Every time a new project breaks ground in Eugene, I find myself instantly checking local news outlets and skimming through my social media feeds for any information on what’s to come to my town.
I’ve lived in and around the Eugene area for 19 years now, and with anything that has lasted that long in one’s life, I’ve become possessive. I’d love to see our community’s overall aesthetic to continue to develop, but not at the cost of trampling over local people and all the hard work they continue to put into making Eugene, well, Eugene. If there are ways to help this city of around 160,000 people with its continuous growth that doesn’t cause our local culture to suffer, I’m all for it.
When I first heard the news that the City was considering bringing a Whole Foods Market to Eugene, I immediately disregarded the idea.
For almost ten years now, locals have been going back and forth with city planners, deciding whether or not the national food company would come to this Oregon college town. The idea was initially thrown out during the time that downtown Eugene was in talks for a revamp in 2006.
I had always been on the side of those who opposed the idea of debuting a Whole Foods in Eugene. It was just another large corporation that I initially thought went against everything my town stood for. In my eyes, this giant competitor would cause our local food economy to suffer. Our ethics behind a sustainable foods movement would be challenged. It would provide the city with yet another expensive grocery store alternative that I saw as unnecessary.
But after looking a little deeper into the matter, I now see Whole Foods as something potentially good for Eugene.
In general, the company says it stands for selling high-quality natural and organic products; it serves and supports local and global communities; practicing and advancing environmental stewardship is on the list as well as promoting healthy eating education.
To bring these “core values” closer to home, in a statement about its opening in Eugene, president of Whole Foods Market’s Pacific Northwest Region Joe Rogoff said, “We have long believed that Eugene is a wonderful place for Whole Foods Market because the community’s values mirror so much of what we hold important.”
But does it, Joe?
I was worried that local producers would suffer huge losses with the corporation’s opening in town, but Whole Foods’ work in the past has shown the opposite. The company has proven to feature local products in stores, and it even has a fund of about $25 million that goes towards low-interest loans for independent local farmers and food artisans.
Then, there was the Whole (get it?) non-GMO controversy that came up a few years ago. The business stands with its efforts to be anti-GMO, but people saw the opposite when videos and hidden data surfaced. Since then, Whole Foods learned its lesson and realized it actually had to be against GMOs as it advertised, which has led the company to become fully transparent, unlike another natural grocer (cough, Trader Joe’s, cough).
My final concern had to do with pricing. Whole Foods Market is not-so-secretly more expensive than other supermarkets we have in town. But I think it’s fair to only compare Whole Foods’ prices with businesses in Eugene that offer similar products to it. This includes Natural Grocers, Sundance Natural Foods, Capella Market, Trader Joe’s and Market of Choice. Whole Foods Market is known to be on the bougie-end of natural grocers, but compared to these other Eugene grocery stores, there’s not that much of a difference.
As I visit each of these locations, their prices in-store match the fact that no natural and organic grocer in Eugene is listed with a price range of less than two or three dollar signs on Yelp. The locals and many students who value healthy eating are willing to pay these upward prices, so why not continue to give them what they want in a big way?
Now that Eugene’s downtown has grown and gained some momentum, Whole Foods Market has officially found a spot at the mouth of Ferry Street Bridge at Northeast Broadway and High Street, about a mile off campus. Construction began earlier this year and is scheduled to open its doors in fall 2016, presenting the city with 150 full-time jobs and 38,030 square feet of natural supermarket goodness.