Poll: People Generally Psyched For Whole Foods
Last week we asked readers to take a poll to get an idea of what the general mood about the arrival of the upscale grocer to Gowanus was. About half the respondents just want their Whole Foods and want it now. The majority of the other half a psyched for Whole Foods but have concerns…
Last week we asked readers to take a poll to get an idea of what the general mood about the arrival of the upscale grocer to Gowanus was. About half the respondents just want their Whole Foods and want it now. The majority of the other half a psyched for Whole Foods but have concerns about the environmental impact of the project, given how contaminated the 3rd Street site is. A bunch of comments from the poll are included on the jump.
Whole Foods Facing an Uphill Battle in Gowanus [Brownstoner]
GMAP
YES:
“53% of respondents to this poll have serious reservations about Whole Foods.
Posted by: SPer at June 15, 2007 12:03 PM”
MORE THAN HALF OF RESPONDENTS DIDN”T SUPPORT THE PROJECT AS PROPOSED.
Is this all about manufacturing Whole Foods spinn for the company. Does BrownStoner have a backbone?
10:10 – I got a chuckle out of your hazy reminiscences of Pathmark. You obviously haven’t been back since your first golden visit. The isles are no longer gleaming, the staff gave up on friendly, and the lettuce, while still not slimy, is not all that great. Most businesses in this city, especially retail stores, have their opening moments of glory, and then after the spotlight goes off, the usual surly NY attitude comes back.
I remember when Lowes opened, an employee literally followed me around the entire store, begging me to have him help me in some way. Those days are long gone.
Ah, we have the memories. Whole Foods will be the same way.
Grapes grow on vines, not trees. But since you apparently believe in magic, I am going to tell you a fairy tale.
Long long ago, when only crazy people and daring businesses inhabited lofts under the Manhattan Bridge, Dumbo was still a Disney movie and only a few poor students stayed around at Pratt after graduation, someone planned a birthday party at a loft on Water St. We decided to go shopping. We had heard a myth of a new Pathmark grocery store, somewhere sort of on the way to Bay Ridge, so we rolled a joint and drove off in a snow storm. Magically, thru the gusts, The Hamilton Ave. Pathmark appeared.
It was bright and shiny, filled with lettuce that wasn’t slimy and webbed lawn chairs perched above abundantly stocked aisles. There were greeting cards and paperback books and pantyhose and Pampers. There were cheerful checkout people and shiny vinyl floors. There was a parking lot and you could take groceries to a waiting car. There was a Dunkin Donuts with coffee.
Pathmark was the most remarkable thing we’d ever seen in Brooklyn.
We bought crudites for the birthday party, and other party junk and went home, still smoking that joint, and ended up snowed in and not able to have a party after all. But we had vegetables, dammit. And a grocery store the likes of which we hadn’t seen since we were vacationing somewhere far far away. Like Jersey.
Yes, once upon a time, services in this part of Brooklyn were a source of wonderment and joy.
I fucking LOVE the idea of Whole Foods. I need loofahs and organic lentil soup. I NEED frozen spelt dumplings and chakra bracelets.
Whatever genius unloaded a superfund site on Whole Foods deserves a special lifetime merit award.
Absolutely – let’s worry about the environmental impact of a few cars. Jesus, they’re cleaning up a century of poison so we can buy Peruvian Arugula.
I love New York.
I like to eat and I like to cook and I am also cheap. I found my favorite ecologically packaged cereal in WF for 2 dollars more than Fairway. Since I have to get into my car to shop anyway, I am happy to go to Fairway where the prices are great and the food excellent. Also, I go Russman (?) farms on 26th and 3rd for wonderful, cheap produce, and lots of other bargains. Something about Whole Foods whispers “sucker” to me. So, given my need to not pay top dollar for stuff, I am indifferent about the plans for a Gowanus whole foods.
What I would really like is to have a local supermarket which was halfway decent. The closest supermarket to my house, I think, is Met on Fulton which gives me the shakes. The chicken and meat is the same color grey and how can you mess up strawberries. Somehow they do. Nice and moldy and rotten on the ones you can’t see. It is sad that it takes me 45 minutes to get PARSLEY.
I think it is a riot by the way all this talk about status grapes. Who gives a damn.
Not even a $12 organic one.
All right, now–some of this shit is getting stupid. What the fk do you mean, shopping at Whole Foods “is a status symbol”?
A Rolex is a status symbol. You can’t wear a cantaloupe on your wrist.
Whole Foods may be a status symbol to some but I don’t think that’s the whole story. Whole Foods serves people who are (i) into food and cooking (ii) well off enough not to freak out at the prices (iii) too lazy to go further afield (iv) poorly served by the alternatives. It’s not unlike Fresh Direct. If there’s nowhere near to where you live to get decent meat, fish, cheese or produce and you care enough, you’ll pay for it. If you don’t, you won’t. Just because you can’t afford to shop there, or aren’t that into food doesn’t mean everyone who can and is, is a status whore. For what it’s worth, I think they’re overpriced too. But sometimes if the difference is doing without, it’s OK.
exactly. not only that, but the way the poll was made is ridiculous.
i like eating healthy and whole foods caters to that, but f that, those prices are ridiculous, i get half the food for my money and i can get most of it elsewhere.
8.67 for a regular bag of bing cherries the other day and now i’m done with whole foods.
this is retarted a poll regarding this on curbed.com is completely innacurate. think of who readds a fucking real estate blog!