Absolutely false. That is the entire stated purpose of the 365 brand. What 365 does not cover is produce and meat. Meat is definitely more expensive at Whole Foods as they do not use it as a loss leader like other stores. I also sometimes wonder if one of the founders being vegan had something to do with that. Produce at WF is definitely about merchandising. The lower priced produced is very well hidden.

> shop at multiple stores (extremely difficult if you are poor)

Poor people don't have legs? I was poor for most of my life. I rode a bicycle to the grocery store. And the 365 brand stuff is mostly non-perishables. You can shop for non-perishables every couple of weeks.

Admit it. You just do not like the brand and identity the Whole Foods represents. It has nothing to do with the actual products or prices.

I mean, I live in an area where there’s a Whole Foods within two blocks’ walking distance of two other grocery stores (one mid-market, one down-market.)

I think this isn’t actually that uncommon; people don’t see Whole Foods as actually satisfying the demand for “a grocery store” in an area (as it doesn’t carry many of the things people expect a larger grocery store to carry—it may have decent produce, deli, bakery, etc. sections, but its grocery section is rather lacking in anything other than up-market “bougie” brands) so if there’s an existing other grocery store, and then a Whole Foods also gets built, that doesn’t much decrease the traffic to the other grocery store to the point that it would close down.

The only problem is property developers marketing a new neighbourhood that only has a Whole Foods as being “close to a grocery store”, and people believing them and moving there. That Whole Foods was probably already there before the neighbourhood was, serving as an outlet to travel to for the larger region that that the new neighbourhood is located in; but the other parts of the region were being served by grocery stores located closer to them, and this new neighbourhood actually doesn’t have one of those.

Walmart has staples dirt cheap but a much more limited selection. Market Basket has "proper grocery store selection" and can match Walmart in prices except for the things that really lend themselves to discounts for buying in bulk (like those big boxes of eggs) which they simply don't sell. Hannaford and Price Chopper make up the part of the curve leading to the mid range which is occupied by Stop and Shop, Shaws/Star, etc. and then at the top of the price distribution is all the stores I try to avoid at all costs.

They mention large variation of prices between stores of the same chain. I strongly suspect that this correlates with how wealthy the community the store is located in is (which leads to increased cost to run the store). Where I live Aldi is the high priced upscale store. Where my parents live Stop and Shop is the high priced upscale store and Shaws/Star Market is generally cheaper.

The fact that Walmart ranked poorly does not surprise me. There are no good Walmarts in the Boston area. Walmart doesn't throw a lot of grocery effort into stores with lots of local competition. The one near me is really good. The one in Quincy is laughably bad. Tewksbury is good but I'm not sure if they consider that "the Boston area".