Whole Foods Market

I needed a handful of specialty vegan items and Whole Foods is good for that. Should have been a quick trip, right? Hmm. It's often hard to find smaller things here as store is not set up logically. Canned coconut milk not in the alternative milk section, for instance. The non-dairy cheese area was poorly arranged and no ricotta or label for ricotta to show it was sold out. Shelf stockers blocked so many aisles, it was hard to navigate. The folks collecting online orders clearly have "right of way" with their carts and we store shoppers are in their way. I asked for help at one point and a delightful woman led me to the item I wanted. I paid with my last gift card so out of pocket was a small amount. Cashier was efficient but not cheerful. The young man who bagged my stuff was delightful. Overall, the good and bad average out to so-so.

Both my wife and I loved this Whole Foods. It had a warm friendly atmosphere, with warm snd friendly employees. The pizza bar had several hot pizza’s waiting to be eaten. With a fresh vegan pizza in the oven waiting to come out. The the food in the hot bar was fresh looking and everyone was super helpful. Compare to the Downtown Whole Foods location, this Whole Foods was a paradise. Don’t go to the downtown Whole Foods it’s a zombie apocalypse compared to this.

Overall, Whole Foods is a fantastic resource for specific dietary needs, but consistently disappoints when it comes to fresh produce. The vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free selection here is truly exceptional—it's easily the strongest aspect of the store. Finding specialty ingredients and substitutes is never a chore, and the variety offered makes it a reliable destination for shoppers with restrictions. Similarly, the frozen food section is excellent. The selection of frozen meals, desserts, and unique frozen ingredients is top-tier, making it easy to stock up on convenient, high-quality items. The pre-packaged snack selection is also quite good, providing plenty of healthy and indulgent options. However, the experience with the fresh produce is consistently frustrating. Time and time again, I find that fresh vegetables and fruits do not last. It seems the turnover rate in this section is far too slow, as roughly 50-75% of what I purchase goes bad within just a couple of days of getting it home. This lack of freshness is disappointing and has forced me to completely rely on other grocery stores for all my fresh produce needs. .

Edit update. ATTENTION BAKED GOODS HAVE MOLD AND OTHER OCVER COOKED. pre-made good in open bar had mold. See photos. Go to Walmart down the street. 5 star 🌟 Please please please give the girl the works at the pizza station a raise or something. She went above and beyond. She had a hijab on. On sunday 3/9/25. Super amazing kind girl. Maybe the best pizza I've ever had in az. Listened about some dietary concerns. Absolutely amazing girl. But the open buffet was absolutely awful. Everything dried out. Saw several people walk away from it go grt sushi or pizza or a sandwich. The pre-made food station was a disaster again. Why is the older lady with the glasses (not a senior) keeps her water bottle and phone at her work station on the prep counter allowed to work there? The kind Japanese girl was there helping everyone while the incompetent women was being nasty to her. On top of that she was rude to customers. I was going to try and get a blue plate lunch. But the por good employee looked very over whelmed because customers wanted to be waited on by her. Like wise. So instead got pizza. NOW! Whom ever works in your bakery needs a different placement. Saw goods with mold on them. (I bought a pie here 3 weeks ago. It had mold on it 2 days later. Which means it was growing under the crust at first. Was returned. But also main wholefoods sent a $100 apology gift card to me. Looks like I should report this store again.) While waiting for my pizza I was going to get some sweets. Like MANY customers I put the items back. Others saw the mold too. You could hear them talking about it. Or items were over cooked burnt. Saw many looking at cookies and brownies putting them back. Looked like the only safe bakery items were in the closed case. Whole foods isn't hard to run. Infact this is one of the smaller stores. I use to work at the main one in Austin. So Im very shocked by how poorly this one is managed. Also some of the cashiers are very rude. One of the girls that works customer service is very rude. I tried ti help out and collected all the baked goods with mold and brought them to her. She got very nasty with me and said I caused her trouble. If she's having a bad day that's understandable. But dont take it out on others. If you cant handle the job than leave. I've never been mean or nasty to a single employee here. But over all this is not a great store. The employees at Walmart down the street are 100× better in every way. -------------------------------------------- Over all good location. One of the older women working at the pre-made food station was very rude. She started to take my order then walked off and handed my order off to a lovely Japanese girl. She was so kind. Guess I annoyed the other lady because I couldn't walk fast with my walking stich. And my speech wasn't great that day. (Head injury. Saw my neurologist that day. Usually after a doctors appointment I like to go to whole foods to get a meal ) Anways got the food and went to the bar area. Oh also got pizza which so far is the best pizza out of all the locations. Love that it's behind a glass too. Other locations have it out abd exposed which isn't great. The guy making it was so kind too. Got the food, paid then went to the bar area to eat. Also good experience. But the best was a guy from Canada. I don't remember names but I remember how kind he is and that he's from Canada. The girl before him was kind but did mess up our tab. We got double charged. Customer service took care of it. Sadly we got a moldy pie from here. My mom use to always love the pies from whole foods. This was on February 11th. We didn't notice any mold on the pie until February 13th. When it got returned. She did have 2 slices before I noticed the mold. She did get sick. We have the doctors appointment and rest proof. She's ok now. A rep from whole foods called today about the moldy pie and emailed an apology gift card.

So I haven't really shopped at this whole foods market, and today I decided to go in and buy some soaps and things.For my daughter's birthday. When I walked up to the cashier, he was on his phone, smiling, probably talking to a girl didn't even care that I was standing there. And then when he started to ring me up The soaps were ringing up at 25/lb so I had seen the sign right by those particular soaps that I picked up, and the sign next to those soaps said that they were 1.62/each l. I made a mention of it to him, and he just kept smiling and staring at the keyboard would not make eye contact with me, would not talk to me just kept saying, it's 25/lb. I'm not going to sit there and argue with people.So I just canceled my order and I left. The entitlement of this establishment is ridiculous. They can keep all their china made crap, i don't go places to spend my money and get treated with disrespect and ignored.

Overall, disappointing. The store is big, glossy, and way too expensive. Items that I purchased: sushi. It was awful, tasteless, and incompetent. They have a bakery that spits out the soft, squishy, sponge-like bread that people seem to like in the Southwest. It's not artisanal. It's just sad. Cookies and cakes way too sweet. The produce is good, but again, much too expensive. I won't ever be back.

Shout out Evan at the seafood counter- he put me on to one of the best things I’ve ever had, the smoked salmon! Thank you for being kind and giving me some pointers on the store. The store has good variety!