The desire to offer high-end organic food to the community of Malibu will clash with some residents that just don't want to see the grocery behemoth in their "rural way of life." A public scoping meeting about the project will be held at Malibu's City Hall on May 22, to discuss what should be considered in the environmental impact report, and the natives seem restless. more ›

It's getting real in Whole Foods, but not so much in the parking lot but inside their stores as they work to shed their rep as being a "pricey" grocery store chain. The Wall Street Journal takes a look at the company whose chain of just over 300 stores nationwide are often referred to as "Whole Paycheck." more ›

The guy who made up that rap about the Whole Foods parking lot has a new message for you: just put down the phone. He doesn't want to hear about your clean bill of health from the STD clinic or get stuck behind you texting in line at Huckleberry when all he wants is a friggin maple bacon biscuit. more ›

In a recent episode of chef, activist and filmmaker Daniel Klein's "The Perennial Plate" via Grist, Klein follows a dedicated dumpster diver in Virginia as he gleans edibles from dumpsters behind Trader Joe's to feed his family. more ›

Whole Foods wants to wish its Jewish clientele a happy holiday this season — except it's the wrong holiday. Heeb Magazine spotted this confused display at the Whole Foods on Fairfax. more ›

The word "concierge" most often relates to the hotel industry. But a new sustainable grocery delivery program via electric-powered bicycles is bringing concierge hospitality and convenience to Whole Foods shopping. FreshFoodBike.com delivers up to 100 pounds of concierge-shopped groceries and other store products from the Whole Foods at 3rd and Fairfax to L.A. residents from UCLA to USC and most points in between both campuses. more ›

Brace yourselves, loft dwellers: there's not going to be a downtown Trader Joe's in the near future. If you want shrink-wrapped veggies and Charles Shaw wine, you're going to have to continue hiking up to Silver Lake or Pasadena for your fix. more ›

Many Silver Lakers rejoiced when they heard they wouldn't have to schlep to the west or Pasadena to get their fill of fancy organic cheese. Their hopes were crushed when Whole Foods confirmed the whole thing was a hoax. But no one has yet stepped forward — until now. more ›

On Monday evening, it was hard to discern what was funnier: The angry readers who thought we were pot-kettle-black hipsters for cracking wise about hipsters in Silver Lake saving their imaginary paychecks to shop at a Whole Foods market, or the gleeful readers excited to spend their paychecks on fancy cheese and organic produce at the just-revealed location in the vacated Circuit City on Sunset Blvd. more ›

Silver Lake hipsters are now going to have a new place to spend the change they put in their piggy banks after taking their glut of PBR cans to the recycling depot. The vacated Circuit City at 4400 W. Sunset is going to become a Whole Foods. more ›

Whole Foods shoppers will no longer find Bethenny Frankel's Skinnygirl cocktails on the store's shelves. After discovering that the "natural" ingredients in the cocktails may be quite unnatural, the market pulled the beverages from its stores. Skinnygirl's slogan, "Open. Pour. Accessorize." must actually mean to supplement drinkers' bodies with mysterious substances. more ›

Reminiscent of the Trader Joe's song of yesteryear, today's video lunch is another market jam filmed on location, this time on the Westside of L.A. Your new favorite song of the summer, "Whole Foods Parking Lot," speaks to the overspending, aggressive parker in all of us. Sadly, some things you can't get at Ross. more ›

Earlier this week, we wondered who put the E. Coli in our Emmental. KTLA reports that the Bravo Farms E. Coli and Listeria recall is now affecting your local Whole Foods store. Seven cheeses bearing "Distributed by Whole Foods" stickers have been recalled, so unless you'd like to do the kidney failure dance, check your fancy cheese stash and toss them out: Sage Cheddar, Silver Mountain Cheddar, Chipotle Cheddar, Premium Block Cheddar, Premium White Chunk Cheddar, Chipotle Chunk Cheddar and White Black Wax Cheddar. Who's up for a trip to Cheese Store of Silverlake instead? more ›

Last weekend, a clerk was shot at Trader Joe's in Eagle Rock. Now we're hearing of yet another grocery store incident from back on May 23rd. The Beverly Hills Courier reported that a North Hollywood man took a large knife, perhaps a machete, and "inflicted several wounds" on another man in the parking garage. Gustavo Menjivar-Gutierrez, 32, fled but was later arrested. He apparently had an on-going dispute with the victim, described as a transient, who was treated and released from the hospital. more ›

The new Whole Foods Market in Tarzana made its debut yesterday with a ribbon-cutting (bread-breaking) ceremony and event attended by Mayor Villaraigosa and many more. There are high hopes the anchor tenant of the Village Walk mixed-used development will invigorate the community, reports the Daily News. more ›

A scorecard released today by Greenpeace examines American supermarket chains and to what extent their seafood business is practiced sustainably. more ›

Last month, it was South L.A. This month, it's Burbank. Fresh & Easy officials today announced that their latest store, located at Olive Street and Verdugo Avenue, will open this Wednesday at 10 a.m. after a ceremonial event with city officials and Family Promise of East San Fernando Valley, which will be given a $1,000 donation. more ›

LACMA continues its Conversations with Artists series tonight at 7 pm. LACMA curator Leslie Jones will interview artist Robin Rhode, whose exhibit Contemporary Projects 12: Robin Rhode is on view at the museum through June 6. “Rhode will talk about his experience growing up in South Africa, recent work, and the site-specific performance created at LACMA for the exhibition.” The event will be held at the Brown Auditorium. The discussion is free, and tickets will be available one hour before to the program.
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Tucked into the back of the kitchen at Groundwork Coffee in Venice is a little operation of major inspiration. Two locals have set out to share their love of dessert through sorbet made from locally sourced organic fruit and the results are not just amazingly sweet and tasty, but encouraging to the state of the growing social awareness of what we eat. more ›

'Tis the season to give thanks for what so many of us have, and to take some time, effort, and, if possible, funds to help out those who may be less fortunate. Right now organizations focused on feeding those who are in need are in need of donations from those who can afford to spare, and this includes our local LA Regional Foodbank. more ›

It's Time for Lunch...what's on our kids' plates? Tater tots, pudding cups and mystery meat often find a home on kids' cafeteria trays, but that doesn't have to be the case. This fall, the Child Nutrition act, which leaves schools only $1 to spend on each child’s meal after labor, equipment and overhead costs, is up for re-authorization by Congress. In order to promote awareness of the need to change food policy for school-age children, Slow Food L.A. and Whole Foods are behind 6 "Eat-in" events in Los Angeles community gardens this Labor Day. more ›

When the new Whole Foods that opened in Venice, I figured it would be like the other Whole Foods. Cramped. Packed. Expensive. Sometimes worth going to but an endurance. This Whole Foods is different in that it is gigantic (see the photo below) and even has clothing. That is all fine and good, but you can buy food and clothes many places. more ›

Bad news for residents of the Hollywood Entertainment Distirct. Whole Foods today told Racked LA that the storefront "planned for the southeast corner of Selma and Vine is on hold until the market takes a better turn." That location is near the mixed apartment complex and the currently under construction W Hotel. more ›

An article in today's Telegraph.co.uk touts the recent adoption of Twitter by British-based Tesco's Fresh & Easy grocery stores. Although the article focuses on the rarity of a Brit business using what's more popular with American businesses, F&E's web-watchers Fresh & Easy Buzz point out that the Tweets are coming from California, not England:

Fresh & Easy's presence on Twitter.com isn't being maintained by a Tesco Fresh & Easy company employee based out of its Southern California headquarters or by a Tesco PLC employee in the UK. Rather, the Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market Twitter site is maintained on a regular basis by SallieB, who is a social marketing expert with Tesco Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market's public relation's firm, ABCO International.

Though perhaps not gripping correspondence, Twitter does help to establish loyalty by giving customers an active way of communicating with the company's management. [...] more ›

Imagine heeding the call of a craving for some Annie's Sour Cream and Onion Cheddar Bunny crackers and opening the box to find $10,000 in cash instead. It happened to a Tustin family, who had bought the box of crackers at their local Whole Foods. Instead of being greedy, though, the Rogoff family brought the cash to the cops, who thought at first it could be part of a drug drop. According to abc7.com,

Police later heard from store managers at Whole Foods in Tustin that an elderly woman had come in a few days earlier, hysterical because she had mistakenly returned a box of crackers with her life savings inside. The Lake Forest woman, whose identity was not released, had lost faith in her bank and decided the box would be a safer place for the $10,000.

This year, with the official start of the holiday season tragically mired in a financial fiasco, the fires and soaring temperatures feeling more Summer than Fall, and Prop 8’s passage reminding us all we’ve still a long way to go, it’s enough to think drowning your sorrows in gravy and cheese balls is the answer to all of life’s problems. So, as tempting as it is to stress eat (think Jack Donaghy of "30 Rock") and entirely abandon 2008’s diet and exercise resolutions, a recent and highly publicized article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is reminding us yet again that it’s crucial to be smart about food choices. With the belly fat-wielding juggernaut of Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, and the Holiday Party on the horizon, we here at the ScientIST bring you a helping of science and common sense to successfully navigate the next few months. Your waistline can thank us later.
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Yesterday Health Magazine (via iVillage/MSNBC) released their list of the nation's top ten healthiest grocery chains. The list was compiled based on the findings of six experts selected by the publication in comparing the top 35 grocery retailers, and revealed that your neighborhood big name big box can actually be good for you. Criteria for ranking included "the freshness of produce and taste of prepared foods to the healthiness of packaged goods and availability of supplemental nutritional information." more ›

For awhile now, one lane of Selma Avenue near Hollywood Blvd. and Vine St. has been closed. Starting today, the whole block between Vine and Argyle has been shut down for a gas line relocation in preparation of Whole Foods, which is expected to open in early 2009. But for now, Selma Ave. (including sidewalks) will be closed for at least 60 days, but possibly longer. One block away at Selma and Morningside Court, Sustainable Economic Enterprises of Los Angeles is planning to open a permanent extension of the Hollywood Farmers' Market to hold cooking classes while being a neighborhood "farm fresh" cafe with an emphasis on assistance and nutrition education to the low-income population. more ›

Maynard Keenan, frontman for Tool, A Perfect Circle and Puscifier, loves the grape – especially the wine it produces. He’s taken his interest a step further by growing, harvesting and making his own wine. He's owner/part owner of a few vineyards in Arizona (Caduceus Cellars/Merkin Vineyards and Arizona Stronghold Vineyard), and this afternoon from 4:30-7:30 pm, he’ll be making an appearance at Whole Foods in Pasadena (465 S. Arroyo Pkway at Bellevue) to sign and showcase the latest releases. (There's another Whole Foods signing in Venice tomorrow afternoon.) more ›

Venice it getting a Whole Foods tomorrow. It makes for one less reason to leave the gridlocked, non public transit friendly area. And if you add in a Trader Joes and a Target to neighborhood, Yo Venice's Keri "will never have to leave." The new store is located at 225 Lincoln Blvd. at Rose Ave. more ›