Whole Foods vs. Austin Liberalism

Skyline on the roof of Whole Food

By Luke Zhang

               The flagship store of Whole Foods on 525 North Lamar Boulevard might probably be considered as a symbol of Austin Liberalism. Surrounded by apartments, office compounds and hotels, Whole Food is artificially designed as a natural and welcoming compound for everybody. Its scenery makes sure that the grocery store not only offers organic products, but also attracts local residents to spend their leisure time there. Whole Foods therefore becomes a mixture of commerce and living. Theatrically intended as a family friendly gathering place where everything is harmonious and laid back, Whole Food seems to fit in with the liberal aspect of Austin. Yet, as we dig deeper in our observation, we find its style contradict against the liberal soul of Austin. After all, we conclude that Whole Foods is just a grocery store trying to sell its upscale organic products to a limited variety of people.

Infant Seat

By Luke Zhang

                In order to appear as liberal as possible, the Whole Foods in Austin’s downtown area tries to impress people by advocating natural environment and free soul around the store, thus instilling a sentiment to its customers that they can do whatever they wish here. Picnic tables can be found all over Whole Foods --- located right next to the cashiers, up on the second floor, outside of the store, and even on the roof. To accompany the tables, shades are built to mimic trees and natural scene such as artificial rocks and fine-looking flowers. To further promote greenness, smoking-free signs can be seen anywhere in the park, trash is categorized into as many as six cans. The place is not merely green, but also convenient for people to spend some quality family time, as it is both animal and baby friendly. As we observe the store in the park, we see more than five pets sitting next to their owners and enjoying the afternoon sunshine, while babies are comfortably napping in the infant seats that Whole Foods provide. Even better, Whole Foods plays music from its own radio and provides free public Wi-Fi to its customers, attracting many to spend their leisure time here to do some work. From first look, all these features would make people feel like Whole Foods is a liberal place where everybody is warmly invited.

Tree-Like Shade

By Luke Zhang

                Yet, as we scrutinize this grocery store more closely, we begin to realize that the core value of Whole Foods is not too close to the idea of liberalism and even a little fascist. Even though the corporation tries hard to make it look like a welcoming place for everybody, it does tend to keep the poorer families out of its store. The hit brand of Whole Foods, “365 Everyday Value,” promises to produce the most organic food one can find in a grocery store, giving customers the sense that by purchasing them, they are eating the healthiest foods. Yet, what many people neglect is that organic does not necessarily mean healthy. For example, the “365 Slightly Salted Baked Potato Chips” has been criticized by a reviewer online as “extremely sugary,” and he suggests that instead of labeling those chips as “slightly salted,” they should be placed at the cookie aisle and be called “heavily sugared.” The “365 Everyday Value” is also more expensive than other ordinary products’. For example, as we go through the snacks section, we discover that the chips here are often as much as two dollars more expensive than the common chips brands such as Lays, which can be found in other markets such as Wal-Mart and HEB but are apparently ignored by Whole Foods. As a result, customers often find that they only have one choice when buying products in the store, the pricy “365 Everyday Value” brand. This policy shuts the door for most of the lower class families as they simply can’t afford to shop at Whole Foods, which by the way, sells the largest mark-up per product in grocery business.

Seat in Shop

By Luke Zhang

                Austin downtown’s Whole Foods not only lacks liberalism in terms of its narrow choices of products, but also influences the dynamics of its surroundings. According to our research online, when Whole Foods enters the scene in populated area such as the downtown of Austin, it severely affects the neighborhood. Usual consequences include an increase in the price of nearby hotels and apartments and the closure of smaller but cheaper convenient stores. Richer people might appreciate the existence of an organic store, but poorer citizens would not feel lucky and might even have to move out of the area since now the living cost here has dramatically increased. Whole Foods Corporation’s inconsistency with Austin’s Liberalism is not only reflected by its “unfriendliness” towards the lower income people, but also proven by its lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity. While we are spending our Sunday afternoon at the picnic table, there is only one African American walking into the store and two Asian boys doing their English project. Other than those three, all of the other people are Whites. In our opinion, Whole Food’s overly natural campaign, including the usage of brown bags, donation to plant trees, biodegradable packaging, and the advertisement of a green product line, has made the White urban customers feel like that they are embracing and saving the nature by simply consuming at the store. More significantly, the corporation successfully made customers feel good about themselves for buying healthy yet expensive products. True Austin Liberalism is not a concept for people to feel good about themselves, just like Richard Wright’s Native Son is not written to make rich white girls feel bad about African Americans.

     

Live Music Line-Up

By Luke Zhang

           To some people, Austin’s Liberalism simply means “a place where groups of hippies gather at a music hall to enjoy live music and have a sip of beer.” As we quietly listen to Adele and Stevie Wonder singing on the Whole Food radio and observe this organic store’s culture, we notice a chalk board listing all the artists who are coming to the store soon to sing. We are deeply impressed by Whole Food’s effort to make it appear as liberal as possible. Yet, at the end of the day, we still conclude that Whole Food, with its limited types of customers and selected brands of products, does not quite fit with the Liberalism of Austin.

The Biggest Parking Lot

Its 5:30. I’m trapped on I-35, known at the “worlds’ largest parking lot”. I have been stuck in traffic for over 30 minutes and I have to be downtown in less than 10 minutes with 3 miles left until I can exit…FML!

Traffic is part of our lives for those that live in Austin. Heavy traffic stimulates anger and frustration from many impatient drivers with a busy schedule. Traffic congestion is very heavy during the time of rush hour, from 6- 9am and 4-7pm on weekdays, as people are driving to and from work. Even though traffic in Austin is not as bad as other major populated cities like New York City, sitting in traffic is still very annoying.

In modern society, time is money. People are constantly running around: getting to work, getting home, going to school, picking someone up, having a meeting somewhere, going to the movies, etc. Therefore, speeding has significantly increased because people are always in a rush to get to where they need to be.

Interstate 35 is the most annoying place to be when there is traffic. There is no room to breathe. Joe Taylor a traffic reporter for News 8 Austin describes that I-35 is "designed for a small town, and [Austin] has grown into a very large city." Since 2000, Austin's population growth has increased 15.4 percent in 2008.

As the city of Austin continues to grow, the roadways become smaller and tighter during rush hour as more people are driving on the road. According to Katherine Gregor, a journalist for The Chronicles, "the metric used to document congestion is a road's volume-to-capacity ratio, which compares the existing volume of traffic (flow rate) to a street's real capacity." A capacity of .8 or lower means that there is less traffic. However, downtown I-35 is said to have a capacity of over 1.0! I-35 is not the only roadway in Austin with high traffic congestion: Loop 360, Mopac, and Lamar.

Austin's traffic continues to get worse because of the lack of an alternative form of transportation. Capital Metro is one form of an alternative form of transportation that helps to ease traffic in the city; however, this form of transportation is not very popular to the public. In addition, businesses and shops in Austin are often very far apart and it is only convenient to drive, rather then riding a bike or walk.

So what is The Austin Department of Transportation doing in response to driver's frustration to the increase traffic?

The Austin Department of Transportation is constantly readjusting the route of city buses to make it more convenient to the public. The city has also built a Capital MetroRail that runs from downtown Austin to the norther part of Austin. According to Robert Spillar, director of The Austin Department of Transportation, they are trying to build "new sidewalk and bicycle improvements and advocating that people simply drive less, both regionally and in town."

How does traffic affect Austinites?

Some of the obvious reasons are that traffic causes people to be late to their activities and makes people anger. However, traffic also plays a role in car accident. Many people become reckless drivers when they are angry and frustrated in traffic: changing to the faster lane or using the shoulder to cut through traffic. Traffic accidents are heard almost everyday on the radio (KLBJ) and Joe Taylor also updates his Facebook about the incidents. In addition, businesses are also affected by the traffic. High traffic in an area can cause businesses to lose valuable customers because people tend to avoid the cluster of cars.