Whole Foods, gone bad

Whole Foods Market Inc. -- or, as it's become better known recently, No. 48 in the bestselling book "Stuff White People Like" -- has problems. Chiefly, there are fewer people, white or otherwise, interested in paying a premium for its ethically-cultivated, fair-trade, organic gourmet fare. Eating might be a necessity, but the current economic downturn has sent consumers scurrying for cheaper grub, which in turn compelled Whole Foods to announce that its third-quarter financial results were off by more than 30%. Its stock price was accordingly hammered last week.

For the last 30 years, Americans have been drastically modifying their diet. The organic movement specifically, once the province of affluent Berkeley bohemians and an elite cadre of idealistic farmers who despised big agribusiness, has made significant inroads with an American public raised on Wonder Bread and canned ham. Whole Foods boomed alongside this national trend and was handsomely rewarded. But sticker shock was always an issue; the grocer earned the derisive tag "Whole Paycheck" because even free-spending customers with a jones for wild-caught salmon were taken aback when the contents of a single reusable shopping bag ran them $100.

Still, when times were good, folks with the wherewithal could view such spending as a kind of "virtuous inflation," a volitional exercise that flew in the face of actual inflation, which for years was low. Consumers didn't have to shell out a lot of dough for organic plum tomatoes lovingly cultivated in volcanic soils. They did so because they could. And because this choice, while economically perplexing, allowed them to bolster a view of themselves as opposing rapacious mega-corporations that peddled genetically modified products grown in vast fields rendered toxic by industrial fertilizers and pesticides. It was political action, practiced at the dinner table, energized by books like "Fast Food Nation" and "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

(It's the same spirit that moves people to pay extra for hybrid cars. Paying the higher price is self-imposed inflation, but Prius lovers prefer to think of it as a down payment on a future with fewer environmental problems caused by automotive emissions and oil drilling in wildlife refuges.)

Grocery store chains that cater to the less persnickety sensed the opportunity too. Hence, we now have Whole Foods-esque selections at Ralphs and Vons. And, as several commentators have noted, even Wal-Mart stepped up, officially bringing the gourmet-organic trend to the masses.