WHOLE FOODS - HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?

We spent most of yesterday inside the new much touted Whole Foods market in Redondo Beach, California. It was broad daylight when we entered, and hours later, we left in the dark.

Yes, it is enormous. Yes, it is filled with all kinds of wonderful food and "things" (candles, all natural fiber robes shirts, baby clothes), vitamins, all natural beauty aids, gift cards, books, magazines.......

......the trick is how to find them.

What ever happened to aisles? Well, there are still a few, very few, some perpendicular to others, but for the most part one must wander around - in a daze - stumbling over countless islands of seemingly non-related goods.

We usually get rather hungry during a big shop, and Whole Foods has nice take-out which we eat there - but what an ordeal that turned out to be in this Dernier Cri food emporium! Great confusion as we found one salad bar - then after we filled our plates, we found - way over there - yet another salad bar - and the Mexican hot dishes - then hot vegetable, the sandwiches were in a different place altogether. We finally gave up and went to pay.

One has to walk all the way to the front, line up at the registers, wait to pay for the food only, then walk to another area to find an empty table with space for your now overflowing shopping cart. By then our food was cold.

Why have the designers of these macro markets decided that aisles are all wrong -
passe?

Even Carrefour Hiper Marche (supermarket) in Toulouse, France, which is so large that the attendants wear roller skates (absolutely true), has AISLES.

What could possibly make them think that having all these counters, bins, table displays spread around with no relation to one another could possibly make shopping if not an enjoyable pastime, at least manageable? You know, where if you just walk up and down the aisles, you can find what you're looking for?

Therefore, I not so humbly suggest that if Whole Foods expects us to remain loyal customers, they must seriously consider installing a GPS on every shopping cart.

I can see us entering, pushing our cart, to tap the GPS screen "Navigate To".....and spell out "Olives." The voice and screen advise us to take 3 steps, turn right at Cheese, turn left, then right again to start over, that was Soft Cheese. So now it's "After 4 more short steps, turn left at Tea Center, to end of circle"...but by then we need to go back to main menu and "Browse Map." This tells us we should be in front of Chocolate Fountain, but we must have taken a wrong turn at the Tea Center, because this has some chocolates, but no Fountain, and no Hard Cheese is in sight.

I punch Find Alternate, but that takes us back to the entrance, and the main menu. This time we get as far as Hard Cheese, They've been tracking us, and must know we're at Hard Cheese, as the voice directs us to pass the hot soups, which we do, but we passed the Chicken Gumbo, Minestrone, and Cream of mushroom steam table, and have to go back and go the other way around to a different and far off Ginger-Pumpkin, Lentil, and Tomato soups island.

Maybe if I try Points of Interest and once again spell out "Olives"?

Maybe if I tap "Change Preferences" and ask for most direct route? But that only seems to confuse the voice and map.

We give it one more shot, with "Favorite" and after several "Two steps to the right, turn left at salad bar, four steps to the right, You Have Reached Your Destination." We're truly elated until we see.....

......these are black olives, we wanted GREEN.

Maybe they should just put back the aisles?

Cimadb