Whole foods sells a lot of pre-cooked and processed food on their salad, BBQ, Seafood and soup self serve bars, then their are the cooked meats and dinners behind the deli-service counter. That drives up the cost for a lot of customers. You can effectively shop Whole Foods if you avoid the gimmicky stuff and stick to fresh fruits and vegetables and the self dispensary of whole grains and cereals. Sometimes there are great sales on Chicken — which I pick up. The breasts are about 3/4 the size of your hand vs the size and a half found on the hormone fed trisodium phosphate pumped market brands you find in a common grocery store.
Last two times I bought fresh fish from WF...I returned it b/c it was NOT fresh.
I don’t mind paying *more* for meat and fish...if the quality is there. Never did, never will.
But I’m giving up on their fish dept.
The fruit/vegetables at WF are not cheaper than a supermarket...and the quality is not appreciatively better. If you shop the seasons and pay attention, you’ll do better at a good supermarket to pinch pennies.
Growing your own is the best.