Been a while since I have been to the Whole Foods by me in SF - but last time I was there I noticed that the wine selection was about on par with the BevMo next to me (which means it was pretty bad). Ever since Amazon bought them, I have found no reason to bother going to one since it was more than just the wine selection that became bad.
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Yeah, we aren’t exactly short on good places to buy wine. Robert’s of Woodside is a destination, and Draeger’s stores have an impressive selection. Gene’s Fine Foods used to be, but they lost their wine guy a few years ago and the fun/geek factor desiccated. Piazza’s is decent, with a better local selection, geeky beer section and some superior food items.
Yep. I rarely shop there these days. But when I have I would usually take a quick perusal of the wine section because I always read about people finding some interesting things and bumping into deals. It would always be a selection that seemed to be worse than Ralph’s or Vons.
15 years ago I lived very close to one in LA and would definitely find some cool things. Geek things like Sea Smoke or a Zin from a Santa Clara winery that usually mostly sold locally for a song. I think the corp just chose to stop trying to sell unique wines and went for the easy buys well before the Amazon buyout.
As someone else mentioned, the cheese counters are far less adventurous and curated these days as well. You can still get some good things there but they’ve definitely fallen into a pattern that didn’t used to exist.
So, I actually worked in the wine department of a Whole Foods after college. At that time (2006-2008), buying decisions for the wine department were more or less fully made on a store by store level.
We were the only store in our state at that time, so maybe this was part of it.
Frankly, the Whole Foods of today is almost completely unrecognizable to the stores that I previously worked in those couple of years. That said, even though I now live on the opposite end of the country I still find myself shopping there for things between Costco runs. Honestly, I almost feel like the store is cheaper now. Or maybe I’m just not that poor anymore. That said, the 20% (or so I remember) discount on EVERYTHING (even wine) in the store was pretty fantastic.
Additionally, someone mentioned the Prisoner wines being there now. I can say with 100% certainty that they were sold at Whole Foods at least as early as 12/31/2007 as, I’m ashamed to admit, I took a bottle of that (procured with my discount) to a New Years Party that year. That said, I guess I was only 24 and just beginning my wine journey so I won’t beat myself up too much.
Well, that Prisoner was a different wine than the one sold today.
I am not sure how Whole Foods worked in other parts of the country but when they came to Portland Maine, they bought out a large health food store and made the owner the manager of the new store.She brought in all they small producers she had been doing business with in her store. Which as an owner of a small bakery is how I did business with WF. She also hired the manager of one of the nicer wine stores in town to run the wine dept. For the first few years, the wine selection was very good if a little pricey. Fast forward to today and every body from that era is long gone-local bakers,small farmers,cheesemakers,etc even the wine manager. On a side note, I had to deal with the corporate office in Texas once a month and my experience was nothing but positive. I said I didn’t know how to do the spread sheets for inventory control and the guy in the corporate office said to email him once a month and he’d do it for me. They also paid quickly. I wish I had a pre and post Amazon story to relate but I got out before they took over but the proof is in the pudding.
I don’t know if it just changed, seems like it’s been 3-4 years of steady decline. Coincidentally I found a few bottles of Vietti Barolo yesterday for $32 but those deals are few and far between.
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Whole Foods Pinecrest has a nice selection.
Have you been to Marchant Manor (Cedar/Lee)?
They make some really delicious cheeses and have a great variety.
https://marchantmanor.com/
Yeah, their wine section is dross now. Just the usual big supermarket stuff, no difference from a Albertssons, Ralph’s or Costco.
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When I think of how WF deteriorated (at least the location I observe most closely) I break it down into multiple dimensions
a) issues caused by the location basically turning into mini hub for Amazon returns, Fresh delivery, and all the orange lockers. To me this basically boosts the amount of irritating foot traffic in the stores, parking lot crowding, and people roaming the aisles staring into their phones hunting down something for an online order. Last 3 years these have gotten worse.
b) product mix changes perhaps motivated by Amazon style management, perhaps from pandemic issues. Examples include, but are not limited to: fish monger now has a lot of frozen fish, where once upon a time it was fresh (and one would pay for it). I recently saw they were selling wet STP treated scallops at dry/dayboat prices, and unless one really inquired (front line fishmonger had to get a manager) it was not disclosed anywhere. At the butcher, lots of items are now offered in styro case ready 1 lb formats. They still have 2-3 butchers who will prep and pack up in old school paper as requested, but they’re definitely steering customers toward prepackaged in open chest fridges.
c) national brands squeezing out local/interesting ones. I’m not sure if this is a subset of the above, but that seems to be megatrend. Nothing wrong with the Columbus brands of charcuterie etc. but I see it everywhere…why does WF need to carry that? Same with General Mills cereals.
When this location opened up, everyone was excited. And now local competitors have upped their game and this one has really fallen apart. Perhaps the wine dept has been sucky for a while, but for other reasons I had not noticed it before.
Wasn’t familiar with Marchant Manor, I’ll be sure to check them out.
I was thinking of the cedar rd location when it opened, but I do usually shop Pinecrest. That said they had a whole wheel of Rogue River Blue that was a month past expiration a couple of months ago. I nearly cried.
We went to the Burbank Whole Foods this morning. The sold out items are Caymus and Caymus Special Select. This ain’t what they display in Silver Lake.
Well, they do have 99 Crimes.
I find myself shopping there more because the grocery situation here in Santa Fe NM is very limited. Other than WF, there is Albertsons and Smiths and that’s about it though we do have lots of small specialty shops that are expensive.
Whole Foods provisioning has changed over the time since Amazon acquired it. They now buy regionally rather than by store or small group of stores. They are able to offer better prices as a result. And the SKUs offered are more uniform among stores.
A few years ago I would occasionally buy wine at a WF in Cambridge, MA near my work. They had a good selection for a grocery store then. I think this was after Amazon bought them, but maybe they hadn’t yet gotten around to dealing with the wine selections yet at that time.
They do have Honig in that photo, a producer I greatly respect.
Dan Kravitz
I wonder if grocery stores can’t compete with online for fine wines. Groceries need bigger margins i guess and then wines don’t sell bc people know the real price. Costco was great for fine wine 5 years ago, it’s pretty terrible now.
The pizza at my whole foods is the only thing that keeps me coming back.
Yeah, no reason to buy wine at Amazon Foods anymore. Back in the day, they had some interesting stuff and occasional sale (I recall once a 30% off sale that compounded with the 6-bottle discount). Now, pretty much the usual suspects, nothing compelling.
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My WF gets some decent wines like Vajra, nothing super special, but at 10% off of 10% off of 50 bucks I will pick up Frog’s Leap cab from time to time, Chapoutier CdR blanc, etc. Better than the average grocery store selection here.