ChicaMarya

I just received an email forwarding an article from yesterday’s New York Times, Sticker Shock in the Organic Aisles.  My hip, socially aware and spiritually concious cool cousin from LA sent me this, with the comment, “Nooooooooooooooo. or hellooooooooooo.  Are they just waking up to this NOW??”  Apparently many have still been sleeping. 

Due to medical issues, I have no choice but to shop organic.  In the early 80’s I shopped at Coops and at the many independent natural foods stores that used to be in Chicago.  As Fresh Fields developed stores here, my then favorite store, the independently owned Foodworks, began to have problems competing.   A large part of that was due to so many people being curious about Fresh Fields.  We shopped at both places, which meant that our food dollars were now being split between two stores and less on mail order items.  Then Whole Foods entered the market, and our beloved Foodworks store on Diversey and Sheffield could not compete against two giants.  Barb and her husband closed the store. 

By now I developed a rare autoimmune condition (genetic) that requires me to be fastidious about doing organic foods.  Add to that yet another autoimmune condition and many allergies, and now I’m not an organic shopper only by choice but by necessity.  During this time Whole Foods basically gobbled up Fresh Fields, leaving a giant of stores to compete against what was left of the independent natural and health food stores in Chicago.  Slowly, or quickly depending on your perspective, they withered and closed up, leaving Chicago with only one choice.  Even the previous competitor Wild Oats was no where to be seen in the city. 

A competitor seemed to arrive years ago, called Sunflower.  Their choice of locations and bad timing made it impossible for me to get there and shop there.  By the time I heard about it, the CTA had begun announcing station closures on the Brown Line.  I can assure you that if you haul your groceries on public transportation in the summer, you really don’t want to wait in the blazing heat for 30-45 minutes while your produce cooks and your other perishables perish, so the train is the way to go.  Last year Sunflower closed. 

So here we are in Chicago, with Whole Foods really being the only game in town for those of us who have extremely special dietary needs.  The store does a good job of serving those needs, and for those of us who get deathly ill from conventional food “food preservatives,” Whole Foods is the place to shop.  Fortunately, Jewel Foods also has expanded their product mix to include more natural and organic foods, but the product mix and choice is really a function of what store you shop at.  For example, the Jewel on north Clark street in Andersonville is where my uncle shops.  When I was there yesterday, I was amazed at what a small selection of organics they had.  I commented to the friend of mine whom I was with that the Lincoln Avenue store had four times the dry goods and more than three times the selection of produce. 

All that being said, what about prices??? HIGH, UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLY HIGH.  In fact, at times Jewel is higher than Whole Foods (the volume a store does obviously has an effect on the prices they can get from distributors).  How long has this been going on??? For years, yes, YEARS!!  Two years ago I saw my organic and naturally raised food bill double.  Since a full year ago, I’ve seen this bill double again.  So please, NY Times, don’t tell us our food bill has gone sky high.  This is majorly old news for us.