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I really love Berkeley Bowl (in Berkeley, CA) not just for its unpackaged and quality produce but for the extent to which I can go completely plastic free. I c

I really love Berkeley Bowl (in Berkeley, CA) not just for its unpackaged and quality produce but for the extent to which I can go completely plastic free. I can use my own bags for produce and my own containers for a massive range of items sold in bulk (flour, grains, nuts, cereal, pasta to name a few). And then a few others that I have not seen elsewhere: I can fill up my own bottles with shampoos, detergents and oils!

1letterunixname 3y ago
There's nothing like the Berkeley Bowl <3. It's Trader Joe's + Davis co-op on crack^2^5. Various cities around the West Coast and Austin also have co-op grocery stores, but Berkeley Bowl takes it to a different hypermart level while retaining a flavor reminiscent of Whole Earth Access. And, honestly, even the Whole Foods (Amazon) flagship HQ store is a disgrace and a disaster: they don't sell any form of pita or lavash bread of any sort and half of their bulk bins are completely empty as of writing. This is a consequence of corporate bean counters who optimize for the wrong things. They were supposedly once a boutique bougie grocery store patterned after Italian grocers but instead developed into conspicuous consumption of pseudo luxury by anyone who drives an Audi or BMW.
- rgovostes 3y ago
  My nearest grocery store was a Whole Foods for a couple of years. Their product selection is incomprehensibly bad. There were something like 6 kinds of alternative chickpea-crust frozen pizza brands but no plain flour tortillas. Freshly baked bread was almost never stocked. A virtually untouched naturopathy aisle but barely the medicine cabinet essentials.
  - 1letterunixname 3y ago
    The global WF HQ has tortillas, but they're neither local nor authentic. The customer service person proclaimed I should use tortillas instead. Gobsmacked by the unprofessionalism of that, it was the last time I've been to WF.

1letterunixname 3y ago

There's nothing like the Berkeley Bowl <3. It's Trader Joe's + Davis co-op on crack^2^5. Various cities around the West Coast and Austin also have co-op grocery stores, but Berkeley Bowl takes it to a different hypermart level while retaining a flavor reminiscent of Whole Earth Access. And, honestly, even the Whole Foods (Amazon) flagship HQ store is a disgrace and a disaster: they don't sell any form of pita or lavash bread of any sort and half of their bulk bins are completely empty as of writing. This is a consequence of corporate bean counters who optimize for the wrong things. They were supposedly once a boutique bougie grocery store patterned after Italian grocers but instead developed into conspicuous consumption of pseudo luxury by anyone who drives an Audi or BMW.

rgovostes 3y ago
My nearest grocery store was a Whole Foods for a couple of years. Their product selection is incomprehensibly bad. There were something like 6 kinds of alternative chickpea-crust frozen pizza brands but no plain flour tortillas. Freshly baked bread was almost never stocked. A virtually untouched naturopathy aisle but barely the medicine cabinet essentials.
- 1letterunixname 3y ago
  The global WF HQ has tortillas, but they're neither local nor authentic. The customer service person proclaimed I should use tortillas instead. Gobsmacked by the unprofessionalism of that, it was the last time I've been to WF.