Whole Foods discontinuing whole wheat pasta

[Esprise_Me]

@Dinsdale

My wife and I have been changing to a mostly plant and whole grain diet. Just this morning she remembered the first time we went into a Whole Foods - at least 20 years ago. It was beautiful (and EXPENSIVE!) with gorgeous piles of produce.

Today’s Whole Foods bear no resemblance to that. Far more processed foods.

I remember that too. The first time I went into a Whole Foods was also probably about 20 years ago, and it took my breath away. All those beautiful fruits and vegetables in a dazzling array, piled nearly to the ceiling. Enormous bins of exotic legumes and spices. Puts the old horn of plenty to shame! Now I find myself elbowing past fourteen pairs of Lululemon legs in the essential oils aisle to get to the vegan chipotle mayo I like, only to find they don’t carry it anymore. The whole exercise leaves me feeling stressed out and somehow dirty. Now that mainstream grocery stores like Ralph’s and Albertson’s carry a wider range of vegan and “ethnic” foods, I usually just shop there.

[kenobi_65]

@Telemark

5. Newer products in the pasta aisle such as lentil, chick pea, and zucchini pastas are competing for the same market and driving out some more traditional (whole wheat) varieties.

Also likely true, though if the OP’s whole-wheat elbow elbow was, indeed, a “big seller,” it’s less likely that that item would be one that would get de-listed.

[The_wind_of_my_soul]

My Amazon-bought-Whole-Foods gripe: I used to prefer Whole Foods to other grocery stores because the shoppers there tended to be more polite. If I went to other local grocery stores, there were the obnoxious people stopping in the middle of an aisle, or blocking an aisle, or cutting you off, with no “excuse me” or apology. Whole Foods shoppers tended to be more conscientious of their surroundings. Once Amazon bought Whole Foods, the shoppers are still polite, but the people working for Amazon (I forget what they’re called, but it’s Amazon’s home delivery service) are rushing around like assholes, darting in front of you and cutting you off and being generally unpleasant.

[Motorgirl]

@teela_brown

ETA: and the workers all look unhappy and ground-down nowadays, too.

I’ve noticed this as well. I rarely shop there since the Amazon takeover.

The
[ul]
[li]apparent employee unhappiness[/li][li]excessive proliferation of PRIME DISCOUNT! shelf tags[/li][li]their dropping my favorite milk[/li][li]their reduced cheese department[/li][li]the mediocrity of my local store’s hot bar (not Amazon’s fault - that particular hot bar sucked before Amazon bought WF)[/li][/ul]
are all things that diminish my enjoyment of shopping there.

Combine all those with my simmering resentment over their acquisition of Bread & Circus* and their treatment of Johnnie’s employees and I’m unlikely to shop there much.
I rarely think “I’ll go to Whole Foods” anymore when I need something, so it’s possible I’ll stop shopping their altogether.

*I’m only half joking. I can’t believe I’m old enough to be harboring a 25-year-old grudge. Don’t get me started on Starbucks and Coffee Connection

[teela_brown]

Yep on the produce comments. Yes, they still have lots of produce, but bins which used to contain a wide variety of interesting vegies which were hard to find elsewhere, now contain: lettuce, carrots and celery.

[aruvqan]

@filmore

Gluten is like a structural component. It’s like a stretchy glue. Foods without gluten may not be as durable or may be harder to cook. That’s typically the case with gluten free pasta. They have to add a lot of things to it so that it holds together, and those things can make it sticky. It’s harder to boil since it wants to clump together and it may fuse into a blob if you let it sit too long when it’s drained. It’s not as forgiving as traditional gluten-based pastas. There is also a lot of variation in gluten-free pasta based on what they put in it and what process they use to make it. Normal pasta is all pretty much the same, but you may need to do a lot of experimenting with various gluten-free pastas to fine one that meets your needs.

I am well aware of what gluten happens to be, I have had a nutritionists consult at least every 2 years since about 1988, and thankfully celiac/gluten intolerance is nothing I have ever had to worry about [well, only in the sense of overworking dough and making it tough …]

I just didn’t feel like rummaging around online for information that isn’t really of any need right now. THere is a discussion of gluten at least once a year on the dope =)

[DinoR]

@kenobi_65

I can think of a couple of reasonable explanations for it, if the product is actually being discontinued:

I can think of another. Shelf space is at a premium in grocery stores. There is always pressure in how much space, if any, is dedicated to a product. Whole wheat pasta IME is at pretty much every large grocery store I have been in for years. The major places I go to have store brands not just name brands. It is pretty cheap and I would assume has typical grocery store razor thin profit margins. Gluten free may have higher profit margins and typically is priced higher to begin with. It could well be possible that a relatively cheap low margin product doesn’t make a lot of money for the store even if they sell a lot of it.

The store might be able to make more money per square inch of shelf space by discontinuing even a relatively popular product.

[kenobi_65]

@DinoR

I can think of another. Shelf space is at a premium in grocery stores. There is always pressure in how much space, if any, is dedicated to a product. Whole wheat pasta IME is at pretty much every large grocery store I have been in for years. The major places I go to have store brands not just name brands. It is pretty cheap and I would assume has typical grocery store razor thin profit margins. Gluten free may have higher profit margins and typically is priced higher to begin with. It could well be possible that a relatively cheap low margin product doesn’t make a lot of money for the store even if they sell a lot of it.

The store might be able to make more money per square inch of shelf space by discontinuing even a relatively popular product.

That’s a good point, too – if whole-wheat pasta has become generally available at “regular” grocery stores, there may be less incentive for Whole Foods (which tends to specialize in the more niche-y stuff) to carry it. “Want whole wheat pasta? You can go to Kroger. We got your chickpea pasta now.”

[AlsoNamedBort]

This might be related:

Whole Foods looks like a ghost town after supplier shutters

Whole Foods says that its supplier of beans, grains, lentils, and rice has suddenly shuttered, and it might take the store months to find a new supplier.

[hajario]

We all have different shopping tastes and therefore different gripes. The thing that got me is the sandwiches. The quality and quantity of items you have add to the sandwich has declined. For example brie used to be one of the cheese choices. And they had realy good friend chicken slices before.

I have asked a few employees how the Amazon takeover affected them and they all say that it is not nearly as nice to work there.

[WildaBeast]

@teela_brown

Yep on the produce comments. Yes, they still have lots of produce, but bins which used to contain a wide variety of interesting vegies which were hard to find elsewhere, now contain: lettuce, carrots and celery.

That is dissappointing. I never shopped at Whole Foods much, but I sometimes would go there if I needed some specialty ingredient that I couldn’t find elsewhere. It sounds like they’re not as useful for that sort of thing anymore.

[carnut]

@Saint_Cad

To add to teela’s post, the selection of grass-fed beef is almost non-existent now.

Yikes! Glad my co-op carries it. Yes, spendy but so much tastier!