# Local Whole foods Grocery Won't Stock/Sell Live Lobsters! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 17, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023 "2006-06-17T01:33:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/1 "2006-06-17T01:33:07Z")
…because its cruelty to lobsters! They srill sell canned or frozen lobster meat. How the heck did they determine that a large insect feels pain? Anyway, what is nect? Refusal to sell eggs? (A chicken died to provide your breakfast!) :smack: ---
**Author:** ![What\_s\_That\_Smell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3bc359/32.png) [@What\_s\_That\_Smell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_s_That_Smell)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/2 "2006-06-17T01:39:21Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] A chicken died to provide your breakfast! [/QUOTE] Um… last I heard, the chicken doesn’t die from the act of laying the egg… ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/3 "2006-06-17T01:42:01Z")
That is pretty weird. Whole Foods is a massive corporation and I am familiar with their inner workings pretty well. I can’t figure it out and they are controlled first in Austin, TX and then by region so I wonder if that affected lots of stores. I don’t see why it would be local but maybe. Most of the supermarkets here in New England carry live lobsters and you can’t get fresher than that so it wouldn’t be a big deal if ours stopped selling them. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/4 "2006-06-17T01:43:33Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Most of the supermarkets here in New England carry live lobsters and you can’t get fresher than that so it wouldn’t be a big deal if ours stopped selling them. [/QUOTE] Why do stores sell Maine lobsters, but not Pacific spiny lobsters? ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/5 "2006-06-17T01:49:41Z")
Whole foods won’t sell foie gras either, and has been sued because they forced one of their suppliers to cut ties to a foie gras company, even though the supplier doesn’t even sell foie gras to Whole Foods. [Article.](http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/03/whole-foods-vs-foie-gras-behind-the-news/) I think it’s one thing to say you won’t sell something in your store, it’s yet another thing to say I’m going to make sure you can’t sell it anywhere. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/6 "2006-06-17T01:59:16Z")
The company line is best represented in [Whole Food Markets](http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company/pr_06-16-06.html). This is a link to their website and their news release. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/7 "2006-06-17T02:17:46Z")
[QUOTE=mike1dog] Whole foods won’t sell foie gras either, and has been sued because they forced one of their suppliers to cut ties to a foie gras company, even though the supplier doesn’t even sell foie gras to Whole Foods. [Article.](http://www.slashfood.com/2006/05/03/whole-foods-vs-foie-gras-behind-the-news/) I think it’s one thing to say you won’t sell something in your store, it’s yet another thing to say I’m going to make sure you can’t sell it anywhere. [/QUOTE] I don’t think they _should_ be allowed to sell foie gras anywhere. I think it should be banned. But I really don’t want to get into a big animal welfare debate; I don’t have the energy. I’ll just drop that in there as my opinion and let it lie. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/8 "2006-06-17T02:17:55Z")
I’m sure you can find a much cheaper supply of live lobster at just about any other store that’d carry such a thing, anyway. There’s a **reason** that a common nickname for them is “Whole Paycheck.” ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/9 "2006-06-17T02:27:47Z")
So, they have no qualms about sticking an icepick into a lobster’s brain. Just they want to make sure they’re comfortable all along their journey to their final destiny? Give me a break. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/10 "2006-06-17T02:50:29Z")
I assume it’s about minimizing pain/cruelty wherever feasible. They do sell other meats, after all, but tend towards more humanely raised versions from what I’ve seen. I’m a vegetarian, and I eat eggs, but I buy eggs from a local farm where the hens are not packed into tiny cages like most commercial hens, where the male chicks aren’t tossed in a pile then ground into feed (whether alive or dead) for the hens, and where unnecessary antibiotic dosing isn’t practiced. The end result is the same - I’m eating eggs. The intermediate process, however, is where the difference is. ---
**Author:** ![Annie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/858c86/32.png) [@Annie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/11 "2006-06-17T02:52:41Z")
Guess what I killed for dinner last night? Hey, they were on sale. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/12 "2006-06-17T02:54:01Z")
They’re lobsters. Fuck 'em. Hell, I used to pull the wings off crawdads when I was a kid and I turned out okay. ---
**Author:** ![Marlitharn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@Marlitharn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marlitharn)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/13 "2006-06-17T03:28:06Z")
[QUOTE=SkipMagic] They’re lobsters. Fuck 'em. Hell, I used to pull the wings off crawdads when I was a kid and I turned out okay. [/QUOTE] Okay, I gotta know what abandoned nuclear waste site you grew up on that had flying crawdads. And could they be trained for covert military operations? ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/14 "2006-06-17T04:38:00Z")
[QUOTE=Marlitharn] Okay, I gotta know what abandoned nuclear waste site you grew up on that had flying crawdads. And could they be trained for covert military operations? [/QUOTE] Forget snakes on a plane – you could cut out the middleman with flying crustaceans, and save all those personnel and fuel costs! ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/15 "2006-06-17T07:08:55Z")
Heh. I listened to the story about this on NPR this evening, and at the end heard familiar chords: _bum-bum-bum-ba-ba-ba-ba-bum-bum_. That made me laugh, knowing that nobody under 35 would likely recognize the wordless goof-the music was the B-52s ‘Rock Lobster’ 😛 ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/16 "2006-06-17T07:09:10Z")
If only a lobster could fly into my pot, lobster thermidor would hit the spot. A spotted ocelot they would never sell, even an arthropod never damned to hell. Wings on a sea creature rare to tell. But that flying lobster with harpoon felled. tastes great on a cracker. Cracker motherfucker. I ran out of rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/17 "2006-06-17T12:08:34Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] How the heck did they determine that a large insect feels pain? [/QUOTE] They didn’t, of course, any more than you know an invertebrate _doesn’t_ feel pain. So they went with the course that wouldn’t cause pain regardless. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/18 "2006-06-17T15:11:46Z")
[QUOTE=Marlitharn] Okay, I gotta know what abandoned nuclear waste site you grew up on […] [/QUOTE] Well, _duh_. Kansas. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/local-whole-foods-grocery-wont-stock-sell-live-lobsters/361023/19 "2006-06-17T16:04:56Z")
I imagine it’s just pandering to their granola/SUV customer base. I mean, they’re still selling other meat and poultry, and I’m sure those are much more popular products than live lobsters anyway. I think it’s a positive move in itself, but when viewed as part of a holistic effort, fairly meaningless.