If you love to shop at grocery stores that offer healthier foods and niche styles, then you have probably heard of Sprouts, Whole Foods Market, and Trader Joe’s. All three offer healthier options than normal chain grocery stores, and they all have their own cult followings. How do you decide between Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s?
Your choice comes down to what shopping experience you want to prioritize and how much you want to pay when shopping for healthy foods. All three options have that farmer’s market feel and sell organic foods, making them unique from other chain grocery stores.
Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s each have many similarities as well differences. Read on to learn more about each store and what they offer. This article is designed to help you determine which one may be the right fit for you and your family in case you happen to have the option of all three of these great stores.
Sprouts
Henry Boney first opened a fruit stand in San Diego in 1943, offering fresh foods to those who walked the streets. Boney’s son and grandson further developed his concept into the first brick and mortar Sprouts store in Chandler, Arizona, in 2002. Since then, Sprouts has spread across the US, offering a wide range of organic products.
- Organic fruits and vegetables
- Fresh deli
- Bulk foods
- Prepared foods
- Salad bar
- Catering
Organic Foods
Sprouts prides itself on offering fresh and organic foods fresh from farms to its shoppers. The company claims that 90 percent of its stock is natural and organic. Additionally, the company also offers a large number of gluten-free items for those that are either allergic to gluten or merely wish to eat healthier.
Sprouts also encourages people to try different items that they might otherwise refuse, especially when it comes to fruit. If you see a unique item that you may have never heard of before or were afraid to try in the past, simply ask one of the employees if they can get you a sampling. The odds are that they will be happy to oblige.
Fresh Deli
Sprouts offers a full-service deli that offers everything that you would expect out of a normal deli and more. The deli offers the typical selection of sandwich meats and cheeses that can be cut to your specifications as well as fully prepared meals.
Additionally, the deli provides ready-to-eat meals, wraps, and even fresh sushi rolls. It also has hot meals and sides that are ready for pick up as you walk into the store. Sprouts’ sushi rolls are fresh and available for pick up in the deli.
Bulk Foods
Sprouts has a large selection of bulk items. The bulk foods section allows the customer to select exactly how much they want of a particular item instead of being forced to select pre-portioned amounts. These bulk items include:
- Coffee beans
- Nuts
- Grains
- Dried fruits
Important to note is the fact that none of the items in the bulk area have been treated with any chemical preservatives or anything else that would not fit into the organic realm. Feel free to select any grain, nut, or bean, knowing that it is chemical-free.
Prepared Foods
Eating healthy and organic does not mean you have to spend an hour or more in the kitchen preparing your family’s dinner. Sprouts knows that the modern age means people are busy and constantly on the go. This does not always leave a lot of time for lengthy dinner preparation.
If you are in a rush and do not particularly feel like cooking for your family when you get home, fear not because Sprouts has you covered. The store offers several different dishes that are either already prepared or ready to cook.
Salad Bar
One of the more interesting items in the store is the large salad bar which allows you to select exactly what you want and is sold by the pound. That means that you can make a gigantic salad and eat like royalty for under $10.
Catering
For those of you that will be having a party or simply do not want to cook a healthy dinner yourself, Sprouts has you covered. The company offers catering for any event. Any of the items that are sold inside of the store are available for catering.
Sprouts asks that if you are going to have items catered that you give as much notice as possible so that the employees can ensure that the food item(s) are prepared and ready for pick up when you arrive. On large orders or during any holiday, the company asks for at least 48-hours notice for any catering order.
Whole Foods Market
In 1978, college dropouts John Mackey and Renee Lawson borrowed money from family and friends to open the first store, which would eventually be named Whole Foods in Austin, Texas. The store, originally named SaferWay, offered natural food to its customers. Since then, Whole Foods has exploded internationally, offering customers:
- Organic fruits and vegetables
- Bulk foods
- Meat
- Bakery
- Catering
Organic Foods
Much like Sprouts, Whole Foods offers many different forms of organic foods and health items. The company caters to customers who lead vegan, vegetarian, and organic lifestyles.
Whole Foods has refused to sell many products that typical chain stores do because it holds its food items to a very high standard. The store refuses to sell any items that contain the following ingredients:
- Hydrogenated fats
- High-fructose corn syrup
- Certain sweeteners, including aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin
Whole Foods has made this decision because it wants to ensure that the customer can only purchase items that are as healthy as possible. If you are interested in all of the ingredients that the store refuses to sell, go to the website, and that list is provided, along with a detailed explanation of the decision behind each banned item.
Meats
All the meat Whole Foods offers is Animal Welfare Certified local, organic, and grass-fed. Animal Welfare Certified means that the animals were raised outdoors on an independent farm and were not mistreated.
Additionally, none of the animals that have this certification were given any antibiotics or growth hormones. The company says that it can trace the meat back to the original farm or ranch that the animal came from before the meat came to the store.
At Whole Foods, if you do not see a cut of steak that the store is supposed to have on hand, you can ask one of the butchers to make you the cut you want. Often, there will be a qualified butcher on site that will be able to make you any cut of meat.
Bulk Foods
Whole Foods offers a wide variety of items that they have for sale in their Bulk Department. Anything from grains, flours, spices, etc., are available in bins that allow you to select the amount that you want and not some predetermined amount in a package.
Additionally, Whole Foods does not allow anything unnatural in the Bulk Department. That means that there will be no:
- Hydrogenated Fats
- High-Fructose Corn Syrup
- Aspartame
- Sucralose
- Saccharin
Bakery
While most stores have a bakery, the bakeries at Whole Foods take the cake. Whole Foods makes fresh items in-store and does not use any artificial ingredients while doing so.
Whole Foods offers baked goods that are made with unbleached flour and cage-free eggs. The bakers do not use any type of artificial sweeteners or colors in anything they bake or sell inside of the store.
Special Diets
On the Whole Foods website, there is a special section dedicated to those that may be on a special diet. The website offers meal planning and recipes for almost any dietary need or desire:
- Vegan
- Keto
- Paleo
- Gluten-free
- Vegetarian
- Dairy-free
- High-fiber
- Low-sodium
- Wheat-free
Catering
Whole Foods also has a department that is dedicated to catering for any event that you may have planned in the future. This includes backyard barbecues, corporate events, or any family holiday get-together.
All that the company asks is that you give as much notice as possible before picking up your items. If it is a holiday, the store you order from asks for a 48-hour notice so that the employees can have all of the food prepared on time.
Whole Foods and Amazon
In 2017, Amazon purchased Whole Foods Market for almost $14 billion. This was Amazon’s way of boldly breaking into the grocery market. While the purchase seemed massively costly for Amazon, it seems to have been worth it. People are turning to healthier foods, and Amazon makes it easier and more convenient to shop this way.
Amazon Prime shoppers can order whatever they would normally buy inside of a Whole Foods store and have it delivered to their home as if it were any other Amazon Prime delivery.
This option is certainly something unique only to Whole Foods. Neither Sprouts nor Trader Joe’s can offer anything like this. However, both stores do currently offer curbside grocery pickup.
Trader Joe’s
Joe Coulombe opened his store that would become Trader Joe’s in Pasadena, California, in 1967. Coulombe’s dream was to open a store with a sense of humor where people could purchase healthier food items and enjoy their experience while doing so.
Joe’s dream eventually became a reality, and now the chain has over 500 stores throughout the United States. Trader Joe’s prides itself on the fact that there are not many name-brand items that they sell inside. Rather, most of the products bear the Trader Joe’s name.
Trader Joe’s does not offer any type of sales, promotions, or other savings events because the company claims to offer the best savings to every customer daily. Trader Joe’s is able to do this by dealing directly with suppliers whenever possible so that the costs are lower. These savings are passed on to consumers.
Organic Food
Trader Joe’s, like Whole Foods and Sprouts, also have a large selection of organic foods that they sell to the public. The foods that they offer for sale are also direct from farms and are raised naturally without adding any type of growth hormones or other chemicals during the growing process.
The company sells organic items such as milk, yogurt, cereal, extra virgin olive oil, beans, etc. The store touts that a total of 20 percent of the products that they sell inside of their store are completely organic.
Like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s is not interested in selling items that have any type of harmful chemicals added. Trader Joe’s will not sell items that have ingredients including:
- Artificial flavors
- Artificial preservatives
- MSG
- GMOs
- Partially hydrogenated oils
Seafood
Trader Joe’s offers seafood for sale that is acquired through sustainable efforts. One of the ways it ensures the source it purchases seafood from is sustainable is by utilizing reputable sources, like the Seafood Watch List, to make sure the companies are doing their part to keep sea life healthy.
Trader Joe’s is proud to offer seafood that is harvested sustainably. However, the stores refuse to put any labels on their products to let consumers know. Why? Because they do not want to pay a vendor money to place a label on their products since that would increase the cost to the consumer. It is so simple and so brilliant.
Meats
Here is the main difference between Trader Joe’s, Sprouts, and Whole Foods: Trader Joe’s does sell meat that may have been given antibiotics at some point before being harvested. However, the stores also sell meat that has not been given any type of antibiotics or other chemicals. That meat is labeled as organic.
The reason Trader Joe’s offers both types of meat is that they want to leave that choice up to the consumer instead of making it for them.
So, if you are a person that prefers to save a little money and purchase meat that was raised with traditional methods, you have that ability at Trader Joe’s. If you prefer spending a little more and get something that was raised without chemicals or medicines, you also have that choice.
Those of you that are interested in meat without any antibiotics or growth hormones choose the meat that has the “Natural” label on it. The “Natural” label at Trader Joe’s implies that the meat contained in the package was not raised with any hormones or antibiotics during the animal’s life.
Diet
Trader Joe’s offers three different types of special dietary products inside of its stores. The different selections that you can make are:
- Gluten-Free
- Kosher
- Vegan
On the website, the company offers a breakdown of specific items that are available for sale in each diet category. If you have any of those diet restrictions, there is no need to go down every aisle to determine what will fit in with your meal planning. Just look at the website, and it will tell you what products meet your criteria.
The Trader Joe’s Difference
Sprouts and Whole Foods tend to keep the same items in their stores throughout the year. They also tend to sell some name-brand items, whereas Trader Joe’s does not.
Trader Joe’s prides itself on finding and offering different items you will not typically find in other stores and selling them under their brand. The company does not guarantee that it will continue selling particular products, either.
Trader Joe’s maintains that it will keep selling items in stores as long as those items continue to produce. However, once an item stops selling as expected, or if it was a limited-supply item, the product will no longer be offered for sale.
Trader Joe’s says that this method works and adds to the overall shopping experience of the store. Whether or not you believe that doing this is a good business move, keep in mind that the company has been open since 1967 and has a strong customer base.
Bell System
Another unique feature Trader Joe’s has over other stores is the bell system. Trader Joe’s uses bells in place of an intercom. So, whenever employees want to get someone’s attention, they ring a bell a certain number of times to let the intended target know what it is that they need them to do.
One ring of the bell informs employees to open additional cash registers due to long lines. Two rings alert employees that a customer has a question at the register and requires assistance. Three bells alert a member of management that they are needed at the register.
Final Thoughts
If you are in the market for natural and organic foods, Sprouts, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s are all good places to do your shopping. Each of the three health food stores offers quality products that are organic in nature and are competitive with one another.
Trader Joe’s has style and flair that puts it above the competition, while Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods allows you to receive deliveries right to your front door. Sprouts has an incredible selection. All three of these stores offer healthy food that will fit your lifestyle. The choice is up to you.
Sources:
https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/company-info/whole-foods-market-history
https://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/quality-standards/food-ingredient-standards, https://agreenerworld.org/certifications/animal-welfare-approved