I'm really into Big Sky
Honey Whole Wheat Bread at the moment. Only .5 grams of fat per slice and packed with flavor, it makes fabulous sandwich bread. I love it toasted, smeared with avocado and topped with a fried egg white and just a touch of salsa for breakfast.
It's $6.99 at Whole Foods Market.
It's $5.49 at Royal River Natural Foods in Yarmouth - and probably everywhere else it is sold.
I'll admit I routinely shop at Whole Foods. Not for my weekly "big" shopping expedition, but I do stop in roughly three times each week on my way home from work to pick up fish, veggies, and other perishables that I prefer to buy closer to when they will actually be consumed. I rarely look at the price of the items as I toss them into my basket. I'm more concerned with finding what I need quickly, and getting home to prepare dinner. But when I placed the Big Sky Bread on the counter at home next to the mostly-eaten loaf I had purchased earlier in the week at Royal River, the price stickers caught my attention.
A $1.50 difference between the two. For a loaf of bread.
I wonder what else suffers such a significant mark up at Whole Foods? I'm not talking pennies. I'll pay a few pennies, nickels, dimes and even a few quarters more for convenience and freshness. But $1.50 more for a loaf of bread? That's a bit much.
Don't you think?
Sunday, May 4, 2008
A Lot of Dough for a Loaf of Bread
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4 comments:
About a year ago The Bollard wrote a fantastic essay on the price and marketing of local foods at Whole Foods Markets. Whole Foods place a significant amount of emphasis on the marketing of local food, however whenever a local product competes with any of their in house products, the markup is so high that local products have no way of competing. Therefore they are happy to display and promote Big Sky and other local products - they markup them up beyond what is necessary in order to not allow them to compete with their in house products.
Whole Foods is food elitism. They put themselves out to be food experts yet the baker didn't know what brioche was. Compare that to Standard Bakery where they make brioche loafs and rolls daily. They don't carry Smiling Hills Farm ice cream because "it has artificial flavors". They would rather stock super expensive, non-local ice cream than support a high quality, family owned producer like Smiling Hills. I think Whole Foods is pretentious and I am astounded by how busy they are. Who can afford to shop there?
I love Big Sky bread as well. Why not buy from the source? They have stores in the public market at Monument Square and also on Deering Avenue in Woodfords Corners. While you are there try their soups, sandwiches or paninis.
Whole Foods is a rip off, and even more now that Wild Oats is gone. I can't believe the government allowed that to happen. They do have a beautiful store and someone has to pay for it...
Here in Florida they have new competition springing up everywhere known as "Fresh Produce" so we will see what happens to their pricing.
I think you might be on to something here and it is a thesis that has been rolling around in my head ever since Whole Foods came to town and immediately back tracked on their policy of not carrying lobsters because it was inhumane. In that instance, Whole Foods solution was to get humanly harvested lobsters (whatever that may be) from New Hampshire. I'm not sure how that squares with its philosophy of caring for the community and the environment - much like its practice of inflating the price of locally produced bread to a price point above that of its own.
I think these practices, as well as others, are indicative of the fact that Whole Foods isn't really about providing better food or nurturing a better community; it is about marketing a brand that allows its patrons to experience economic elitism and moral superiority, which in turn provides a venue for social communication and self branding. Much like the purchasing a car or clothes. Whole Foods has just extended the forum of social communication to the grocery store.
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