# Nice tomatoes and apples, Whole Foods **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 24, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830 "2010-11-24T23:51:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/1 "2010-11-24T23:51:39Z")
I don’t buy stuff at Whole Foods because I can get organic mushrooms, or free-range cucumbers, or pork chops that were told every day, “What a pretty hog!”, or any other frou-frou reason. I buy fruits, vegetables, and meat at Whole Foods because they are high-quality and are stocked with care. Look, if I want to buy tomatoes that are bruised, battered, sliced, and have holes poked in them, or if I want to buy apples that look like there was a guy on the end of the truck hitting each one with a ball-peen hammer is it came by, I can just go to Dierberg’s or Schnuck’s and I won’t pay $4.00 a pound for them. I have to watch my money these days, just like almost everyone else. I am willing to pay a premium for quality. I’m not willing to pay a premium for the name of “Whole Foods”, and if they are going to start selling the same beat-up crap fruits and vegetables that the regular grocery stores do, well . . . Whole Foods is fucked. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/2 "2010-11-25T00:22:37Z")
You mean you don’t shop at Whole Foods for the atmosphere? To people watch? Around here, Whole Foods is where you can park your primer grey '64 Dodge Polara next to a Lotus or Ferrari, where you can be dazzled by the glittering of jewels on other women as they try to figure out what those funny vegetables were that Cook served at last week’s bridge night candlelight supper (was it…iceberg lettuce? How plebeian!), and the pipe-smoking men with their mustachios and tweed jackets trying to figure out what this funny foreign thing called “bratwurst” is. Once someone asked if I was the shopping cart valet; I took her $20 and left her cart in the arboretum next to the _salles des bains_. Fun, fun, silly-willy. [sub]Seriously, I do like Whole Foods, but there is definitely a different crowd than at “Skeeter’s Deli and Bait.”[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/3 "2010-11-25T01:38:40Z")
Around here, Sunflower Market has the best produce. Whole Foods can shove it up their over-priced asses. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/4 "2010-11-25T02:10:56Z")
There are still “real” co-ops, just like there are real bike shops that don’t make their living selling bike wheels made from exotic alloys to the clueless and overprivileged. Just got to find one. Ask your local hippy. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/5 "2010-11-25T02:16:05Z")
Move back to Colorado. Grant Farms. –your local hippie ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/6 "2010-11-25T03:56:29Z")
You could also take up gardening, which gives one a unique appreciation for ugly-ass food. The last time I was in a Whole Foods I left without buying anything. I think it may have been a $25/pound tuna steak that drove me out. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/7 "2010-11-25T04:13:48Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > You could also take up gardening, which gives one a unique appreciation for ugly-ass food.\ Ain’t that the truth - I grew the scabbiest, most diseased-looking potatoes last year… ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/8 "2010-11-25T04:15:24Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Move back to Colorado. Grant Farms. > > –your local hippie Or so that you can sign up for Door to Door Organics, and swim in delicious organic locally grown foods. Although Grant Farms rocks. I make it a point to patronize their booth at every farmers market I visit. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/9 "2010-11-25T04:47:53Z")
I park my primer gray 69 Torino next to my Ferrari every day. Whats the problem? I just wish my wife would wash the chicken shit off the eggs before putting them in the fridge next to the caviar. Goddamn chickens! ---
**Author:** ![spotthegerbil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@spotthegerbil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spotthegerbil)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/10 "2010-11-25T13:13:16Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > Ain’t that the truth - I grew the scabbiest, most diseased-looking potatoes last year… I grew the scabbiest looking strawberries this year. Unlike the heart shaped perfect looking supermarket variety, mine were red all the way to the middle and had a full flavour that shouted STRAWBERRY! The ugly ones are the best inside. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/11 "2010-11-25T14:59:00Z")
> [@spotthegerbil](#): > > The ugly ones are the best inside. If only people were like vegetables… But yeah, I love Whole Foods for the experience, and I’m not being sarcastic. At least to my ignorant self they always have a lot of interesting foods, the samples are delicious, and the cheese/beer section rocks. The high prices make it a silly place to shop at all the time, but every now and again it’s great fun. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/12 "2010-11-25T15:35:44Z")
One time, I had to\* ask one of the clerks who was stocking apples, “Do you have any apples that weren’t juggled by clumsy monkeys?” He just looked at me like a cow looking at a new gate. \*It was a moral obligation. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/13 "2010-11-25T17:02:15Z")
> [@Kolga](#): > > Or so that you can sign up for Door to Door Organics, and swim in delicious organic locally grown foods. > > Although Grant Farms rocks. I make it a point to patronize their booth at every farmers market I visit. Or for the rest of you not in their delivery area, you can find [a local organic farm that _does_ deliver to your area.](http://www.localharvest.org/csa/) ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/14 "2010-11-25T18:54:42Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I don’t buy stuff at Whole Foods because I can get organic mushrooms, or free-range cucumbers, or pork chops that were told every day, “What a pretty hog!”, or any other frou-frou reason. I buy fruits, vegetables, and meat at Whole Foods because they are high-quality and are stocked with care. You mean you don’t just catch the free-range cucumbers yourself? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/15 "2010-11-25T19:32:38Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > You mean you don’t just catch the free-range cucumbers yourself? :dubious: No, they’re just too fast for me at my age. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/16 "2010-11-25T20:25:24Z")
You can trap them pretty easy. Not real smart. ---
**Author:** ![Time\_Like\_Tears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/df705f/32.png) [@Time\_Like\_Tears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Time_Like_Tears)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2010, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nice-tomatoes-and-apples-whole-foods/561830/17 "2010-11-26T03:13:54Z")
I noticed the same thing Tuesday (coincidentally at likely the same location - Galleria?) and chalked it up to Thanksgiving rush madness. For me it was the green beans, they were brownish and scraggly looking. Produce is the only thing I go in there for, because it’s usually worth the extra money, but I was pretty disappointed this week. So now I wonder if it is that store not giving a crap or just the chain in general.