The MAHA Battle With Whole Foods

 Is Whole Foods as healthy as people want it to be? SOme say yes. Some vehemently say no. This is the real question right now. Is this totally  blue health food grocery store ready to embrace deep red MAHA beliefs? It's up for debate.

New contributor and food writer Ben Ryder Howe wrote about this debate in yesterday's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Whole Foods has always been known for good  gluten free foods and fresh from the vine and tree produce.It had a reputation of selling freshly prepared food that was not only healthy but also delicious.It advocated lower sugar in its' products along with no chemicals or artificial coloring. Yet there was some problems, namely the prices.It was jokingly referred to as "Whole Payvheck" because it was so expensive to shop at any of the branches.Now the headache comes from MAHA or Make America Healthy Again.The company's founder and owner, John Mackey is a capitalist and also a libertarian. Like other MAHA  he is a zealot for eating well. Errol Schweizer,a  former vice-president for the grocery edition declares that whole Foods is a straight up dialectical contradiction,. Whole Foods can appeal to both sides of the aisle.

Yet  the store is reluctant to embrace total MAHA ideology.Corby Kummer, executive director of Food and Society,at the Aspen Institute  a non profit think tanks feels that the store has always had a get out of my face and don't tell me what to do attitude.It's been anti-government and anti-corporation. Whole Foods has always been for pele who have rejected the mainstream.One critic of this is Alex Clark, host of the podcast, "Culture Apothocary With Alex Clark," part of the Turning Point USA Network founded by Charlie Kirk.She has embraced healthy living during an aha moment when she was eating too much Chick FIket .Now the fervent MAHA only gets her foods at Whole Food .She can;t figure out why this grocery store who has been one of the first and biggest promoters of healthy eating won;t jump on the MAHA bandwagon, she has accused the company of shying away from typical MAHA causes such as opposition to seed oils and betraying its. mission to improve American health. Yet the store shies away from being too red or too blue. It could also be afraid of losing it's liberal coastal base of loyal customers too.

Should Whole Foods be a part of a political debate? No.It's just a grocery store serving people who want to eat well. That's not political. Tha't s just good common sense.

The Lure Of Costco

 Costco is one of those customer nirvanas.It offers food in bulk quantity for relatively low prices.Members of their club can walk in and buy anything from three dozen eggs to even jewelry and designer hand bags. It;s the ultimate shopper and home chef's paradise.

New contributor BenRyder Howe who has also written for New Yorker Magazine wrote about this retail giant in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Costco has been around since the Sixties started by Sol Price. His family were the immigrants from Minsk who  started in New York in trade. In the 1920's they moved to San Diego California where young Sol then went to the University of Southern California.He began by re-presenting grocers and other merchants He began to then  buy San Diego warehouses into member only bazaars. members were charged a small fee.Shoppers could buy anything from hosiery to cigarettes. The bazaars were called Fed Mart. The key was making those members renew year after year.It was easy for him to do. Mr. Price was known for his gift of connecting with consumers.even though he was making money he was at odds with it , thanks to his family's Socialist beliefs.In fact Costoc is one of the best places to work for today.Most people who started off as baggers are now executives and their pay rate is much in line with the Price family values. A starting salary is twenty-six dollars an hour as opposed to other big box stores like Target and Walmart which start employees off at seventeen dollars an hour.

Costco contributed to flourish as it 's name changed in the 1990's. It grew too, with the first Costco opening up in Anchorage Alaska. It has merged with several different companies over the years yet strangely and stubbornly maintained Mr. Price;'s vision. 'Now the stores are world wide with more planned for  South Korea, China Japan and Australia. There have been drawbacks .For years the company refused to add more warehouses.It was because of management concerns regarding that new facilities would be too challenging to run. The concerns seemed to have wane because Costco now opens up thirty warehouses a year. Trends in foreign countries, namely the Asian market come to the States.Expertise in South Korean and Taiwanese shopping have translated into availability  in the US of such products as braised abalone in brown sauce,giant red sea cucumber and Chinese style bacon- cured pork strips. For one Toktoker Yutack Kang has told his 463,00 about  another Asian staple frozen durian pulp and declaring that their Asian food section is superb. This resonates deeply with Asian American shoppers Other shoppers have developed a cult like love of the store.The store is great if you do have a big family to buy for. Smaller ones may wind up with overage  and stale food.

Costco will always be the number one store in the US.It offers a wide arrange of different items .It also lets people buy food in bulk - something other grocery stores don't offer.