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| Courtesy Bozeman Daily Chronicle |
Locally, there was a lot of anticipation both good and bad about Whole Foods. Several weeks after the store opened, I stopped by to find out what the hub-bub was about. I was also curious to see if the chain lived up to its earned nickname Whole Paycheck. Here's what I learned.
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There had long been talk of Whole Foods coming to Bozeman. Demolition of Fuddruckers building began in fall 2020, and the store opened on February 1, 2023.
Whole Foods is owned by Amazon so that has me thinking about the implications of shopping there. Rumor has it that despite being owned by an evil retail empire, the company has given Whole Foods a lot of autonomy and the chain treats is employees well. The truth? Who knows.
First Impressions
Here are some things I noticed and had reported to me.
- It's hard to tell the size of the store. In some ways it felt small but the shelves were stacked higher that a regular grocery store so perhaps it can jam a lot into its space. Either way, the store didn't as feel huge or impersonal as I was expecting.
- The day I shopped there they had a great selection of organic produce. The only disappointment was that they did not have loose spinach.
- Folks reported that the meat counter is very well stocked with a wide selection and competitive prices.
- The bulk section was extremely lacking with only a handful of bins of nuts, seed, rice, and a few other staples.
- Throughout the store I noticed labels tagging items as Kosher so I thought there might be a wide selection of international foods. When I got to the global section, I found it was surprisingly small. Even then Mexican food was lacking and that has in some ways become an American grocery store staple, no longer an exotic item.
- Whole Foods offers a great selection of packaged goods (cookies, chips, snacks, etc.) for parties and festive occasions, and their selection of gourmet cheeses was surprisingly large (And pungent!) with a variety of wheels, blocks, and logs.
- There was an extensive prepared foods section with a salad bar, deli dishes, sushi, and more.
- One friend reported that he was "deeply offended" that Whole Foods offered Amazon Prime shoppers a discount, and he swears he'll never set food in the store again.
- Most people reported that they were indifferent about Whole Foods and probably won't shop there often but they all acknowledged Whole Foods had at least one item not found elsewhere.
The Vibe
To me, Whole Foods wasn't any different than any other grocery store. Words like posh, elitist, and stuffy have been attached to Whole Foods, but I didn't find it to be any of those things. A grocery store is a grocery store, right?
A cross-section of Bozeman was out shopping at Whole Foods on the cold snowy evening I was there with the coiffed "new" Bozeman crowd (Urbane dressers, man buns, young hipsters with scrappy facial hair, etc.) outnumbering the fleece and flannel "old" Bozeman crowd. It was interesting sight-seeing with the most memorable shopper being an especially decked out young woman in a long leopard print tunic, leggings, and ballet flats with her ankles showing. An interesting choice on a cold snowy night.
The Verdict
My feelings about Whole Foods are much the same as what I wrote about WinCo. Yes, it could threaten local retailers, but we all have the ability to combat that by shopping locally. Bozeman keeps growing and as far as I can tell, the grocery stores in town, local and chain alike, all seem to be busy. Will I shop at Whole Foods? Probably not on a regular basis.
Food shopping in Bozeman is often a multi-store ordeal with it mandatory to go to two or more stores in one outing to get what you need. The main food shopping routine for me (and many people I know) is to go to Town and Country primarily for packaged items and then hit the Co-Op for produce, fish, and other fresh foods. As with WinCo, I now know that I have one more grocery store to go to if I can’t find what I need in the plethora of options around town.
Price Comparisons
I saved the receipt from my visit to Whole Foods and took a look at the prices of severals items on the shelves while I was there. Additionally, I checked out prices during subsequent visits to other grocery store. The experiment revealed a few things about costs across several Bozeman grocery stores...
- No one store was the most expensive or the least expensive for every item I looked it. Some stores that were less expensive overall had higher prices on a few things and vice versa.
- Whole Food has very competitive prices for packaged foods.
- The Community Food Co-Op, also with a reputation for high prices, had surprisingly reasonable prices on several items.
- Town & Country lives up to its reputation for value with good deals on many items but it was surprising to find prices on some items more expensive than at other stores.
- For the most part, the Bozeman Rosauers is expensive!
Below is my list. None of these items were on sale so these were the store's regular prices on the days I shopped there. I picked primarily package goods as produce costs tend to fluctuate depending on time of year and so forth.
Annie's Mac & Cheese
- Co-op - $1.69
- Rosauers - $3.29
- Town & Country - $2.02
- Whole Foods - $2.49
Bulk peanut butter – per pound
- Co-op - $5.99
- Rosauers - $4.39
- Whole Foods- $5.99
Mary's Gone CrackersCo-op - $5.83 Rosauers - $6.29 Town & Country - $5.47 Whole Foods - $5.79 Nature's Bakery Fig BarsCo-op - $6.32 Rosauers - $6.99 Town & Country - $6.23 Whole Foods - $4.79 Panzanelli crackers
- Co-op - $5.19
- Rosauers - $4.99
- Whole Foods - $5.29
Quadratini
- Co-op - $5.99
- Whole Foods - $5.49
Splitz Pretzels (If you're a pretzel fan, you should check these Pennsylvania pretzels out. They are amazing!)
- Rosauers - $4.19
- Whole Foods - $5.19
- World Market - $3.99
Talenti Gelato
- Co-op - $5.99
- Rosauers - $7.79
- Town & Country - $6.29
- Whole Foods - $6.49
Wallaby Smooth Yogurt
- Co-op - $6.99
- Rosauers - $5.99
- Town & Country - $5.89
- Whole Foods - $5.29
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