Consumer Maven

How was your shopping experience?

A few weeks ago I was at my local Whole Foods when, at the checkout, the cashier looked at me and said, 'And how was your shopping experience?'  I nearly dropped my organically raised produce when he said that.  Oh ohhhh, have I been busted???  Because the Consumer Maven is all about assessing the customer's shopping experience, it almost seemed like a kowinkydinky moment.  Ironically, just a month before this they had this one woman cashier who had the personality of a twice dead zombie and the warmth to go with it.  I dealt with her once and vowed never to go through her line ever, even if it there were no people in it and every other line was 20+ deep.  Fortunately she seems to have left for the night of the living dead.

So back to the question, "How was your shopping experience?"  Lately at "my" Whole Foods, it's been very good.  In the past, what struck me was that while the seperate service areas such as fish, meats, supplements, etc. were very service oriented, the customer service and cashier areas had been somewhat spotty and occasionally unpleasant.  So far whatever changes that had been made about half a year ago seem to be, with the exception of the zombie woman, providing a good customer service level, one that we'd expect for a store whose claim to fame is higher standards.  In fact, my last few experiences at the customer service desk were great, as have been the cashier areas. 

It is interesting that this is a question that some stores and business should dare not ask unless they are truly prepared to stand behind change.  At least at Whole Foods, they had the guts to ask it.

A Slice of Heaven

We all have our favorite relatives, and one of mine is my ubber cool, rocking anthropologist cousin who lives in Los Angeles.  Growing up in East LA she's left university teaching and is an academic and researcher now living in West LA.  One of the reasons that she is a favored cousin is that we have so much in common -- from our interest in cultures, US subcultures, and of course, FOOD!!  She just send me an article from the LA Times by Wedgeworth and Deane about the joys of finding cookie dough in your refrigerator.  This has reminded me of a darling specialty cooking shop that I wanted to talk about.

I live in the Lincoln Square area in Chicago's North Side.  Originally I fled here to escape the gentrification in Andersonville, after fleeing the same in Lake View, where I grew up.  (I have friends who asked where I will move to next so they can buy low and live in a nice area, since I perpetually manage to escape into the next upscaled neighborhood).  One of the things I very much love about Lincoln Square is that we have an alderman who handles the difficult task of encouraging growth and gentrification, which seems determined to happen anyway, but balancing it with keeping a neighborhood feel.  The latter is kept intact by encouraging smaller independent retailers and discouraging the big box retailers, who inevitably lead to parking and irritating traffic congestion.  But I digress.  One of the charming little shops in my area is a place called the Chopping Block.

A few months ago I discovered that they started carrying premade cookie dough.  I normally am a whole grain type of gal, and I certainly never buy premade store bought cookie dough because of the preservatives and other additives that are in them.  Well, I thought I'd experiment and try one of their doughs.  Lacking the preservatives that usually make me ill, I enthusiastically decided to dive into testing them.  I started with Peanut Butter Oatmeal, which turns out to also have coconut in it and is amazingly scrumptious.  I bought a friend Chocolate Chip Krispy, but I've never received any samples so there probably just aren't any left.  Then I tried the holiday cookies.  The sugar cookie is good, almost as good as my own without the work!!  I've improvised and sliced them much thinner, then spreading some melted chocolate inside to bind them, and dipping part in chocolate and then finely ground pistachios.  Improvising is so much more fun without all the other cleanup!  Last but not least, I've tried the Chocolate Peppermint, which I highly recommend right out of the oven.  However, don't hang out by the cooling rack too long or those sweeties will never make it to the cookie jar.  My next venture, when they ever have it in stock again, will be White Chocolate Cherry.  Check them out yourself if you will, but save me one of each!  Chopping Block Cookies

Whole Foods Market Alternatives fresh from Jewel

I live on the north side of Chicago and shop at Whole Foods, Trader Joes and Jewel for food and household supplies.   In another time in Chicago, I used to be able to go to an assortment of natural foods stores, but for those of us in Chicago, for the most part, Whole Foods ate up all their natural foods grocer competition and now they are the only game in town.  Or they have been.

Over the past several years, I've been delighted to find that my local Jewel carried a decent selection of organic produce, especially the Earthbound Organics line.  Because of dietary restrictions, there was a time where I used to lament that if I were locked in Jewel for a week I'd starve.  That, I am happy to say, is no longer true.  The proof is in the fact that I often need to take either my Zuca Cart or horrors, even my bubba cart because Jewel is now blessedly providing much in the way of food shopping alternatives for even fussy shoppers like me. 

There I've been able to buy my organic vegetables, salad materials, some fruit, dairy and soy products, eggs, dried cereal, snacks, and now chicken!  For anyone who hasn't been in a Jewel lately, they've reorganized (again) and thankfully gone back to segregating most of their natural and organic foods from the conventional stuff.  In my "small" Jewel, in a section called, "Wild Harvest," there are two full aisles of dry goods, followed by another aisle of refrigerated goods (dairy but not eggs), and the store also carries some natural and organic breads in the standard bread aisle.  There are also organic and natural (preservative and artificial additive free, just for clarification) frozen foods that include both desserts and entrees, as well as gluten free foods!!

Mostly out of curiosity, I just picked up a package of their Wild Harvest boneless chicken.  My impressions when I brought this home was that it was very, very  well packaged.  For one, the outer plastic packaging was thicker and leak proof, making using a plastic bag around it unnecessary.  Inside, the chicken was placed in a plastic tray.  Although maybe not the most environmentally sensitive use of packaging, with all the recycling options in Chicago this just requires it to be rinsed/washed off.  What it does do from a consumer standpoint is keep the chicken pieces intact better and not create a little bio-bacterial farm that seems to occur when stores use a plastic/cotton pad underneath to soak up the difference.

I also could not help but notice that the chicken didn't smell, and I mean that in a nice way.  Lately my chicken from Whole Foods has an odor that chicken gets when it begins to obviously deteriorate.  This occurs even when I purchase it the same day I use it.  I've heard that when the life energy level of a store or business (or even a home) is "low" then foods will tend to rot or deteriorate quickly.  Who would have ever thought that this could happen more at Whole Foods versus my local Jewel?  Then again, maybe something is a little rotten at the top of my favorite grocer.

Whole Foods, Part Inconsistency and that's a good thing!

As a north side Chicagoan, I usually go to the Lake View Whole Foods.  I've been a Whole Foods shopper since they first opened in Chicago.  At one time, when friends or relatives would drive me to the store, I used to always go to the North Avenue store until about 1999/2000.  I liked that store, both for its selection and the management.  While doing a management project in my MBA program, I had met the Regional President and the Regional Vice President (whose name I still remember, Bob Marks, who came from their Fresh Fields buy out).   From around 2000 I started shopping only at the Lake View store, both due to it's closeness in terms of public transportation for me, and the fact that the North Avenue store started to be a not so pleasant experience, especially at the checkout.  The management that I had known back then had left, and the management that came in seemed to contribute to a downward spiral in keeping the energy in the North avenue store "up" and feeling good.  With that in mind, it was not an incentive to even go in there, much less shop there.

I was at the North Avenue store today, and I was really quite happy to see how things have changed for the better.   While I was looking for toothpaste, an employee gave me a friendly "hello" - not the robotic stuff I get at "my" Whole Foods in Lake View, but a genuine, (like Trader Joe's) type of greeting, where the person's energy is open and not closed.  Wow, I was thinking to myself... at least one of the three stores in Chicago has a friendly person in it.  I have to admit that when I first came through the doors of my long missed store, I felt a different energy than I remembered from before.  I momentarily thought that either they hired Dr. Phyllis Light (she does business energy clearings and helps to raise the energy and conciousness in a space to a higher place) or they just had a major change in personnel since I've been there last. 

My mother wanted me to pick up some dried food items, and I could not find it, despite several roam arounds in the appropriate place.  I finally asked one of the guys who was trying to stock some shelves.  He suggested I wait or shop in the vicinity while he goes to find out where it was, and said he didn't want to drag me all over the store.  Since I was bundled up from the cold (having to take two busses and trains), I really appreciated it.  When I returned, he told me where the item was, and walked me over to the section.  I rarely find people who have energy that feels genuinely kind, especially when interupting them while they are trying to do their job, so I was more than floored by this experience.  I was also feeling good that I had one good and one stellar people experiences while shopping at this Whole Foods.  Then came the telltale checkout.  The cashier was a young, funky kind of guy who was on the fun side.  This was the kind of cashier that I used to enjoy having as my last shopping experience when I'd go to the Lake View store (before things got depressing).  I left the store feeling good that at least this location in Chicago hasn't lost its soul.  One out of three isn't great, but it's better than 0:0.

Whole Foods, Whole Unpleasantness

I was just returning home from my dentist's office, located on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago.  Having had a noon appointment, by the time I got out of their office I was famished, and decided to pick up something to eat at the Whole Foods Market on Huron.  I've had spotty experiences there.  There have been some visits where it was reasonably pleasant, but most often than not, I have found the personnel, particularly the cashiers, as very impersonal. 

My deli experience was good.  The gal there was pleasant and friendly.  I wish I could say the same thing for the check-out register.  I had a gift card which did not cover the amount of my purchase, so I asked the cashier if she would take the card, since I did not see a trash receptacle.  She gave me a defiant look and said she would not, that I should just keep it.  I said I didn't see a waste basket, didn't she have one under the counter??  She glared at me and said to just 'leave it on the counter, 'they'll' come clean it up later.  That was the beginning of a rather unpleasant and negative encounter. 

There used to be a time when I loved shopping at Whole Foods.  It was the darling of my consumer shopping experiences.  Now I only shop there out due to dietary requirements.  Instead, whenever possible, I go to Trader Joes or my local Jewel, both of which have FRIENDLY cashiers and employees.  Even when I use the automated check out at Jewel, there is always someone supervising the automated attendants who always makes eye contact and says "hello" or some other greeting.  Unlike at Whole Foods, where the "hellos" feel forced and mechanical, with the sincerity of con man, at Trader Joes and at Jewels the employees there connect to their customers on a more personal level, with open energy and an honest welcome. 

If I hadn't loved Whole Foods so much in the past, I wouldn't be writing about it yet again.  John Mackey has done some great things to lead WFM into the forefront of being a natural foods empire, and I would easily say that he could be credited for helping change the way many people in the mainstream now eat.  However, John Mackey is now in need of doing something to get rid of this robotic, dark energy that permeates his cashiers and much of his stores.  I have to admit that I'm a sensitive, so I do feel things many people do not.  However, in that spirit, I must say that because I feel it now, it is an excellent time to do something about it before everyone else, the non-sensitives, begin to feel it.  When that happens, it will be too late for Whole Foods.  Whole Foods needs a Spiritual Director, someone who can clean up this negativity and again make it into THE destination for those of us who not only value good food and social responsibility, but spiritual responsibility as well.  Right now, it feels like WFM is going into spiritual bankruptcy. 

EMF WiFi Protection: Love it and Use it wisely

I am part of a virtual organization, which means that the people I work with aren’t in the same office with me. Because almost everything we do requires a broadband connection, before WiFi I was tied to my residence and often felt isolated. WiFi has been amazing in that it has allowed me to literally take my show on the road. Armed with several wireless Internet Connections, I can go to one of several hotspots and use my notebook. Cell phone in hand, I can take care of my voice call requirements as well. Still, one must ask, are there any downsides to Wifi that we aren’t considering???

I am also what some would call ‘a sensitive.’ This has made being at home a huge plus, and being in WiFi environments a huge negative, until recently. My first encounter with WiFi was several years ago when I went to a networking event at a private business club. They were unveiling their newly installed wireless network. Both myself and another attendee found ourselves walking aimlessly and confused while trying to find our luncheon tables.  Being a foodie, normally finding a table to eat at is like a bird with a homing device for me.  I began to notice that other prolonged exposures in wireless environments left my brain feeling similarly twisted up and out of sync. I began to try to avoid them, because I found my brain would turn to mush and I’d go into a zombie like state.

I live in a three flat. After a friend of mine bought a new computer that came with WiFi card, she sent me her old one. Curious, I plugged mine in just to install it. Surprise!! The people above me had a wireless network. I called a friend of mine, who sells products to help protect people from the spiritual effects of environmental electromagnetic fields. It may sound way out there for those of you who don’t live in your spiritual bodies as much as your physical ones. For people like me, products like that speak to me. I told her about the network above me. A psychic, she tuned in. I was only covered 50%, so she upgraded her EMF protection devices. I felt the shift immediately. It also explained why, after the new tenants moved in, I had become increasingly disoriented at home. 

The upgrades left me feeling much more positive about WiFi networks, so positive in fact that I installed one in my place. Eeeee. I began to feel a little odd again. I called my friend. Apparently, by introducing another network (and a total of four computers in the same building on two networks), another upgrade was required. Enter hot, summer weather and a need to escape into air conditioning and have some company. I purchased a month of WiFi service so that I could use my computer at my local coffee shop. The first day there, I checked my WiFi card for available networks. Eeeeks. I was sitting in the middle of six different networks. I called my friend. She did more upgrades. Now that my EMF protection device has been super sized to cover me being in six networks, I’ve noticed that my time in the coffee shop feels so much better, my brain doesn’t feel fried and I can concentrate again.  For anyone interested in feeling better while enjoying the freedom of WiFi computing, her EMF and WiFi Protection devices are a must have!

Organic Delights

Several years ago a friend of mine sent me a dried fruit sampler from Diamond Organics. It was without question the absolutely best organic dried fruit that I had ever had. We think so highly of their food quality that we’ve been sending business associates gifts from this company.

The Wednesday night before Mother’s Day I ordered one of their samplers and some organic spelt sweet potato biscuits for my mom. The company usually ships two days overnight unless an item is perishable, in which case they usually ship overnight. Since I had perishables, on Friday I had expected my order. Nothing came. I looked at their website and realized that I probably messed up the shipping method. I emailed them with a question: “We placed our order Wednesday night. Did we specify the wrong shipping method?  One of these items was for Mother's Day.”

Several hours later I received an email, not from them directly but from Fed Ex. My package was upgraded to FedEx Overnight morning delivery. We had our food by 10:30 A.M. I looked at our online bank statement to see if there were any additional shipping charges, since my lack of appropriate communication did contribute to the delay. There was none. I’ve known that Diamond Organics has stood for high quality organic foods, and now I can say that they also stand for superb customer service. You can find their website and all their delectable organic foods at www.diamondorganics.com.

What's happening, Whole Foods?

I used to love shopping at Whole Foods.  My favorite years with the company were, unfortunately, many years ago just before they became a publicly held company.  Back then, what I reveled in when I was there was not only great food and superior customer service but employees who were as wacky and colorful as the store itself.  They've always seemed to have efficient employees, but 'back in the day' I remember having fun with them while I shopped, or when I checked out and gave them enormous sums of hard earned money just for the satisfaction of eating organic and eating well.  In my case I have extraordinary dietary restrictions due to medical conditions, so stores like Whole Foods have long been my only choice to procure the bulk of my groceries.

I remember when Trader Joe's first opened up a store in the city.  I checked it out several times, and it was friendly and okay, but back then nothing could ever compare with my Whole Foods shopping experience.  Unfortunately, now nothing can compare with it now, even a trip to Jewel where Scot31, the automated attendant, helps me check out by myself.  Something's happened to Whole Foods, and it's as if the core of the apple is not quite right.  For starters, in the past few years I've noticed some really great cashiers get fired - these have been the ones that have looked very unconventional.   So one of them had a lot of makeup on (a guy) but he was a great cashier, never seemed to make mistakes on my bill, and knew how to bag correctly.  Gone are some lively and fun guys that made my last stop in the store, the checkout, enjoyable.  Gone is the intangible part of customer service that should separate Scot31at Jewel from a living, breathing human being. 

Why am I complaining?  Simply this.  I've noticed that the past few years things have gotten very superficial in the customer care area.  I've lost track of the times that a cashier will smile but not look at me, and in fact NEVER make eye contact with me the entire time my groceries are rung up and my money passes hands to theirs.  Last week my workplace purchased gift cards for business associates to the tune of $300.  The gal that rang this all up put them in a small paper bag.  I had to ask for a plastic bag that was large enough for me to hold onto.    Recently I've been buying as much as I could at Jewel.  When a cashier checks my groceries out, I get eye contact and a friendly demeanor.  When Scot31 checks me out, at least I don't expect human contact.

I'm concerned about where Whole Foods is going.  They've had some good people working for them that they've lost, and some good people who still work for them who now seem disconnected and spiritually adrift.   Personality changes do not just happen in an environment for no reason, and this isn't happening just in one or two stores.  I've spoken to friends who shop in other areas of the country and they've noticed this happening to their stores as well.  I hope they can turn things around.  Their original vision, if they still have a passion for it, is an important one.  What's going right now is something that probably only regular shoppers, and especially the sensitives are picking up.  When this becomes notable by Joe and Jane Doe, people like me will not be able to shop there any more.

Coincidentally, I've noticed an upswing in the customer service at Trader Joe's.  The past few years, especially notable since last year, has been service extraordinare.  The cashiers not only make eye contact but they 'stay' with you and focus on you, the customer, during the entire transaction.  My last impression, and anyone's last impression of a retail store is usually the experience at the cash register.  For some reason, Trader Joe's has got it right.