RantWoman has gone by the Whole Foods in some circles affectionately known as "Whole Paycheck" a few times on the number 8 bus. Obviously, if RantWoman calls the place "Whole Paycheck," RantWoman may need to upgrade her paycheck, but RantWoman continually aspires, like many an urbane consumer to shop above her current pay check. In that vein, today when she was done at WA Talking Book and Braille Library instead of plopping back on the SLUT or just walking to her next bus stop, RantWoman decided to check out Whole Foods.
RantWoman decided to write about this for an eccentric reason: because of its location, this particular Whole Foods is the sort of place RantWoman will see enough to maybe bring in blinder friends who otherwise might not even know it's there. Whether or not RantWoman's friends would ask for help if RantWoman were not around, as a clump of friends, we might all just set off together and see where things go.
RantWoman was kind of charmed by the superhuman-sized enameled family with Asian features on the entry courtyard; the long bank of steps up to the surrounding building also looked intriguing architecturally, but RantWoman opted not to check much out. Instead, RantWoman made a beeline for the store.
At Whole Foods, after one gets past a bank for floral things, there is a maze off to the right of the entry. The lighting gives RantWoman a headache, the price tags on the shelves are impossible to read, and RantWoman found the prepared food / latte stand section of the store distracting.
Produce is always a good place to start. Once RantWoman got used to the idea that she was going to need to go from blurry pod to blurry pod instead of up and down aisles, she just plunged in. RantWoman was delighted to see both fresh figs and delightfully succulent locally-grown strawberries. Locally grown berries are a heavenly idea: RantWoman wound up not purchasing any because she was perplexed about how to get them home in her bag without turning the perky little green baskets into strawberry puree. Note: RantWoman also saw the more stable-looking plastic clamshells of berries, but couldn't imagine them after getting to taste the locally grown ones. RantWoman also thought seriously of buying some figs, but there was no price tag in sight. RantWoman got so distracted by the initial fruit options she paid no attention to what was going on in the green leafies / broccoli / cabbage realm.
RantWoman has the slight sense she might be disappointed about veggies compared to the Roosevelt store. The Roosevelt store has lovely displays of vegetables with nicely done signs RantWoman can almost read about why one would care about 3 or 4 colors and flavors of beets or what that organic leafy stuff is. Perhaps RantWoman missed something or perhaps someone thinks people in the middle of the city care less about different flavors of beets.
Eventually, RantWoman made it past enough fruit and produce to run into grilling supplies, long coolers of, RantWoman thinks, cold beer and then meat and fish. When RantWoman was shopping the meat department staff were all clumped in a big mass having some sort of pep rally / tasting session. RantWoman is all for staff morale; she just would have looked more attentively at the meat offerings if the clump of staff had not been impeding her navigation. Overall the impression was less open and inviting than at the Roosevelt store by the same name,
After the meat department, RantWoman did find a few linear shelves full of products RantWoman could hypothetically be interested in like breakfast cereal and crackers. What is it, though, with grocery stores and lighting? Somehow it is considered cute or energy-efficient or just chic to have less lighting in the aisles and to point a lot of bare bulbs at the product. This adds up to extra shadows in the aisles and since the bare bulbs wind up ppointing at consumers as well as products, spots of bright light amid the shadows. RantWoman thinks she is not alone in preferring much more even illumination. RantWoman also thinks there are probably ways to accomplish this without either full fluorescent washout or massive outflow of megawatts. The problem is not only Whole Foods. RantWoman knows of at least one Safeway that also has this problem in several departments. To be blunt, this kind of lighting gives RantWoman a headache.
Even worse, since RantWoman is shopping a little past her pocketbook, pennies matter. Bad lighting plus excessive coyness about pricing is really not a happy recipe for RantWoman making the choice to actually buy rather than peer at product and put it back on the shelves. Unlike Safeway's trademark black pring on red (contrast? what's that?) Whole Foods sales signs have nice lettering and good contrast; the problem is that everything else is tagged in small labels right on the shelves. The aisles are dimly lit. RantWoman knows the place runs pricey so she tends not to take chances on the Whole Paycheck issues. In short, RantWoman was interested in some of the products but she bought little partly because she found dealing with prices so tedious.
Okay, so there is one product that is almost always guaranteed to entrance RantWoman: shopping bags. RantWoman has no particular opinion about the Mayor's yearning for less shopping bag trash; RantWoman just aims for things that are easy to pack and easy to carry. Usually this means long handles for toting on shoulders rather than in pre-arthritic hands. A really big highlight of RantWoman's visit to Whole Foods: not one but TWO really delightful totebags. One is large and black with either short handles or one long enough to go over the shoulder.
The other bag is called the Feedbag. First it folds up and zips into a compact pouch. Second the stiff burlap exterior makes a great stabilized bottom. Third the bag has THREE inside pockets. The only thing that would send RantWoman further into orbit about either bag would be reflector features. Considering the day though, the bags are one thing likely at some point to lure RantWoman back in for purchases.
RantWoman found her way past the coolers and on to prepared foods, lattes and the dining area. RantWoman briefly considered how that all would work for say business time lunch. RantWoman did not spend much time evaluating that whole wing of the store beyond that. RantWoman thinks the glass and view onto Denny Way might in fact work, at least as long as all the construction doesn't take out many more trees.
After RantWoman got home and poked around the internet, she noticed a nice downloadable PDF file of the weekly specials. The only problem from RantWoman's perspective is that the PDF is laid out for cuteness, not tagged or executed in a way that makes it easy for RantWoman to read with a screen reader and figure out which prices correspond with which items. RantWoman poked and prodded at the file several ways with no improvement. It is possible RantWoman does not know some key trick; she certainly does not know offhand what to do as an alternative but she has encountered other files like this and highly recommends other presentation choices. Perhaps if the info were available in a way RantWoman could use, she would ask for and actually buy things.
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