Whole Foods vs Walmart
Posted by Danielle Bean in Food on Thursday, May 06, 2010 10:00 AM
Walmart does everything in a big way. Whatever the retail giant does seems to have vast repercussions for our economy and culture.
When I first watched Food, Inc. several months ago, I was surprised to hear some organic farmers hail Walmart as a local foods hero.
In a recent Atlantic article, The Great Grocery Smackdown, Corby Kummer reports on a comparison analysis he and some friends did between Walmart’s “green” offerings and the foods available at Whole Foods:
I conspired with my contrarian friend James McWilliams, an agricultural historian at Texas State University at San Marcos and the author of the new Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly. He enlisted his friends at Fino, a restaurant in Austin that pays special attention to where the food it serves comes from, as co-conspirators. I would buy two complete sets of ingredients, one at Walmart and the other at Whole Foods. The chef would prepare them as simply as possible, and serve two versions of each course, side by side on the same plate, to a group of local food experts invited to judge.
And the unexpected results?
... the tasters were surprised when the results were unblinded at the end of the meal and they learned that in a number of instances they had adamantly preferred Walmart produce. And they weren’t entirely happy.
In the end, many Walmarts offer competitively fresh and varied organic and locally grown foods at a lower price than Whole Foods. The fact that Walmart represents a large share of the food market makes the company’s decision to encourage organic and local farming a hugely powerful one.
The question is ... can “foodie snobs” stomach the idea of doing their grocery shopping at Walmart?
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