Shhh. Whole Foods May Be Listening

Some of you may remember my little dust-up with a clerk in the bulk section at Whole Foods over steel cut oats. What it boiled down to was, the label on the bin said "steel cut oat groats," but what was inside the bin was actually whole oats. Since whole oats was not what I wanted to make my oatmeal out of, and since the clerk was not budging on my request to either put the steel cut oats where they belong or change the label on the bin, I had to find a manager to intervene. (This after the clerk accused me of spitting on him. Is this what happens when you approach AARP age?)

Well, everything turned out all right in the end. I returned a few days later to find steel cut oats back on display. The clerk and I kissed and made up (it was a dry kiss, I assure you.) The only hitch was, the label on the steel cut oats now said, simply, "oat groats." No big deal, right? I could live with that.

I thought the whole thing was amusing enough to pass along to Whole Foods HQ (and maybe pick up some new readers). They have a handy feature for leaving messages on the corporate website. It even allows you to specify the store in question by selecting from a long pop-up list. Well, I never thought anything would come of it. I never heard back from Whole Foods. But guess what? I was strolling through the bulk section the other day looking for my favorite brown basmati rice and what did I see? Someone had taken a big black marker, struck through where it said "oat groats" and written in "steel cut oats."

I swear, I have never seen anything like that done before in the bulk section. And all I have to say is, More power to the blog!

Oh, and thanks, Whole Foods, for getting that straight. Now, will you ever be bringing back the whole wheat couscous?