• Whole Foods Market - Gilman St

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  • Health-food-store Health Store

Large and well-stocked natural foods supermarket chain, acquired by Amazon.com in 2018. Offers selections in natural groceries and specialty foods, nutritional supplements and vitamins, fresh fruits and vegetables, as well home cleaning and natural body care products. Find vegan foods like tofu and soy products, plant milks, vegan ice cream, vegan cheese, frozen meals, vegan burger patties, cereals, nuts, and much more. Has deli and prepared foods department. Open Mon 8:00am-10:00pm, Tue-Sun 8:00am-9:00pm.


Venue map for Whole Foods Market - Gilman St
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3 Reviews

First Review by PAL

ChloeChristine

Points +1451

Vegan
27 Jul 2021

Good place to buy vegan treats!

While staying in Albany for a couple of weeks on a “digital nomad” trip, we pretty much exclusively shopped at this whole foods. This chain is not the cheapest and I don’t want to overlook that in this review. However, we found they had an awesome selection of vegan food and foods we couldn’t easily find elsewhere. They also have a lot of organic food if this is something that’s important to you.

misabella

Points +3407

Vegetarian
16 Mar 2020

Some Vegan Options

Some good produce and also some vegan products, though not a particularly outstanding selection. Not bad for a typical grocery store though.

PAL

Points +71

Vegan
27 Jan 2016

Not particularly vegan-friendly

I used to have to drive much farther, to the south end of Berkeley, for the old, smallish(Telegraph Ave) Whole Foods. I do most shopping at a small indie natural foods grocery near my home, but they don't have the greatest selection of products, beyond all-organic produce. Whole Foods has some things I can't seem to find anywhere else, so I shop there once or twice a month, despite the high prices (I look for whatever's on sale). Almost as soon as this one opened, I switched from the Telegraph WF, because driving here uses a lot less fossil fuel. HOWEVER! I was very quickly disappointed in the new one's spacious Deli section. The old, small one on Telegraph had pretty much closed its Deli, but I've been to WF's in Santa Monica CA, and Madison WI, which had GREAT vegan deli options. After 3 tries to find just a couple of vegan dishes at the Gilman St one, I gave up and don't even browse it now. That's not all. In my experience, many vegan products are shelved either out of reach on top shelves, or almost unseen, on bottom shelves. The worst aspect of their stocking policies, in my opinion, is that the long, two-sided freezer aisle, is completely unsegregated. Meat & dairy based frozen entrees and products (including burgers, burritos, etc) are shelved side-by-side with any vegan analog products. This is annoying, time-wasting, and frankly, disgusting, to have to keep looking at products touting which animals they are made from, while desperately seeking a package of Gardein burgers, a vegan holiday roast, or a few burritos for my husband's bag lunches. Frozen vegan products are outnumbered at least 3 to 1, by items containing meat, dairy, and/or eggs. The same is true in most other departments. I found one can of vegan "tuna" in the middle of a 3-shelf display of canned fishes. I have therefore concluded that the manager of this particular store, seems to actively HATE vegans, resent our patronage, and has instituted a policy of making the store as unwelcoming as possible to us. Two final (non-dietary) annoyances: the parking lot has THE narrowest parking spaces of any lot I've ever had to park in - carts WILL NOT FIT between parked cars. And the presence of a uniformed guard by the big open front doorway, suggests that the management apparently assumes a lot of their patrons are thieves. But then, why put a whole lot of products BEYOND the checkout counters, right by the front door?

Pros: Friendly, helpful employees, large selection of brands, near my house

Cons: Shelving vegan products beside non-vegan, Terrible parking lot, Intimidating security guard at door




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