Reader Rant: Salad Bar Letdown at Whole Foods

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Once in a while, we pull letters from the Racked Inbox and post them for your enjoyment and/or enlightenment. Want to contribute? We're listening. Anonymity always assured.

Look, we admit that we have an almost unhealthy affection for Whole Foods. We love shopping there, we love that the Bowery store has a cheese cave and a beer room, we love that they sell ridiculous items like ostrich eggs (staffer: "They're great for arts and crafts!") But here's the thing: not everyone is head over heels for the chain. Cue the disgruntled reader rant:

So here's a question. How is it that at the Whole Foods salad bar, which is 5 times the size of most of the delis in New York combined, one cannot get avocado, grilled chicken, sprouts, orange slices nor baby plum tomatoes? Aren't they supposed to have everything? And even if I'm getting picky with my orange slices—which I'm not—shouldn't they offer grilled chicken before, say, wok-seared seitan cubes with ramps and Cheery Farms thyme reduction?

I'll ask you another question while I'm at it. With 35 registers at the Union Square location, isn't it a little nutso that ONE GUY has the key to the registers? I had to wait—and this is not a bitchy exaggeration—10 minutes for the manager to make his way to register #18, when the clerk double charged me for my mediocre chicken soup. And this place is the second coming why exactly?

Thoughts, additional angry tirades, Whole Foods defenses? To the comments, please.
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