Did you know that twice a year Whole Foods Markets (WFM) gives free tours of their store? Well they do! And I have to say I learned so much. I was invited by Moms Meet to participate in one of these tours and attended the Whole Foods Market in Manhasset, NY.

Well let me tell you, this tour really changed my view on supermarkets, groceries, and healthy living/eating. See, I try to buy organic and healthy foods as much as I can but with a growing family of five sometimes the price really pulls me away and I end up buying the stuff in bulk. This tour was good because it showed me the variety of prices.

The first thing I learned was that WFM has a “kids club”. Basically, every time you go in the market to buy your groceries, you go to the costumer service counter and your kids can get a snack. To me, this is awesome, because if you give your kid a snack at the beginning it really helps alleviate the asking for snacks while you shop. The second thing I learned is that water is always 20%, which might not seem like much, but overtime it adds up nicely.

We went through the produce section of the market, where I learned the difference between organic, non GMO and local produce, which by the way is pretty great. At least in my WFM, the local selection was pretty big. They even have locally made salad dressings. I have to say the price was very comparable to my regular big supermarket. I expected price mark-up of $2-5 dollars, but is really no more than maybe $4 (except for meats). My favorite part of the whole tour came next. Being able to make your own honey roasted peanut butter and finding my favorite cheese of all time for less than $6 is winning in my book.
Until the meats. Meats are expensive. Not discussion about it. They just are. Most of their meat is organic plus free range, so the price is even more expensive. We don’t really eat that much meat in our house so I can overspend on a good piece of steak, but if you eat meats everyday, be ready to spend a lot. The tour ended in the bakery section where we were given samples of a couple of products as well as a goodie bag.

I have to admit, I was very very pleasantly surprised. I ended up doing some groceries after the tour. We bought probably 2 weeks worth of food for approximately $200. This included regular staples like milk, eggs and so on. But also things we like to splurge on, like selection of cheeses and sea food. I recommend at least checking out your Whole Foods Market and let me know what you think!

All opinions are my own and all groceries I bought with my own money.