Whole Foods - Austin, TX Review

First off, we shop at the Gateway Whole Foods Market at Research and Capital of Texas Highway regularly. Truth be told, Whole Foods was one of the reasons we came to Austin in the first place (the WFM World Headquarters are located at the massive 6th & Lamar location). Having lived in St. Augustine, Florida, where Native Sun, the only decent natural foods store in the area, was 25 miles away in Jacksonville, we looked forward to living in close proximity to a Whole Foods.

Having settled in NW Austin, the Gateway location is the Whole Foods where we most often do our shopping. However, due to a number of factors, we only buy meat and a few other items there, and the rest of our groceries elsewhere.

I'll let my wife explain:

"[The Gateway Whole Foods] is becoming a scary place to shop. Whole Foods has high prices, but they also have lots of organics, and non-polluted meats (no antibiotics, no hormones). I consider these essentials for my children. They face enough toxins in real life, I don't need to offer them some for dinner. In short, the company sells quality.

"But I've really begun to notice the unfriendliness in the store, and especially outside. Now I'm not attacking the employees - they go out of their way to be friendly, especially the cashiers. But the shoppers! After driving around in circles in the parking lot one day I realized I'd been cut off by at least 4 cars. ALL of the cars just happened to be BMWs. As I continued to circle I realized at least 75 % of the parking lot was a BMW, a Mercedes-Benz or some other swanky car. Now I drive a Toyota Corolla, so I guess I wasn't measuring up.

"I've also nearly been hit in the crosswalk right outside the doors while walking with my kids!...But that's just outside. Inside, I am constantly glared at because of my kids. [Our daughter] likes to sing in the shopping cart, and apparently that is not allowed...I've had people walk by me, downright hostile. They push in front of you to get in line, down aisles, etc..

"I do the bare minimum of shopping at Whole Foods now. I do still use their meat, but I make a point to stock up, so multiple trips are not neccessary. And otherwise we've found a wonderful co-op much further away. The employees and the shoppers are sweet. The mommas are wearing their babies, their hair and skin are multiple colors, and their cars have all seen better days. Best of all they have fresh goat milk from a local supplier."

So the bottom line here is that a bunch of a-holes shop at this particular Whole Foods location, and the prices are inflated, but it still has the best meat department in the area. The downtown World Headquarters location has a bigger selection, and a funkier, friendlier clientele, with more hippies, and less Beamers.

On the positive side, this store has an excellent selection of microbrews, recently started to offer its own relatively healthy variation on classic Texas BBQ, and their deli has the best pizza slices I've found so far here in Austin.