's time to stop just giving our signatures away, stop being so clinical in our approach to charity. Maybe it's time to actually roll up our sleeves and help out in a more hands on way. Oh... Did I mention that my neighborhood Whole Foods makes  at least 1 million dollars a week.... ? 

 

Comments

Georgina DIckinson

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:44:52

I couldn't agree more. The place is full of precocious polenta wielding wankers. Bloody car park makes you come out in hives and that's before you've handed over your week's wages for a couple of tommys and a handful of nuts.
Trader Joes meanwhile is my spiritual home...purely for their fabulous Beef Jerky. Which by the way Tonks given you on a splatthefat mission is a very yummy very low fat food of the Gods.
See you Thursday for writing club?
Love your very useless pool partner x

 

Marie

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:04:08

AND what have you decided regarding the north of Montana school ? Hum?

 

Tanya

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 18:35:47

Marie...Montana was a no no. I believe in diversity and unfortunately there was none to be found there.

 

Grant

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:17:38

Love this post, keep up the good work

 

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