Rocko402003’s Weblog

For almost two years now, since I have arrived in Austin, I constantly heard that I “needed” to go to Whole Foods Market.  There was a constant buzz from the locals that I knew here, and wondered what could be so great about this place.  Finally, after spending two years in Austin I made my way to the popular franchise.  Granted, had we not been assigned to visit the store for class, I may have never gone; a market that’s all about organic, all natural food products just didn’t catch my interest.  After spending time in the store, I finally realized what all the hype was about.

There’s no doubt that Whole Foods offers a wide variety of products that are all natural, organic, and healthy.  In fact, so much so that I have never in my life seen such an array of items like this, in one place, in my life.  I couldn’t help but to notice, though, that all of the products carried by Whole Foods came attatched with a hefty price tag.  For a while, I had heard people refer to it as “Whole Price,” and finally understood why.  The items that you were being pushed to buy that were supposed to be better for you, could easily dent your wallet.  Even though these products were high in price, it almost seemed as if every single product had a story attatched to it justifying a reason to buy the product so that you could ignore it’s cost. 

It sounds odd to say that the products in a supermarket utilize pathos to sell their product, but this was exactly the case at Whole Foods Market.  Almost every single product in the store had a backstory as to how it came to be, how the company rose from nothing but a smart idea, and how their goal was utimately the health of its consumers and the bettermant of mankind.  All of this back story from organic sodas, chips, toilet paper,  and even dog food, all so that you could buy their product.  By doing this the companies tried to identify with their consumer and sympethise with them in a way that you probably wouldn’t see on the mass produced products in most supermarkets.  This method is then furthered by whole foods by different stories at the ends of the isles blaring their mission statement as to how they care about their consumers, and why the merchandise that they carried was the best to buy because of how much they cared.  I realize how repetative this sounds, and the truth is, that’s what the entire store felt like, one huge repetative statement after another.  You become so focused on these stories and they establish credibility for the product that, irnically, you get sucked into to wanting to buy the product, despite the price.