Now–first of all, I am not going to switch from buying most of my meat, fish, and poultry from either Athens county sources or from the North Market. Bluescreek Meats and North Market Poultry and Game, as well as Bob the Fish guy are never going to lose my business. NEVER.

However, no matter how much I love Meyer Lemons, I am not paying 6.99 a pound for them at North Market Produce.

I will pay the 1.99 a pound for them at Whole Foods.

My feeling on this issue is this–I don’t tend to buy much from the North Market Produce guy at all anyway–his prices are generally too high for me, and he doesn’t sell much in the way of Ohio produce anyway. Most of my vegetables come from the Athens Farmers Market.

But Jeni’s Ice Cream, Curds & Whey, Nida’s Sushi and the afformentioned businesses will never, ever lose my patronage to Whole Foods. Ever. I am that loyal to them. They make or sell good, unique products, locally produced (Except Bob–his stuff tends to come from the ocean, which is in short supply in Ohio for some reason…), and of higher quality than Whole Foods can even dream of.

So–really–it is a no brainer for me. Whole Foods is merely supplementing my shopping choices.

http://www.columbusalive.com/2005/20050914/091405/09140510.html

Well, Whole Foods is only local in that Columbus is an hour and half drive from here, but we go there fairly frequently. So, when I am in the area, I can stop in at Whole Foods and get my olive fix, but it isn’t ever going to be a major source of our basic food items.

I didn’t really get a chance to look at the staples, because we spent so much time in the produce, olive and cheese departments, but I will take a look when we go back tomorrow. (I am taking a friend knife shopping at Sur la Table, so she can get her first good kitchen knives. I want her to be able to take the knives on a test drive before she buys them, which they do allow you to go about at SLT, which I think is awesome.)

Anyway–I think that if I didn’t have access to such good meat both in The North Market and locally here in Athens, I would be more intrigued by Whole Foods’ meat department. But as it is, I am very lucky to live in a farm area of a farm state, so I don’t have to rely on a corporate chain for meat at all, much less good meat.

I can see why a lot of folks love Whole Foods, and I am very fond of them myself. I like Wild Oats pretty well, too, and Trader Joe’s, but none of them get my 100 percent backing as the be-all of food shopping. Again, I much prefer the North Market for most things, in large part, because I know the folks there, have established relationships with them and have built up a rapport over time.

That is probably as close as I will get to Meg’s experiences with the boucherie she goes to in Paris–personal service from folks who stop to chat with you, and who will show you pictures of thier vacation with their kids, and will tell you how the whole family is doing.

I like that.

interesting take on WF. I actually quite like them because of a few basic policies they have/ THey give the employees a LOT of responibilities and freedom in decision making for each individual store, so all stores do develop a ‘personality’ a little.

The local one to me DOES push local produce and farmers and even mentions them by name – of course, anyone with any sense does the same when your local farmers are people like Frog Hollow – reputedly the best stone fruit in America. We also get very clean nice seafood – but staggeringly expensive.

I go for many of the basic things you mentioned – olives are great (I love their balsamic marinated cipollini onions too) – an occasional nice cheese (although in the Bay Area we have many otehr good suppliers). But mostly I go for the slightly unusual dried goods (organic semolina flour, rolled barley, etc.) and for when I need more fresh produce than my CSA supplies. For example I went Christmas Eve to get six large bunches of chard for the dish of greens I was on the hook for for our Christmas potluck for 32 people. Their produce at our local store is impeccable.

The other thing it is great for is stuff like essential oils. My kids and their friends make perfumes as gifts every year – in large enough quantities that I have to buy three or four more supply bottles every year.

And finally, we don’t have a good butcher near us – WF is about the best we can do – so when I need something a little better than ordinary I go there.

It sounds like you and other Columbus area natives are planning to do what I think a lot of people do – use it as the fill-in/backup for the things you don’t have such a good supplier of locally.

Oh – one last thing – I completely understand the convenience/prepared food thing and far better WF than McDonalds, but it is the one part of the store I completely ignore – and it is half the store literally where we are (rich suburbs with lots of lazy, wealthy people).

I am glad you like to read here! Welcome, and please, post comments whenever you like!

Saeculorum–the turmeric hasn’t been eaten yet, so I can’t tell you. I’d like to, but I can’t. Sorry. I am going to make a really lovely-sounding Thai dish with it, and I promise to report back as soon as I know! Really!

As for worrying about Curds & Whey going out of business because of Whole Foods maybe being able to offer lower prices on cheese–well, I can see your point. But while Curds & Whey is a niche shop–it isn’t a self-contained shop–it is inside the North Market in Columbus, which is one of those old-fashioned public markets where venders have stalls, and so it is kind of like an old-fashioned grocery store. It is just that each department is owned by a different person.

I guess part of it is that I don’t want to lose the folks who work at Curds & Whey. They have over twenty years experience at selling cheese. What they know about cheese is gargantuan compared to what the admittedly well-trained and enthusiastic young folks who work at Whole Foods know. The folks at Curds & Whey are wizards of cheese–they are like walking encyclopedias of cheese knowledge. I respect that and I don’t want to lose that.

And, really, no matter what prices Whole Foods offers, I don’t think that the folks at the North Market are going to suffer. They all offer something that a large corporate entity like Whole Foods cannot offer and that is the established customer service, often, truly locally produced products, and a sense of place and history. They are selling out of one of the oldest public marketplaces in the US, after all, and everyone there is doing booming business.

It was a momentary frisson of fear, I think, that caused me to worry.

Oh, and btw–that was a good question. Not a flame, in the least. Not even a flicker.

Please, comment often–I like to hear what my readers think and I love the dialogues that come from an active community of commentors.