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People have been buzzing expectantly for months about the new 50,000 square-foot Union Square Whole Foods store, which opened this morning at 8 a.m. amid great fanfare, but without seeing the place it was hard to imagine what all the fuss was about. Sure, it's nice to have a good food store around, but there are three others within two blocks, all of which have "gourmet" and "healthy" items and a wide selection. The one in the Time Warner Center is definitely nice, but, after all, it's just a supermarket, right?
But, by chance, Gothamist was walking past the new food mecca today right as it opened, and slipped in to gaze at the mountains of perfectly-arranged food. Thousands of oranges piled neatly beside one another, hundreds of cheeses, a massacre of freshly-cut steak, boatfuls of fresh shrimp on ice behind glass. The store seems to be expecting armies of shoppers, and the amount of food is rivaled only by the number of employees flitting around everywhere, being helpful, asking how we're "enjoying" the store. There were even several signs around the store noting food grown specifically in the New York region.
Someone recently accused Whole Foods of perpetrating a sort of "food porn," simply by the way they display their wares, and this isn't far from the truth; the sheer size of the place and the amount of choices makes the store much more pleasant to shop at than the nearby Food Emporium (in the Zeckendorf complex a block away). As noted in a Times piece today, it's unlikely that the store will put the Green Market on the other end of the park out of business, but it's definitely going to take some customers, and some of the farmers who set up shop there are not happy about it. As well, according to a Post article yesterday, the store is aiming particularly for students, offering discounts and allowing NYU undergrads to use their meal credits to buy groceries.
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whole foods is WAY better than that crappy food emporium. far superior selection of produce (and cheaper to boot). I spent three years shopping at that overpriced wreck Food Emporium and can't wait to shop at Whole Foods, where I'll actually be able to buy organic apples at a good price. Reminds me of my California days when produce was actually affordable...sigh.
Smitty... but will you choose WF over the greenmarket? Just curious.
Now how about getting a Trader Joe's in Union Square? If the prices are the same as the other stores, it'd be cheaper than Whole Foods.
i only have time to grocery shop after about 9:15pm on weekdays...whole foods closes at 10pm. Hooray! Of course, the greenmarket isn't open then.
I miss Bradlees.
It will be a tough fight for who can charge more for boneless skinless chicken breasts between Whole Foods and Food Emporium (where I've seen them for $9.99/lb)
I live in Brooklyn. My life in the Key of Food.
I lived through nine years of Key Food hell in Brooklyn. What a dump. Visions of bums eating cookies right off the shelves. I always said to myself that I'd gladly pay 25 percent more for my groceries if the store were clean, bright, well-organized, friendly, etc.
I visited Whole Foods today and now my dream has come true, but guess what...
it just seems too damned expensive.
the whole foods house brand -- '365 whatever' -- is actually pretty cheap.
Get ready for the one on Houston in the new Avalon Chrystie Place building monstrosity thing ... finally, years of living in a tenement 1 block away will payoff!!!
I know it's very clever and humorous to call Whole Foods "Whole Paycheck". While they do have some items with prices verging on the ridiculous, they also have a ton of other items (espcially the store brand as mentioned above) that are better AND CHEAPER than any similar item you'll find at Key Foods, (assuming that you can find Soymilk at Key Foods at all). Scoff if you must, I'm on my way to pick up some $2 organic peanut butter.
Have they hung the "SUCKER" banner outside yet?
Huh. Good point about the greenmarket. I guess it could be preferable if you don't have a job to go to.
This raises the bigger point... with people usually not being able to get into a food store until the last 1-2 hours before close, we're really seeing these places at their worst. And when they're not that hot to begin with, that can be pretty awful.
True that WF prices aren't so expensive if you stick to the regular stuff. It's just that they put the organic stuff front and center but the conventional stuff isn't that much pricier than regular supermarkets, and they're pretty much guaranteed to be good. Packaged/bottled stuff costs the same or less than supermarkets and bodegas.
I ain't no Donald Trump but I'm going to spend a few cents more for tomatoes that taste like tomatoes, ya know?
Speaking of overpriced...the Green Market is nothing but overpriced wares and amazingly dry/flavorless vegan baked goods. The only reason you should shop at the Green Market is if you want to carry around a huge hunk of freshly ground meat covered in flies!
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh...their jams and jellies ain't half bad.
THANK GOD someone else finally stated the obvious on the 'Green Market'. I know it's hip and organic and European and all to just LOVE a farmers market, but the prices here are INSANE, the produce average, baked goods subpar. It's pathetic what passes for a market and a grocery store in this town. I welcome Whole Foods with open arms- the Food Emporiums, the Key Foods and the hippie farmers might finally learn to compete rather than carelessly offer up such crap selection at astronomical prices.
You should take the time to goto Wegmans. There are a few in New Jersey. It might be an hour drive, but worth every minute.
Yeah, the breads and scones are pretty dry. But the pretzels and cider donuts are good. And, hey, you can't beat those turkey sausage samples!
is the green market really 'hip and european'? we had them in the midwest as long as i can remember and gothamist readers have made it clear that the midwest is anything but hip. it's the traditional way to buy and sell food all over the world. perhaps some see it as a fad, but i see it as the obvious way to buy local.
some things are more expensive but not necessarily... especially if you consider the health, social and environmental costs of corporatized food.
i doubt you can find a lot of it in stores. the raw milk cheeses, hawthorne valley breads and raw kraut, body & soul wraps and turnovers. local organic seasonal produce. i guess it just depends on what you like.
No, the farmers market is definitely not 'hip and european' but just like everything else, NYers elevate it to some sacred, magical event because it happens here. My point being it's a rather crappy farmers market- it looks nice, but the whole idea is you're supposed to get fresh, above average foods at an excellent price. Which is NOT what's going on in Union Square- the vendors (most not all) know they're serving a captive and naive crowd and set the prices accordingly. Whole Foods might change that a bit- competition is a good thing. It's the same as the Starbucks effect- there's still room for indie shops but you gotta be GOOD. Can't tell you how many times i've chosen the indie outlet over the local Starbucks and been served a luke warm cup from someone who was more interested in talking to his/her friends. But I digress...
And your point about the raw milk cheeses, kraut etc is taken. Those people are offering a unique product/service and likely won't be replaced by Whole Foods. Don't get me wrong, i'm not anti-Green Market, just "pro-choice" and value.
And for the record, I'm also speaking as someone who grew up in the Midwest- with 20 years on an actual farm (and surrounded by nothing but farms) growing most of our own food...
the only thing i disagree with is that part of the reason is to get food at an excellent price. i would agree that is true of other locations, but in new york i think it has naturally become a premium outlet. you can already get the conventional produce really cheap, so many of the vendors are selling organic, biodynamic, local, and specialty stuff that is harder to find and harder to make/grow and therefore higher priced. granted there are a few that apparently resell the daily closeouts from conventional distibutors (the big stands) and they are targeting the uninformed, but then there are also stands like evolutionary organics whose produce is great and reasonably priced but not many stop because they are so small. i fully 100% agree with your starbucks comparison and also hope that WF will weed out those posers and sharks... which could actually help the real good guys.
i heard a WF spokesman on the radio this morning and he said that their chefs would be buying produce at the green market and they would be contributing a percentage of their profits to green market. not sure how that works, but he said...
the prices at the Greenmarket for produce are fair, and the quality outstrips anything at any food market in new york, period. it's not even possible to compare. (there's a reason an early morning visit to the greenmarket puts you in the middle of a crowd of people in chef's uniforms, buying whatever they can put their hands on.) the only competitor for quality produce, organic and regular, is the park slope food coop.
i'm kind of amazed that people think the greenmarket prices are ratcheted up. you're not buying mass-produced frankenapples there - you're buying fragile food from small-scale farmers who put their entire lives into bringing you fruits and vegetables. none of the farmers selling their stuff there are wealthy - they are scraping by. americans have a crazy idea of how cheap food should be (thanks to a long history of agricultural subsidies which have produced the monster we call Agribusiness) and no idea of what's seasonal or local. so they get the worst of both worlds - terrible tasting, genetically engineered, wax-covered apples available all year long. for cheap. oh joy.
whole foods won't be a problem for the Greenmarket.
Ok. My last comments on the topic: to clarify- not all greenmarket prices are too high, again not for the organic, homemade, artisan products, BUT i debate that a portion are not commercial vendors (some apple growers for example) who i'm certain also sell stock to major distributors. These are the people who can be selling at better prices- i've seen the exact same product (organic and non) at the exact same prices half a block away at Food Emporium (and yes i've checked). And my main point is why is it that green markets in other areas of the country are much cheaper? Land in upstate NY is no more expensive than Michigan or Illinois or Washington. Further, i debate the statement that all vendors at the greenmarket are "scraping by". This is exactly the kind of precious image NYers like to project on the green market (and organic urban elite in general) so that they can feel good about themselves and their charitable Liberal Lifestyle. Where are you getting your information? Is there a "living in borderline poverty" requirement for a vendor licence? I'm guessing your information is anecdotal. No doubt some are working on narrow margins but at the same time there are amazing opportunities and developing markets for these same people to sell to the likes of Whole Foods, gourmet restaurants, etc.
Anyhow, my whole point here is Whole Foods is potentially good, might make the green market better, and NYers should try to avoid their tendency to automatically champion the sacred cows they imagine immune to criticism and reject anything/everything that just might make this city more livable, affordable for all.
And lastly, I feel the need to point out (again) this is coming from a liberal ex-farmer yuppie who prefers his food organic...
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