A parent post was criticized for being too general, so I'll be extremely specific: cheese from the Whole Foods located at Park Place, San Mateo, California is c

A parent post was criticized for being too general, so I'll be extremely specific: cheese from the Whole Foods located at Park Place, San Mateo, California is crap compared to cheese from the cheese shop located on Rue Saint-Hélier, Rennes, France, and is also crap compared to cheese from the weekly farmer's market in Noyal-Châtillon, France. The only decent cheeses at this Whole Foods are the safe choices like hard aged cheese. The more delicate cheeses to get right, like an Emmenthal de Savoie (you want it yellow, mellow and flavorful; not white, hard and tasteless) or many types of goat cheese, always disappoint. Note that French supermarkets (Carrefour, Super U, etc) offer much worse cheese than Whole Foods. At least that was the case a decage ago - I haven't visited the cheese section of a French supermarket since, so I might be out of date. If you want good cheese you need to head for a cheese shop ("fromagerie") or a farmer's market (which might also supply good bread to pair with your cheese).