Okay. I admit it. I shop at Whole Foods. I know the Whole World thinks they are ridiculously priced, but as I've grown increasingly pro-organic, I've ended up doing the majority of my grocery shopping there and justify my purchases this way: their organic food is actually cheaper then Kroger's (a price check of a fresh basil bunch showed $6.99 at Kroger, $4.99 at WF)...so is their Earth's Best baby food (double the price at Kroger)...and they have all-natural beef, poultry and pork- whereas, our local Kroger just carries the all-natural beef.
And besides the benefits of occasionally shopping with Ashley Judd and Tipper Gore and getting a fresh fruit smoothie at the fruit stand (my son adores the 'Sunset'), Whole Foods now offers a newsletter that tells you how to save money at the store, called the Whole Deal. You can download it here. My husband picked it up the other day and declared that it was 'actually a good read.' This is a man that usually reads Brad Thor novels and Sports Illustrated in his spare time, so take that for what it is worth.
One interesting tidbit I learned was that they sell spices separately in bulk, which I thought was genius. You don't have to buy a whole thing of 'anise' if your recipe calls for it...they sell it by the teaspoon! When I went back to verify this was true, I was told they are sold in the Whole Foods Body store (right across the way)- which I found a tad inconvenient, but nonetheless, it would save me storage space and money.
