Whole Foods Market Blithedale

I love Whole Foods in general but I hate this Whole Foods store. I was visiting the area and was so happy to know there was a Whole Foods in the area. The whole vibe of the store sucks. The workers suck. They seem like they don’t give a sh** about you or their job or anything really. Look around. None of the workers are smiling nor do they ask if you’re finding everything OK. The people that frequent this place on Sunday mornings suck. They crowd around the coffee bar so that you can’t take your coffee and add cream to it. Please stand aside so I can take my coffee, add cream to it and get out of your way.

I don’t know what it is about Whole Foods I get excited about. Maybe cause the fact there is NO Whole Foods where I live? They do have a good self serve salad and food bar, possibly better than Nuggets Market? Or maybe the different array of healthy snacks? Honestly, I can spend an hour going up and down the aisles if I had the time to do so. Folks who work here seem nice. You can easily find a staff person if you have questions finding something. Looks like their sushi bar area is legit, the bakery looks very tempting. Will need to come back and try one of their sweets.

Who is the new Russian shelf stocker who is constantly screaming at the top of his voice? You can hear him anywhere in the store. On my last visit, I actually took the time to ask for the store manager about this because it ruins the whole vibe. After waiting for five minutes, I was told she didn’t have time to speak with me. I asked for her card so I could send her an email. Another five minutes passed before I learned they couldn’t locate a card and no one knew her email. Well, store manager, I hope you get the message here! Get control of your staff. In the meantime, you can find me over at the (peaceful) Miller Ave store, where employees don’t feel the need to scream constantly about nothing.

Today Dee Dee helped me get two cases of some of my favorite drinks. A friend of mine told me that you needed to order cases in advance to get a 10% discount. Dee Dee made a few trips back to the back to see if she could find what I was looking for and lucky me WF’s had both cases in stock. Dee Dee was so kind and helpful. Thank you Dee Dee for great customer service.

LOVE this location. Always clean and organized. The produce as well as the hot and cold food is always fresh. I work across the street and my coworkers and I get our lunches here frequently. The salad bar is always well maintained and I am a HUGE fan of their hot tortilla soup!

I used to shop here quite a bit, but they lost my business when I kept buying spoiled dinners at their refrigerator section. I thought once was a fluke, but it happened on several occasions. Also, the salad bar is not fresh and leaves much to be desired. Their saving grace is the bakery, which carries delicious items, but it’s not enough to make me want stop by on a regular basis.

I placed an order for a wedding cake and they made the BEST cake i have ever tried!
Wasn’t too sweet and the smoothest butter cream icing i have every tried!
Our baker was Yenye and here is a picture of the cake she made!

This Wholefoods should be shut down! Their food is unhealthy, when they actually have it. Because at 8 pm more than half of their hot God is gone or taken out. And when they do have it, the inspectors make them throw it out because they don’t keep it warm enough. And when it’s warm, it’s still extremely unhealthy!!!
I can’t wait for Good Earth Foods to open their new store in MV. And when that happens, you will NEVER see me around here any more!!!
Prepared foods are disgusting! Half the time the labels are missing allergens listed. Other times the labels are not even there, or are the wrong ones. The food is literally sickening. At least 95% of the time it contains either wheat, or meat, or soy or cheese, or milk, or something that my body reacts to. Most of the kitchen staff has no clue about the ingredients, and they blatantly don’t think is a big deal. That translates to the fact that they’ve not been trained properly.
Good Earth Market please hurry up and open.

I recently placed a massive catering order for a luncheon following my father’s funeral. Phillip and Alex were so helpful and gracious that it made the whole experience somewhat less traumatic. The food was delicious and they helped me figure out how much I needed for a crowd of 100. They also arranged delivery and made sure when we returned from the church it would all be easy to set up. I can’t thank them enough.

I purchased a cooked rotisserie chicken last Sunday. We were watching tv and eating our dinner with only candles lit. Later we noticed some of the chicken wasn’t fully cooked and was pink and raw. I became quite ill and won’t ruin your appetite with the descriptives. I returned the remaining uneaten chicken in Monday. Told my story to one employee who then took me to second employee who called 3^rd employee manager named Deanna. Surrounded by three employees who never apologized for the uncooked chicken nor did they send me off with any wishes to feel better soon. Was told by manager that some insurance company would call me to follow up. It’s been a week and they never called to see if I was OK. I am so looking forward to spending my money at Good Earth in Mill Valley. I have had too many bad experiences at Whole Foods.

This WFM is always chaotic and packed. The layout is off, with ppl waiting in line in random places throughout the store. It’s not a relaxing shopping experience by any means. And they seem to never carry any items on my shopping list.
Miller Ave and San Rafael will remain my go-​to stores.

I had a really bad experience with my Thanksgiving meal order and will never order from WF again. They omitted information and charged me for items I didn’t receive as well as making the pickup experience awful. And after reading other reviews, I won’t be back to this store. I’m thankful to have signed up with a local an organic CSA and to have other, far better markets to which to give my business.

For some reason I just can’t get with this Whole Foods, but I really like the older one… the one on Miller.
The positives for me at this store:
Lots of parking
Beautiful produce
Some very sweet cashiers
The negatives;
Buying vitamins… even when you say you don’t need assistance the people working the vitamin aisle tend to really hover. It gets pretty awkward if you happen to be the only customer in that section
Every visit has included some pretty long lines, maybe because I go there towards the time they close?
Too many Mill Valley folks that fit the Me Valley stereotype. Of course this isn’t the stores fault, but for someone who has lived here for over a decade (and also in the eighties… and the nineties… god, I’m old) it is a pet peeve of mine.
This just happened two weeks ago when I popped in with my husband to buy a couple of things… As we waited in line we noticed an unattended cart parked in such a way that it was in the line, as if to save a space, but also blocking the very narrow entrance path. I briefly considered moving it, but figured surely the person would be back any second. Meanwhile several people entering the store had to squeeze by it. Finally, a man came, put a few items in said cart. and left again to do more shopping!
So at that point we just moved the darn thing out of the way and went around it… only to be scowled at when the guy returned…
Icing on the cake? As we sat in the car talking, we see Inconsiderate Cart Guy packing his groceries in his Range Rover. The bumper sticker saying:
«Be kind to Mother Earth and all of her Children»
Wah-​wah

Saw a live rat running outside where the fruit usually is. Got some hot food that tastes like burnt food that been there for a while.

New to Marin. And the Blithedale WF is only a stones throw away. This LA transplant is very happy to see all my fave brands are here too. La Brea bread (so yummy), Three Twins ice cream, and Starborough Sauvignon Blanc — now there’s a meal for every day of the week :-)
Satisfied and Happy Girl

I usually love this whole foods, and whenever I’m passing through Mill Valley, I’ll stop by. However, I don’t believe that I’ll being doing that again anytime soon. I usually get their sandwiches, and since becoming pregnant, I’ve asked them to heat up the sandwich meat because cold deli meat and pregnancy don’t mix. Usually it’s never a problem, but for some reason, last time I went in, when I asked them to do that, the kid behind the counter stared at me, and said «you do know it’s a COLD sandwich, right?» Yes, I know it’s a cold sandwich. No, I do not care. I’m more worried about the well being of my child, than you’re judgemental looks, thank you very much. Then he had the audacity to try and charge me an extra dollar for the «inconvenience.»
Needless to say, I walked out and didn’t return.

It’s a smaller wholefoods than the ones I’m used to seeing in LA. They don’t do the meal deal at the ready made food section. I usually get the $ 12 Samoan with two veg sides. The boy working there didn’t even know what I was talking about ahaha
It seems consistent with other locations. It’s Wholefoods.

This location has ample parking, but the store layout is pretty frustrating. Narrow aisles in the produce area leads to immediate congestion. Combine that with oblivious shoppers who put their full sized card right next to the produce (thus blocking off a 4′ section) and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.
The same thing can be said for the area leading up to the fish counter. Finally, the bread area by the express checkouts is also congested and interferes with the traffic that enters the store. Suck. Finally, the deli area is pretty sad and tucked away in the back corner. The selection of sliced meats is pretty poor and the area always has a bit of a disheveled look.
So with the negatives out of the way, let me talk about the positives:
+ A great beer selection.
+ Great dairy selection.
+ Good beauty product and supplement sections
+ Staff has always been very helpful and friendly
+ Nice read-​to-​eat food section
And for the average:
o Standard selection of dry goods. I’d expect more considering the footprint of this place.
o Cheese counter feels trapped and doesn’t provide an open space for my fromage interactions. I’m the guy who likes to pick up and look at cheese, OK?
In the end it is a Meh, i’ve definitely experienced better type of place for me. I prefer the more laid back experience on Miller in spite of how difficult it is to park there.

This is the worst WFM I’ve ever been to. I honestly did expect a lot more especially in the posh location of Mill Valley. It’s no wonder they only got a 3 star Unilocal rating. Compared to other WFM locations, this one really doesn’t offer nearly as much as other ones. Not only is this store smaller than others, but the quality didn’t seem on par with the WFM that I usually frequent (San Ramon, Ocean SF and SoMa).
Friend and I were passing through town and were looking to pick up lunch. We stopped by WFM in Mill Valley. First, the entrance is quite strange as it’s almost like a sharp turn, one lane mini off-​ramp to get inside the parking lot. You can miss it if you’re not paying attention. The exit is on the other side of the lot which you have to drive around to look for. Second, because of the large open store front entrance, many flies got inside. The flies were all buzzing around the cooked food bars and deli, which I would think is unacceptable. Speaking of the serve yourself food bars, half of the trays were empty. The selection was small to begin with but being that there was no replenishment made there even slimmer pickings. They also didn’t have any samples around the store. In most other stores, they have samples and people promoting new food products. Nada at Blithedale.
We decided to order two burrito bowls. They guy at the counter was really nice but he really skimped on our portions. At San Ramon WFM, they give you a lot of topping choices and fill up the container. At Blithedale, they didn’t even have any burrito slips for you to fill out. The choices were really limited. At first I was going to get the cilantro quinoa, but the guy pointed out that it was over cooked and mushy then proceeded to show me. Why are you still selling it then? I ended up getting brown rice instead which turned out to be undercooked.
After we paid, we went to get some utensils and they ran out of napkins. There were no water dispensers or much of any condiments. The seating area was so little and jammed in the corner near some trash bins. Very unappealing. We didn’t eat there and took our food to go.
I wouldn’t come back to this WFM location. It’s not what it should be. I’d say that the management at this WFM should really go check out some of the other locations and try to make some improvements.

Whoa — this is the Rolls Royce of supermarkets!
Walking in to this Mill Valley Whole Foods is like entering another world, where everyone is healthy, beautiful, organic, and wears Lululemon. Every Marin cliché/​stereotype (both good and bad) can be found in this store. You’ve got everything from soccer moms returning from yoga class, to granola lovin’ hippies, to inept bachelors like me who just want a quick dinner to-​go from their deli.
I’ve been to a number of Whole Foods locations throughout California, and they always do a wonderful job with store layout and food displays. There’s something about the place that just makes you want to linger and explore each aisle. Everything looks delicious. Time just sort of disappears.
I love their fresh produce selection. Shoppers are encouraged to sample the different fresh fruits. The salad bar is enormous! In addition to fresh greens and dressing options, shoppers can indulge in their hot bar where you can choose from pasta, soups, bbq, mac n cheese, grilled veggies, and a variety of eclectic cuisines.
The deli boasts sandwiches, rotisserie chickens, fresh salads, a build-​your-​own burrito and pizza section, as well as a delicious selection of pre-​made dishes and sides.
My only gripe is an obvious one. Everyone who shops at Whole Foods knows that the store ain’t cheap. They nickname it «Whole Paycheck» for a reason. If you want plenty of groceries for under $ 40, you’ll need to hit up Trader Joe’s or the Safeway down the street.
But if you want a high-​end/​only-​in-​Marin shopping experience, this Whole Foods market is worth a visit.