Grocery Wars: Whole Foods

Branded “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store,” Whole Foods has a vast array of fresh and organic fruits and vegetables. They have Whole Foods standard meats, cheeses and ready-made foods, making them nearly incomparable to Trader Joe’s.Whole Foods’ diverse vegetable selection ranges from common fruits, such as season-fresh apples and oranges, to more exotic and tropical options, like pitaya and bok choy. Their produce is all fresh, isn’t genetically modified (GMO) and is organic. According to responsibletechnology.org, GMO’s can cause unpredictable allergies, toxins and nutritional problems. Whole Foods locally sources its produce, ensuring that it is fresh while stimulating the local economy and not giving business to foreign countries, which Trader Joe's does.Also unlike Trader Joe's, Whole Foods has high standards when it comes to animal products; they have a five-step system regarding animals welfare to ensure the animal’s are treated properly before an ethically-sound slaughter. These steps cover living conditions (caged or free-range), what the animals ate and whether they were given growth hormones (which Whole Foods does not condone). Whole Foods, unlike Trader Joe’s, only gets their meat from within the United States, while Trader Joe's ships their meat from New Zealand, Australia and other foreign countries thousands of miles away. Milk at Whole Foods come only from animals that passed their high standard, and can be bought whole, skim, two percent, with different flavors and even vegan!Whole Foods has stations that give you fresh peanut butter, honey and sandwiches. What other store gives you a machine that will grind up peanuts and chocolate to give you chocolatey peanut butter? None. They have an entire section dedicated to making fresh, made-to-order pizzas, sandwiches, sushi and cakes, which Trader Joe’s does not have. The snacks at Whole Foods are much better than the snacks at Trader Joe’s. For example, the bars at Whole Foods are insane. I mean, a quinoa, chocolate and hazelnut bar, where they are all non-GMO and organic, is way better than it sounds. The pita chip selection is exquisite: cinnamon sugar, sea salt or garlic and herb, all accompanied with over 7 flavors of organic, small-batch-made hummus to choose from. If you’re into smoothie-making, they have an array of different ingredients to add that can be as mundane as bananas and kale or as exotic as Camu-Camu powder.If that isn’t enough to convince you that Whole Foods is superior to Trader Joe’s, I’ve got just one word for you: samples. Sure, Trader Joe’s has one of their frozen (not fresh) recipes as a taster. Whole Foods has samples from most of their sections: they always have a fresh seasonal berry sampler, their specialty cheeses are available to try and the workers in the meat department are more than happy to cut you a slice of prosciutto. Some may argue that Whole Foods is expensive for the kinds of products they sell. Although admittedly some products are a bit overpriced, such as the milk that my family buys which is $6.00 for one half gallon, it’s worth it in the grand scheme of things. The milk is organic; it comes from free-range, grass-fed cows and comes packaged in a glass bottle. Being free-range and grass-fed ensures that the cows didn’t produce stress hormones that could have been transmitted to the milk and therefore to the consumer. The glass bottle doesn’t allow carcinogens into the milk (unlike plastic bottles would), and you get $2.00 for the glass bottle if you return it to the store. All of Whole Foods’ products meet a standard of quality and freshness that is incomparable to any grocery store chain.Although Whole Foods can be overpriced, they are the best at what they do. They provide fresh, healthy foods to local communities all while fueling local economy and looking out for the welfare of animals. To be fair, Trader Joe's does have some items that Whole Foods can’t compete with, such as their signature gummi bears. However, as a store, they simply cannot compete with what Whole Foods has to offer.