Woj, man, I enjoy your hyperbolic posts very much but this is plain nutty. As if I didn't feel bad enough buying overpriced chocolate chip cookies at Whole Foods already...
[WS:] I do not think Whole Foods is a good example of what I was talking about - I was thinking more of "alternative" food stores that sell much more grossly overpriced foodstuff together with snake oil and sundry products of quackery and witchcraft.
Whole Foods is more like a specialty supermarket, a section of Safeway or Wegmans if you will, than an "alternative" food store. To be sure, it is somewhat overpriced (vis a vis Safeway or Wegmans). I never buy their organic stuff unless it is substantially discounted (which they rarely do.) To me, Whole Foods offers mainly two benefits: - a selection of "gourmet" items (especially cheeses) not available elsewhere (this is true of most of the US, except New York City); - not having to run through the gauntlet of mostly right-wing tabloids prominently on display in the checkout line.
But if you do not care about these things, I think you would be better off buying your chocolate chip cookies at Safeway or Wegmans.
Wojtek