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Whole Foods, an Austin-Based Store with Over 400 Locations in the U.S. and U.K. - Being Purchased by Amazon for $13.7 Billion


Al Dente

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No cilantro? A guacamole that I didn't make that I can eat? YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

(I remember, before the coming of the obsession with the evil weed that is cilantro, when I could eat guacamole in restaurants. I hope that someday, that will be true again.)

While I have no problem with cilantro at all, I have never put in my guac. Just wasn't traditional in El Paso/Juarez.

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No cilantro? A guacamole that I didn't make that I can eat? YAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!

(I remember, before the coming of the obsession with the evil weed that is cilantro, when I could eat guacamole in restaurants. I hope that someday, that will be true again.)

 I totally agree with saf. There was a time when cilantro was used as an ingredient. Now I feel like dishes should appear on the menu as; "Cilantro...with chicken". Cilantro overdose.

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I'm going to have to give a shout-out to the P Street store. My sister will be in town for a conference next month and staying at the Washington Hilton. Since it is just down the street from me, she wants to get together. OK.  I offered to cook and invited my brother and SIL. On the menu is rainbow trout stuffed with shrimp mousse (a Pierre Franey recipe that I once fed my late FIL who declared it the best fish he had ever eaten). I went the to AdMo Harris Teeter (which often has trout on special) to see if I could special order some to make sure it was available when I needed it. I got a weird sort of runaround having to do with "rain checks" and stuff. So, I took myself to the WF this afternoon and spoke with the seafood manager. We discussed things, he had me fill out a piece of paper describing exactly what I wanted and when, and will telephone me in advance about the whole deal.  We'll see, but I am certain I won't have to worry about this. I've got major cleaning to do because none of my family has been in this apartment since we moved into it. At least the food and wine (thanks to Ansonia!) is pretty much squared away.

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Grass-fed 85/15 ground beef on sale Friday $4.99/lb at all stores in the DC/MD/VA/PA area. That's $3/lb off.

[FYI, I've asked Al Dente to nudge us whenever something like this comes up.

---

(A general rule for restaurants and businesses is 'about twice a month' - anything *less* than that, and they're missing out on free advertising; anything more than that and it could start to feel like shilling. Restaurateurs and businesses, please *do* take note, and by all means take advantage of this free marketing platform.)]

Readers, please be on the lookout for what will hopefully be regular postings of Al Dente's Whole Foods special events and sales updates - we are pretty much Whole Foods' exact demographic, so this is much appreciated. :)

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On this subject, I discovered quite a few years ago--to my surprise--that many mainstream organic packaged products are cheaper at Whole Foods than Giant.  On my shopping rounds, I usually hit Giant first and then head down the street to Whole Foods, and if I had something on my list (say, a particular tomato product) I saw at Giant, I'd buy it there.  Out of curiosity, I'd look at the same item at Whole Foods and...cheaper.  After it happened several times, I changed my shopping habits.  It's not necessarily true on every item, and prices fluctuate at either store, but that was an interesting lesson.

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I almost never go to WF because it is farther away than most of my excellent shopping choices (commissary, Costco, TJ, & Bestway) but I'm out of coconut aminos-any suggestions for stuff to get there, that you can't get anywhere else?

Well, it's the only place I seem to find the yummy Ní³i Sí­rí­us chocolate. And, if you are on a dessert kick, Whole Foods carries Bethlehem Bars which are great!

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Desserts & sweets are about the only thing I can resist, but obscure condiments/ingredients? Like the 9 types of gluten free flour in my freezer or enough canned adobo chiles or dried chiles to flatten a football team? I'm there. I think I have fenugreek in my spice cabinet- I have NEVER used fenugreek- I purchased some asofoetida for something years ago & left it in my car overnight & almost had to dump the car.

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Went to Whole Foods today, got my coconut aminos, & a bunch of random stuff-lots of juices for E (she's into smoothies), product (that's what we call all the 'beauty' stuff she acquires)- lip balm, lotion, conditioner, perfume, grapeseed oil (then I found it at TJ's, too), some boxed soups (?) & random frozen stuff, & my favorite, giant bottles of Cholula hot sauce. Maybe if I shopped here more regularly, I could ferret out the special stuff, but we're good going quarterly. When my husband was doing a 'cleanse' & traveling, he said being across the street from a WF saved him, he ate all kinds of stuff from the salad & prepped food bar.

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I occasionally have trouble finding lamb at Whole Foods. Sometimes they're just out of it and don't know when it's coming in again.  One time that happened (a year or so back) I went to Union Meats to see if I could find it there instead and they did have what I wanted, but the prices had gone up.  The butcher went into a lengthy explanation about global demand, and what I took away from that is that demand for lamb from China has skyrocketed, and this has affected availability on world markets.  (FWIW, Union Meats says that they get their lamb locally, or relatively locally.)

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Does anyone know if any of the DC metro area Whole Foods stores still carry rye berries and which ones might have them?  I had been buying rye berries in bulk at the Old Town store, and the woman working there today told me they no longer carry them.  She offered to custom order them for me, but that would have meant committing to a 20-lb. bag, which is quite a bit larger than what I need.

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Does anyone know if any of the DC metro area Whole Foods stores still carry rye berries and which ones might have them?  I had been buying rye berries in bulk at the Old Town store, and the woman working there today told me they no longer carry them.  She offered to custom order them for me, but that would have meant committing to a 20-lb. bag, which is quite a bit larger than what I need.

I don't know about WF, sorry, but there's a vendor at the Dupont Farmers Market that carries them - Next Step, perhaps?

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I don't know about WF, sorry, but there's a vendor at the Dupont Farmers Market that carries them - Next Step, perhaps?

Heinz at Next Step has amazing grains: Barley, wheat berries {red wheat if I recall correctly} buckwheat and oats.  We use the barley and the buckwheat flour and they are amazing.  

Thanks!  It shows rye berries as one of the products on his website, so I'll plan a trip to Dupont to see if I can get some.

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The Old Town Whole Foods seems to have cut back on their cashiers during peak periods--lines during lunchtime and evening (especially between 6:00 and 7:30) have gotten very long the last few months, with the "express" checkout lines often extending all the way to the salad bar. 

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38 minutes ago, alexandria1 said:

The Old Town Whole Foods seems to have cut back on their cashiers during peak periods--lines during lunchtime and evening (especially between 6:00 and 7:30) have gotten very long the last few months, with the "express" checkout lines often extending all the way to the salad bar. 

I have noticed some fairly long lines at midday there in recent months. Since I'm there sporadically, I wasn't sure if it was a pattern or not.

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Today I walked over to H Street and bought some groceries, using my $10-off-a-$50 purchase coupon. I figured $50 from Whole Foods would fit in a  backpack and a WF paper bag I brought along. Since I hadn't researched the specials ahead of time, I found that a few items I was planning to get were deeply discounted, and I bought more than I had calculated weight wise. It sure was a workout walking back -_-.

I also did a pretty accurate job of estimating how much it would cost, which was impressive given how many items I wanted to buy had no price listed at all.  The stuff that was on sale mostly had noticeable signs emphasizing the price, but sometimes the items were for sale in different parts of the store and only had marked prices in some of those spots. Some items had no prices listed for them whatsoever. :angry::angry::angry:

This inconsistency with/lack of visible pricing is one of my hugest peeves about Whole Foods.  It's well-known that it's a problem with the chain, and yet it continues.  I guess I'm glad I'm apparently skilled at playing The Price is Right, but I really don't think I should have to do that in order to go grocery shopping.

That said, the staffing at this store is far superior to the Giant a few blocks away, at least for the opening period.

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I'll be frequenting this Whole Foods primarily so I won't have to ever go to that Giant again. To agree with your comment on staffing, I've been twice now, including on opening day after work. Even when the store was busy I was able to check out in probably a third of the time it would take me on a typical Giant trip. 

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6 hours ago, Pat said:

Last night was grilled salmon [Whole Foods prepared food bar] over torn romaine and chopped tomatoes with blue cheese dressing. Friday night was a salad (napa cabbage, romaine, tomato, avocado, blue cheese dressing) and leftover tuna noodle casserole from the freezer.

Do you get their plain, grilled salmon? If you're a regular customer of this, is it ever dry?

How's their sushi these days? I don't know who they contract with now - it was really good under Sushi-Ko, then abysmal with their provider after Sushi-Ko (it was a Japanese name, but I can't remember what it was) - those were both many years ago.

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5 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Do you get their plain, grilled salmon? If you're a regular customer of this, is it ever dry?

How's their sushi these days? I don't know who they contract with now - it was really good under Sushi-Ko, then abysmal with their provider after Sushi-Ko (it was a Japanese name, but I can't remember what it was) - those were both many years ago.

This is the first time I'd bought their prepared food in quite a long time, so I can't really speak to anything but what I got.  The salmon was not dry but I haven't had it in a very long time, so I can't say anything about trends.  And, of course, I put it on top of a salad with a dressing.  The bit of it I broke off and rinsed for my cat was very popular with her, FWIW.

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