Daisy Yin of Shenzhen, China, typically grocery shops online — picking a market and browsing the products through an app on her phone. But, aching with hunger, she and two other cherubs walked to Whole Foods, half a mile from their dorm.
“I like that I can actually see the products, because back in China, since we do it online, it’s not tangible for us,” Yin said. “You can get a hang of how big the package is.”
They combed through the aisles and gawked at the prepared food offerings. Thirty minutes after they entered the store, Yin and her friends walked out with packets of instant ramen, a big bag of chips (which was gone in 30 minutes), each with her own disposable box of mac and cheese, chicken and broccoli from the hot bar.
Meher Sareen of London is no stranger to the supermarket chain.
“Whole Foods is my holy grail,” Sareen said. “When I saw on the map that there was a Whole Foods nearby, I told my entire bloodline.”
Her staples include dried fruit, dark chocolate almonds, pita bread and hummus.
Sareen and her roommate, Lucy Shirrell of Chicago, created a “food sanctuary” in their dorm, complete with food drawers and bowls of fruit.
When a friend had a birthday during the second week of the program, Sareen went with a group to Whole Foods to pick up a cake with custom frosting that read, “Happy Birthday Scarlett.”
Ellie Adams of Concord, Massachusetts, goes to Whole Foods four to five times a week.
“I could get lost in those aisles,” Adams said.
Because Adams lives on the second floor with hungry boys just down the hall, she doesn’t trust that what she puts in the communal fridge will not mysteriously disappear. Instead, she purchases items that she can stash away in her room, like granola bars, which she shares with her roommate. When she does get more perishable items, like sushi, she eats it right away.
To Adams, grocery shopping at Whole Foods isn’t just for sustenance.
“Whenever I’m walking the aisles of a grocery store, I always imagine what it’ll be like in the future to be grocery shopping for myself,” Adams said. “It’s almost like role-playing adulthood.”
