I’m pretty sure that Seattle was one of the first cities in the United States to grasp the importance of eating organic foods. Of course, since the advent of “Whole Foods”, organic foods have hit a good portion of the rest of the country, too, which is probably the reason that Walmart is actually now competing in the organic food industry.

If you think that sounds a little weird, so do I. I just came across an article written in the Atlantic comparing the food aisles of Whole Foods and Walmart in a Boston suburb- and guess what? If the writer is to be trusted, the organic produce in Wal-Mart is not all that bad.

To compare the two stores, the writer had some chef friends (must be nice to write for Atlantic) give her a menu with shopping lists. She was able to buy a majority of the items at Walmart, but had considerable difficulty getting “goat cheese”, which apparently the Walmart employees had never heard of.

During the blind taste test, some of her friends actually preferred the Walmart produce (which was organically produced from local farms) to the Whole Foods counterparts and the grocery bill was significantly cheaper, but didn't like the meat choices too much.

How does Walmart, the ‘evil corporation” compete with Whole Foods?

Again, according to the Atlantic:

Heritage Agriculture, will encourage farms within a day’s drive of one of its warehouses to grow crops that now take days to arrive in trucks from states like Florida and California.

While I am happy that Walmart is actually selling organic produce, I am curious as to who the consumers will be. Here in Seattle, it would be safe to say that people tend to be more than a little snobby about where they get their food and prefer Whole Foods, PCC, or the many farmer’s markets scattered through the town and wouldn’t quite feel comfortable shopping for their produce from Walmart, regardless of the savings or quality.

In smaller towns across the US and in the “red states” , there really doesn’t seem to be a market yet for organic produce- at least if the food I ate on a recent cross-country road-trip is any indication of their food preferences, which tended to be more along the lines of the Family restaurant variety.

So the question remains- who, if anybody, is buying organic produce from Walmart? Would you?