Medford Whole Foods bird house?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Has anyone else noticed that the new(ish) Whole Foods on the Mystic Valley Parkway in Medford has a tiny, wooden bird house attached to the rafters over the bulk display?

What's with that?

I probably would never have noticed except that I went in there today and there was a little sparrow flying around while I was buying my groceries.

Comments

[justjess.livejournal.com]

Uh, the owner likes birds? I dunno. It's a (way overpriced) natural foods store; it makes sense that they would support wildlife.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Overpriced compared to what? A lot of the things I buy there aren't even available anywhere else around here, save perhaps Dave's or Pemberton Market, and they're definitely more expensive there.

[justjess.livejournal.com]

In general for a grocery store, but also when compared to Trader Joe's. I was astounded the first time I went to TJ's after shopping at Whole Foods for awhile. It's in Arlington, though, so it's a bit of a hike if you don't have a car.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

That's sometimes true, but they don't have fish or meat counters and their produce is neither as good nor as diverse. Also they wrap a lot of vegetables in shrink wrap and styrofoam, which I hate. Also, Whole Foods has a strong focus on selling locally made products of which Trader Joe's sells almost none.

That said, if you are buying liquor, prepared, frozen, or any other kind of packaged food like snacks like crackers, nuts, or chips, canned food, etc., they are usually considerably cheaper.

[justjess.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. =)

I'm still running on the college kid budget, so price is generally my first and only main consideration.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

No doubt shopping at Whole Foods often *does* end up costing you more money, not so much because they charge more for the same exact thing but because they tend to carry more expensive things, and I think it's perfectly valid that someone on a college student budget would want to go somewhere with a little bit greater focus on bargains rather than, well, quality.

I just tend to think of "overpriced" as meaning that you're being ripped off and/or wasting your money by going there, and as a regular Whole Foods customer, that tends to make me a little defensive. :-)

We haven't had a Whole Foods vs. TJ's fight in a while...

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mattt/]

Fair enough. I was in that position for years.

Whole Foods is not a regular grocery store, though. So the question really is: overpriced compared to what?

Whole Foods provides all natural/organic foods. And those foods often cost significantly more than their regular counterparts.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

i went vegan for a diet i was doing, and my diet partner wanted to go to TJs. i was really, really confused why nearly all the produce was already picked for you and packaged, it was the most ridiculous and wasteful thing i'd ever seen. also, every TJs i've ever been in has been a total clusterfuck. the layouts are such that i feel like i'm always in someone's way, and forget about trying to maneuver a shopping cart.

most regular grocery stuff you can get at shaw's for cheaper than either place, so i like whole foods for produce i can't get there or the bulk bins, which actually are pretty reasonably priced. whole foods really gets you with their prepared stuff, but everything else seems pretty average. their 365 brand is also decently priced, but again you could just go to shaw's.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Have you looked at other supermarkets in the area? Shaw's seems to have ridiculously high prices (at least on what I'm looking for) compared even to Stop & Shop, nevermind Foodmaster or Market Basket. The cereal I eat every morning is two bucks a box more at Shaw's than it is at Trader Joe's.

Also, there's a food co-op in Central Square with bulk bins.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

cereal is outrageous these days anyway, have you noticed? [just a general comment]

anyway, i really loathe stop and shop. they are frequently out of whatever is on sale, and their produce is the worst i've seen of any of the chains. i like shaw's because they often have the brands and things i buy on sale, and i always save a lot with my shaws card. if it wasn't for that, i probably would go elsewhere, but i do pretty well there.
[should also clarify i live in brighton, and spend a lot of time in cambridge, so shaws is also most convenient.]

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

In my opinion, the best prices on fresh foods in the area are either from Market Basket on Somerville Ave (excellent selection, excellent prices, a bit out of the way - but with the money you save you can easily take a cab home) or right in Davis Square, from McKinnon's and that place across the street from it that I can never remember the name of that has a produce section in front.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Farmer's Bounty?

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

Yes, that sounds right.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

If that place replaced their entire convenience store section with more fresh produce they'd have something going for them, and if they made it all organic and as local as possible, they'd have something one-of-a-kind in the area.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I'd agree about Market Basket's produce, and especially the one in Union Square has quite a diverse selection of unusual fruits and vegetables.

That said, I have to ask: why is it that Whole Foods, the national chain store, carries so many more local brands than any of our locally owned supermarkets combined? It really drives me nuts how almost all of the shelf space at Market Basket/Shaws/Stop & Shop/Foodmaster are completely occupied by products from ADM, ConAgra, or Tyson with few exceptions anywhere in the store. I feel like most of these stores do not sell a single thing that isn't available at supermarkets everywhere in the country.

Also, food + fluorescent lighting + antiseptic smell = yuck.

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the rest, but Shaw's is the Boston-area name for the nationwide Albertson's chain - hasn't been particularly local for years and years.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Touché.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Simple: Carrying local foods are more expensive. Goes hand in hand with the complaints about Whole Foods, really.

(I don't know this as a fact, feel free to point out that I am wrong, but it certainly *seems* to be true, even within WF)

[m00n.livejournal.com]

So what that basically says is that cost is the *only* determining factor in deciding whether or not the regular grocery stores will carry something.

How depressing. Kind of makes you wonder why they bother carrying anything that's not store brand at all.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

Don't get me started on store brands - Shaw's has been squeezing out products for years. I thought they were the worst offender by far, but yesterday I couldn't find a bottle of RealLemon at Stop & Shop.

Which may have had something to do with the game (there were three bottles of caffeine-free Diet Coke mid-afternoon - the only Coke products left in the entire store), but I didn't see a label on the shelf for RealLemon. Major suck.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I should point out that in my own experience, the Shaws in Porter Square definitely caters more to the tastes of Cambridge/Somerville than your average Shaws, i.e. more organic products and ethnic foods.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Also, there's a food co-op in Central Square with bulk bins.

You mean Harvest Co-op (http://www.harvestcoop.com)? I like their store in JP a lot more, and in that neighborhood they are the main organic grocer. The problem with Harvest is that, at least compared to Whole Foods, their stores are dirty and their produce isn't as good (i.e. rotten) and costs more. Their bulk section is nice, and quite extensive, but the store is just so much less pleasant to be in than a Whole Foods, and when I'm buying my food I don't want to be thinking about antiseptic.

[aki.livejournal.com]

Harvest is great for bulk goods, especially grains, but lousy for most other stuff. I have to admit, they have the most extensive selectino of canned tomatoes I've ever seen - I love it. But it's really a terrible place to shop for produce. You're much better off at Shaw's (at the least!)

[aki.livejournal.com]

I haven't found Foodmaster to be much of a bargain for most things. Meat might be cheaper? I dunno, they all feel so seedy that I've stopped going to the, even though the have the best store name EVER.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

A lot of what's going on at Trader Joe's is people test-marketing stuff (that may subsequently be sold elsewhere under totally different branding), which probably explains why a lot of it is prepackaged.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Who test markets apples?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

whole foods really gets you with their prepared stuff

Yep. And besides, their prepared food is usually *real food* so it is worth the money if you can afford it.

[aki.livejournal.com]

I feel in general that, while more expensive, Whole Foods is usually "worth the money". That is, I've never been disappointed in a product I've gotten there. You can get the same Cabot cheese or Domino's sugar or organic baby carrots for nearly half the price at Market Basket, don't get me wrong. But their produce is wonderful, the prepared food is generally delicious, and they have more selection in many areas than other local chains.

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

my bet is that sparrow got inside the building during construction/renovation, and they decided to let it live inside to eat the bugs that invariably come in on organic produce.

[zenala.livejournal.com]

OK, so it wasn't my imagination seeing a bird flying around there tonight...

[m00n.livejournal.com]

pensivewombat tried to convince me otherwise, but no. I saw it twice. It was definitely there. :-)

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

uh...

while i have seen birds get into stores, food courts, etc, i would not encourage them to live around food like that. seems pretty unsanitary.

gross.

[jodi.livejournal.com]

because food grown on farms is kept away from all bugs and birds and dirt?

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

uh, no, but most people do make an effort to keep birds away from crops first of all, and secondly, this isn't a farm. it's a store in the city. and i'd rather birds not be wading through my nuts and grains.

[subtledagger.livejournal.com]

Short of shooting or poisoning it, there's not much that can be done other than what they're doing. Trying to trap it.

But it doesn't seem to want to cooperate.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

oh no, i'm fine with the trap idea, i didn't realize when i initiially commented that's what they were doing.

[subtledagger.livejournal.com]

The bird got in a couple weeks ago and they have not been able to get it out. They don't want to shoot it, the houses are traps.

Humane traps.

[ron_newman]

Shooting a gun in a grocery store wouldn't be a great idea anyway...

[livingadream.livejournal.com]

Shooting a bird isn't worth initiating mass panic? Drats!

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

"Whole Foods: The Action Movie." I want.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Yep, it's intended to be a humane trap!

[aki.livejournal.com]

I dunno, I find it adds to the shopping experience. ^_^

To Whole Foods credit, I've never seen bird droppings or the like. I'm sure they're there somewhere, but they keep the store in good shape (generally).