Why It’s Called Whole Paycheck

We hear it a lot from lots of different people, those folks who occasionally shop at Whole Foods Market. Boy, that store sure does have an eclectic array of food choices, as well as other consumer products like beauty and health care. As a matter of fact, one store employee told me that not a single item in the place comes from Proctor and Gamble. Now that must take some doing for a grocer.<br />n<br />nAfter telling all about the vibrant atmosphere, the selections, the incredible amount of organic and otherwise “unconventionally grown” produce, invariably it comes down to how darn expensive the place is. Thus the nickname it has earned itself of Whole Paycheck.<br />n<br />nIt’s never been easy for me to explain verbally to people why they’re so expensive. But, I do have an idea in my head of the reason. this week, in Grist’s regular column <a href=”http://www.grist.org/comments/food/” title=”Victual Reality”>Victual Reality</a>, author Tom Philpott provides <a href=”http://www.grist.org/comments/food/2007/04/26/giants/index.html” title=”original article”>an admiral job of an explanation</a>, in the guise of describing how the consolidation of the food production system into the hands of a few is squeezing out small producers and is generally not a good thing for anyone.<br />n<br />nNow I have a link to his article. If anyone talks about Whole Paycheck again, I have somewhere to send them.