Visiting the Mother Ship: Whole Foods, Austin.
Alls I gotta say is: Sweet. God. Almighty. (Photos by C-M.)
I’m not ordinarily a Whole Foods shopper, but I just HAD to visit the corporate HQ of America’s most blinged out supermarket chain while in Austin — and thankfully, my efforts were amply rewarded. The Whole Foods here is truly out-sized, with colors that are hallucinogenic and a baby boomer soundtrack that keeps the senses on total overload. I realized that it made perfect sense that this is a company that would emerge from Texas, a state that revels in doing everything on a larger-than-life scale. The whole experience was like entering an Andreas Gursky photo. With smells. And insane amounts of disposable plastic. And a three-foot tall chocolate fountain.
As totally insane as the whole place is, I have to tip my hat to the folks in corporate for the presence of the Bowie BBQ stand in the middle of the store. Their brisket sandwich KICKS ASS.