Love Hate Relationships

I'm involved in a few love-hate relationships with various entities.  One of the longest of these is my relationship with Whole Foods.  I've been shopping there since the Boston-area stores were called Bread & Circus, owned by the Harnett family.  I've remained relatively loyal, even while friends scoff at me for shopping at 'Whole Paycheck'.  What I love about our relationship:

• The stores are beautiful
• Foods labeled 'natural' or 'organic' aren't off into some tiny, dusty corner and priced 10x what they cost at WF; they are everywhere
• The bread sold there doesn't have high fructose corn syrup in it
• In fact, there is nothing with HFCS anywhere in the store
• I love playing in the 'health and beauty' aisle and putting lots of different lotions and potions on my hands and then smelling really good for the rest of the day
• The Salad and Hot Food bars for lunch on the road (Dedham, Providence, Brighton)
• My purchases aren't shoved into 87 plastic bags each containing one item like they are at other grocery stores
• There is unsweetened almond milk
• The availability of bulk items: so much cheaper for things like rice, spices, dried pasta, nuts, dates, etc, etc.

What's to hate?  Plenty:

• THE PRODUCE IS ALL FROM CALIFORNIA! Sure, they have one or two tables with local apples or corn or something, but almost all of it is from California.  Or Chile.  Or Mexico.  I'm all for organic, but if it came 5000 miles on a truck, I'm fear for the carbon footprint of that transaction
• In many cases (looking at you, Fresh Pond), my fellow shoppers.  Gah!  Are you that important and in that much of a hurry that you need to be so rude? Spare me the heavy sighs when my kids commandeer the cart and go running down the produce aisle to look at the fish
• The displays: why does WF insist on putting enormous, precariously balanced stacks of organic crackers made by real elves in Denmark in the MIDDLE of the aisle? Can I tell you how many of these displays I have destroyed with the shopping cart, especially when the kids were young and insisted on having the cart shaped like the rocket ship?  No, I cannot
• The stigma that I am somehow 'too good' to just get Artie T's back and go to Market Basket.  I am not 'too good', but I have to say that a typical grocery store sends me into deep fear that all of America will soon have Type 2 Diabetes and be morbidly obese.  I am paralyzed by the choices of, say, bread, or, even worse, cereal, to the point that I just turn around and leave.  Which may be some sort of actual thing, like Grocery Store Paralysis Syndrome.

So, I compromise by buying as little as possible at WF.  The bulk of our produce comes from a CSA right down the street: Waltham Fields http://www.communityfarms.org.  Yes, it means that I am cooking or prepping food to freeze for several hours most Sundays, but it's worth it.  I also use Farmers to You, which is a partnership with Vermont farms.  They deliver weekly to Waltham Fields. I get apples, apple cider, bread, whole chickens, and cheese from them, as well as tofu and maple syrup.  I work full time and don't have time to deal with running elsewhere, however, when I do, I am very fortunate to live near both Wilson Farm and Russo's, where I get eggs that do not cost $123.00 and produce that is not from California and is not turnips or kohlrabi (which I am still not sure what to do with).  I occasionally go to Trader Joe's, however, I usually find that after I go there, I still need to go to WF, so it has not helped me at all.

I have similar relationships with J. Crew and the New York Times.  And probably others.  So maybe what I have is Love-Hate Relationship Disorder.