Ottawa’s Whole Foods Fruits & Vegetables Freshness Gets Lowest Grade
I seek to pursue a healthy lifestyle. That’s why I’m always doing cross-comparisons on fruit & vegetables in Ottawa’s supermarkets. During the summer, I try to shop for as many fruits & vegetables as I can from local farmers. I buy direct from farms or go to local farmers’ markets. My favourite is the one at Lansdowne Park.
This also happens to be the area where Whole Foods set-up shop. Whole Foods is an American supermarket retailer. I refer it to as the supermarket equivalent of Starbucks – very much based upon image rather than substance it seems to me.
During a recent shopping for fruits & vegetables I travelled widely. I made visits to Loblaws, Metro, Food Basics, Your Independent Grocer (Loblaw owned), Farm Boy, Produce Depot and Whole Foods. I have also made visits to Sobeys.
Farm Boy gets the highest marks from me as far as overall freshness and offering of a wide variety of fruit & vegetables, followed by Loblaws.
The other supermarkets were okay but tend to offer a less wide selection.
It might surprise you that Ottawa’s Whole Foods was at the botom of my ranking. However, when I went there I saw a considerable bunch of not-so-delicious yellowing broccoli along with “greening” potatoes that you definitely should not eat.
Overall Whole Foods fruit & vegetables lacked the appearance of freshness that can be readily found in established competitors locally that have a better supply system.