The Detroit Whole Foods, which opened today, has inspired a barrage of earnest conversation about the city's food deserts and affordability. To accommodate concerns that Whole Foods will be too expensive for regular Detroiters, the Midtown store is expected to offer lower prices than nearby branches of the national chain.
To test both their lower-prices-in-Detroit claim, and the idea that Whole Foods will be a significant oasis in the city's food desert, we've put together a small shopping list to compare costs and options at Detroit Whole Foods with their suburban stores and other grocers that Detroiters -- particularly in the (sigh) greater downtown area--would be likely to patronize.
Our list includes some basic staples (bread, milk, Cheerios, and peanut butter), prepared food items (sushi and rotisserie chicken), beverages (beer, wine, soda), packaged salad, and the ingredients for two dinners (spaghetti with tomato sauce and slow-cooker jambalaya).
We started with a trip to the Whole Foods in West Bloomfield and will over the next day or so check out Honeybee Market, University Foods, Aldi on Woodward in Highland Park, as well as the new Detroit Whole Foods.
That last check-in may have to wait until whenever there isn't a line outside. Sorry, I'm not waiting in line for a shopping cart. They'll have tomatoes tomorrow.
West Bloomfield Whole Foods isn't just a million miles of awful traffic away from Detroit, it's kind of on a different planet. Just up the road is a Ferarri dealership -- a whole building where people are paid to sit around and wait for you to come in and buy a not-terribly-practical $200,000 sports car.
Despite the high-end locale, generally the prices aren't outrageous if you shop responsibly. Store brand items are reasonably-priced. They aren't Costco cheap, but seem like a decent value.
If, on the other hand, you fill up your cart from the aisle of homeopathic remedies or purchase a $12.85 12-pack of "Electrolyte Water," your debit card may weep. We live in the Great Lakes. Drink tap water instead of this yuppie Brawndo.
Anyway to our list, here's what we found at the West Bloomfield Whole Foods,
Staples
- Peanut Butter: $4.99/18 oz. jar
- The Cheerios-like "Purely O's": $4.99/9 oz. box or $3.99/12.5 oz
- 365-brand 2% milk: $3.49/gallon
- Packaged whole wheat bread: $4.99/loaf (and kind of a short loaf)
- Fresh bread: $3.99/loaf
Beverages
-
Bell's Oberon: $7.99/six-pack
- Labbatt's Blue: $10.99/12-pack
- Quail Creek Chardonnay: $5.99/bottle
- Our Daily Red table wine: $8.99/bottle
- 365-brand cane-sweetened soda: $2.99/six-pack
Basic Dinner Salad
- Spring Mix bag salad: $2.49/4 oz. bag
- Organic tomatoes: $3.49/pound
Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce
- 365-brand whole wheat pasta: $1.69/pound
- Muir Glen organic tomato sauce: $3.99/jar
- Ground chuck: $5.99/pound
- Sliced mushrooms: $3.89/8 oz. package
Slow-cooker Jambalaya (we picked this recipe because it's not only easy to make and delicious but requires a wide range of ingredients from fresh meat to vegetables to packaged items like chicken broth and rice)
- Fresh shrimp: $17.99/pound (peeled) or $14.99/pound (in shells)
- Turkey sausage: $5.99/pound
- Chicken breast: $7.99/pound
- Pepper: $3.99/pond
- Onion: $1.49/pound
- Celery: $1.99/pound
- Diced tomatoes: $4.99/28 oz. jar
- 365-brand chicken broth: $1.99/32 oz. carton
Prepared foods
- Rotisserie chicken: $9/whole chicken, or $13 for an organic bird
- Salmon or tuna roll: $7.99
So consider this a kind of baseline. As we check other stores, we'll see if the Detroit Whole Foods is less expensive than the rest of the chain and if it really does fill an unserved need in the greater downtown marketplace.
