Whole Foods Market

10 Reviews on “Whole Foods Market”

• Michael Schmidt

  So it’s Saturday morning, and I’m off to gamble- to roll the dice. You see, every Saturday morning I go to Whole Foods on Robson Street and I buy myself a little bit of bacon from their breakfast buffet bar. Every Saturday morning I come down and I’ll buy myself a few strips of bacon and a muffin. It’s my weekly bacon allotment. :-)It takes me about half an hour to walk to the store and back from my apartment, but it’s well worth the trip. This bacon is unbelievable. Hands-down, it’s probably the most incredible bacon I’ve ever had.Sadly though, this is where the gambling aspect of my Saturday morning comes in.Consistently, two times out of three, the people that they have in the kitchen burn the bacon to the point where it’s literally rock hard pieces of bacon bits. They cook it in the oven, and most of the time they simply leave it in there too long in and it comes out of the oven so over cooked you could break your teeth on it. The funny thing is, they don’t consistently cook it this way. One day it’s cooked perfectly, the next day it’s under cooked a little, the next day it’s burnt to a crisp. On two or three occasions I’ve asked them why they do this and I’ve been given every excuse in the book. They tell me that people prefer it that way. Sure, that’s why they end up throwing away half of what they cook because people like bacon that is so hard you need a hammer to break it apart.A week ago I talked to a store manager about it, and for the first time ever, somebody actually agreed with me that there was no consistency when the stuff was cooked. I had bought a muffin then too, and it was kind of funny because I started the conversation off by asking him why they don’t burn their muffins to a crisp. He looked at me a little bit strange and said because they’re cooked for a specific time so they cook properly. I told him I understood, and then I said well then what about this. As I started to open the box he began to smile, and before I opened it he knew it was bacon.He proceeded to tell me that he himself, half the time or more, couldn’t have bacon for breakfast because they overcooked it to the point where it was inedible. He also told me that the store gets a lot of complaints about it. But somehow that’s not enough to change the cooking procedures for this product.The manager actually went into the kitchen that day and asked the staff why there was such an inconsistency from day to day in the cooked product. He called me back and told me what they said. They gave him a number of reasons including the fact that sometimes they have a different type of bacon that renders more quickly, and they even told him that if there’s too much stuff in the oven it affects the cook of it. First off, I have seen them use a couple of different cuts of bacon. Some of it thick, some of it considerably thinner. Sometimes both types are cooked properly, sometimes they’re burnt to a crisp. So I don’t buy that argument. And the other reason that they gave, that if there’s too many things in the oven it affects the cook, I totally believe that. Of course it would, but it would make the bacon come out under cooked, not overcooked. If there’s not enough heat in the oven it’s not going to cook quicker and therefore burn.Ultimately, they burn their product because they simply don’t care enough to put the effort in to make sure that they don’t. There is not another product in that store that you could buy that is not consistently cooked or prepared well every single time it hits the shelves. But the bacon, it’s a crapshoot. And as for this morning, I’m a winner! While some of the bacon is very crispy, none of it is burnt to a crisp and I was able to find five or six slices that were a little bit softer.Until next Saturday, when I roll the dice all over again.

  March 29, 2017, 8:53 pm

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• Pat Maher

  Cashiers like to chat with each other more than serving customers, especially if the customers are women. The Express check-out is bullshit since nobody pays any attention to it and you wait in the so-called Express line 5 times longer than the REGULAR check out line because of that. The in-store products are limited and often disappear within months without notice . The prices are ridiculous, even for a Whole Foods store, i.e. Giovanni hair care products suddenly went up 25% for no apparent reason. I can get the same products on Amazon.com for 75% less. The quality of fresh produce relative to the price is insane.I advise you to stop catering to one-time-out-of-time American tourist customers who have a 30% exchange rate to buffer what they pay for shopping there and cater to the year-round West End customers who LIVE HERE if you want to stay in business. You’re like the AirBnB of Whole Food stores, i.e trying to scam tourists at the expense of residents…

  January 8, 2017, 8:51 am

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• J.Chews

  This chain of wholesome foods originated in the States, and that was where I had my first Whole Foods experience, so I was not sure what to expect coming into the Vancouver one. I was happily surprised to see that they continued to offer a fresh selection of foods from the deli, as well as a salad bar that was up to par with the American counterpart. Always a great option for a quick lunch, or grabbing something to prepare for dinner.

  December 13, 2015, 12:23 am

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