My letter to Whole Foods Market about their changes at Greenlife
Dear Ms. Townsend:
First of all, I want to let you know that I am a long-time supporter of Whole Foods Market. In fact, I shopped at your original store when I lived in Austin during the 1990s. I appreciate your creating opportunities for folks to purchase healthy foods across the nation and wish you continued success in that regard.
I am writing to you today, however, about Greenlife Grocery in Asheville, North Carolina. Since Greenlife is less than a mile from my home, my wife Shonnie Lavender and I consider it our neighborhood grocery store. We shop there regularly and spend between $200 and $300 per week, primarily on groceries. We also frequently meet friends and business associates there for coffee and for meals.
When we discussed Whole Foods’ purchase of Greenlife with the staff members there, we were told that Whole Foods didn’t intend to change anything that made Greenlife the success it has been. Now, however, I’m finding conventional produce mixed with the organic produce, and I am very concerned about this.
I understand that Whole Foods thinks that taking such measures will bring in shoppers who may be interested in purchasing lower priced produce and other food items. Maybe so. But actions such as these may also drive shoppers such as my wife and me to back to Earth Fare or the French Broad Food Co-op, both within an additional five-minute drive of our home.
I’m guessing that you did a good bit of market research before you bought the Greenlife stores, so I’m sure that you know that Asheville is a unique market with many political progressives, spiritual activists, outdoor athletes, participants in holistic healing and a variety of combinations thereof. We are not purists, but we want what we want. And what we want is to be able to count on the grocery store to which we give our loyalty and our money to carry organic, locally grown produce whenever possible without adulterating it with conventional produce from factory farms. This is not only a personal health issue, it is also a values issue. We want to eat healthy food, and as much as possible, we want it to come from farmers and suppliers who really care about those who will be buying their products, from farmers who nurture the earth from which the bounty came.
I don’t want to have to regularly wade through the plethora of so-called “natural” foods that I see cluttering the aisles of Whole Foods Market stores when we visit Raleigh, Denver or NYC. There’s plenty of that stuff for sale in regular super markets for those who want it. In the end, I can only speak for myself: If Greenlife continues becoming more like your other stores, I will be taking my business elsewhere. Furthermore, I will be encouraging others to do so as well.
I would appreciate a response to this message.
Respectfully,
Bruce Mulkey
Friday, July 23rd, 20104 Comments »
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Thanks for the letter, Bruce. I also live within a few blocks of Greenlife, and was very disappointed to see it sold to Whole Foods. However, I even more support our French Broad Food Coop down the road from Greenlife. If we people here in Asheville don’t take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to be owners ourselves in the store from which we purchase our food, we could lose it like so many other cities have. Come on, Bruce, and join the French Broad Food Co-op!
Comment by Rachael Bliss — July 23, 2010 @ 11:57 pm
Hey Bruce - thank you also for the letter. I also noticed the conventional produce creeping into Greenlife, more and more each week. I was also reassured by the staff that nothing that made Greenlife great would change. So when I saw this start happening, I switched over to shopping at French Broad Food Coop.
French Broad is still locally owned (by their customers & employees) and are very focused on offering regionally sourced produce, products and organics. They also now offer my favorite coffee, Blue Smoke — which was one of the main reasons I kept shopping at Greenlife.
The conventional produce did me in — and it’s intermingled with the organic and local stuff. If felt like a trick because I was SO use to most everything being organic and/or local. So now I shop at French Broad and know that 80% of every dollar I spend stays in our community instead of flowing to Austin Texas like it does when you shop at Greenlife (it flows to Boston when you shop at Earthfare, the company that owns them is based in Boston).
I’ve also noticed the staff at French Broad is so much nicer than the folks at Greenlife have become.
Take care and thanks again for the letter to Whole Foods — it’s important for them to know they are ruining a local treasure.
Comment by Bobby — July 26, 2010 @ 3:14 pm
Bruce,
Thank you for your time in drafting the letter to Whole Foods. You took the words out of my mouth.
One of my big priorities is introducing healthy food to my 3 year old these days. Unfortunately I find shopping at the FBFC frustrating due to nearly expired or expired food. Moldy figs and stale bulk items aren’t what I call healthy. I am an “owner” and have been for 8 years. I will continue to support them in that way. It’s a great place to buy cases of things such as beans and toilet paper.
Earth Fare’s produce is quite conventional and when I asked the produce manager (last winter) if they carried greens from Jake’s Farm he had no clue what I was talking about.
Thanks again for providing a space for me to let this out.
Smiles and LOVE!
Cindy
Comment by Cindy — August 10, 2010 @ 1:39 pm
Thanks to all of y’all for your comments regarding the changes at Greenlife since Whole Foods bought the store. On Friday I met with Omar Gaye, the Regional Vice President of Whole Foods, who is in charge of the transition of Greenlife into the Whole Foods family. I was reassured by what Omar had to say–that Whole Foods wants to increase the number of organic products in their stores, that they want to support local farm produce and other products, that they are working to get BPA out of the liners of many canned products being sold at Greenlife, etc. I came away believing my concerns had been heard. However, the proof will be in the actions taken by Whole Foods and whether they endeavor to turn Greenlife into one of their standard stores.
Cindy, I have concerns similar to yours about Earth Fare and the French Broad Food Co-op. I think we’ll renew our membership and do some shopping at the Co-op, and we’ll frequent Amazing Savings more regularly. Plus, we’ll probably rejoin a CSA next year after a several year lapse. And we’ll still shop some at Greenlife . . . at least for the time being.
Comment by Bruce — August 10, 2010 @ 2:09 pm