Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I heard a rumour today that Whole Foods is coming to Edmonton--jasper ave close to planet organic. Anyone else hear this?

I would LOVE for this to be true. Haven't heard anything. My mom sends me the 365 gingersnaps in the mail, haha.

my fingers are crossed.

Fancy! I feel bad for POM, though. They are a decent company and WF will put them out of business, I imagine.

well, if it does open on jasper ave, i would probably still shop predominately at planet organic since it's much closer, and only go to whole foods for special things. i don't know if it's alberta or planet organic, but their produce prices are pretty outrageous compared to what i've seen at whole foods in vancouver.

I was a produce buyer at POM in Victoria. They do have high markups, but at least at the store I worked at, the produce was high quality and as locally sourced as possible. And always certified organic, which made it impossible not to price stuff like organic lemons super high. Personally I'd have opted to just not order them, but people are gonna do the master cleanse...

haha i guess if you are only eating lemons, you can pay some big bucks for them

true about the quality though - all the produce I have bought there has been pretty delicious

plus Roots should be opening fairly soon (?). If WF opens on Jasper, I suspect the POM on Jasper will have some trouble. Maybe it won't affect the southside POM as much. POM certainly needs some competition price wise. I don't think the POM here uses as much local produce as they could. I do really like Earth's General Store and worry how they'll be affected by Roots.

I love EGS too! What is Roots?

Organic Roots was a great grocery store and restaurant on 112th street and 84th ave (in space where Sobeys is now). They closed and are reopening (under new ownership) on Whyte Ave and 102nd (something like that). There was something in today's paper about it, too (jan 25). they'll have grocery store, restaurant, Da Capo's is opening cafe, yoga/pilates etc. I think it'll be opening in next month. The prices at the previous organic roots were more reasonable that planet organic so hopefully this one will be similar. I hope it doesn't hurt EGS though.

From what I heard, the new Organic Roots is quite different from the old one. Apparently, the previous owners built the new premises but then rented it out. The new grocery is an Edmonton location of a small chain (not Wholefoods). A friend who went last week said the produce looks really good but is even pricier that Planet Organic. The restaurant will also be under new management and will have "vegan options". The old Organic Roots used to have an amazing salad bar, and the staff had
a binder with lists of ingredients so if they didn't know whether an item was vegan they would check for you.

I went to Blush grocery (new Roots) the weekend it opened and was underwhelmed. Some things were cheaper, some more expensive, and some similar to PO. They are a smaller store and so have fewer items. Unfortunately, and it pains me to say this because I was really looking forward to the opening, I'll probably keep shopping at PO because they carry more. And Earth's general store of course--I really like that store and they are local and less expensive. Ideally, I like to go there first and then PO. Restaurant didn't impress too much as there wasn't much inherently vegan on the menu--would likely have to ask to "veganize" and that doesn't thrill me. Hmmmm, I"m kinda cranky today....check it out and see what you think.

I love EGS! As you said, they are local. Also, I heard a rumour when they moved to the new location that Michael was told he wouldn't "make it" if he didn't start selling organic meat. I really respect Michael for ignoring that and opening a vegetarian store. Plus, he is great about ordering vegan items. Whenever I go there I buy way too many Go Max Go bars.

Agreed. They are very helpful! I love those Jokerz bars.