There are no added hormones in WF meat. There are no hydrogenated oils in any of their products.

There are no phthalates in any of their beauty/wash products.

Obviously you can define health however yo want, and you can scan the shelves of other stores for these same things. Maybe you can find a couple phthalate-free shampoos in Target, read a bunch of articles and memorize the good brands and hope they don't change. Or you could shop at WF.

Or EarthFare, or Sprouts, or Trader Joes, or a bunch of other grocery stores that do what WF does. Whole Foods is just an expensive grocery store to me these days. It's uniqueness of being an "organic grocery store" has long faded.

Trader Joe's doesn't sell exclusively organic. With their product placement they do an admirable job of putting organic and standard products next to each other and letting the customer decide between the two based on price, without a lot of deception based on item count or weight or whatever.

I remember a great quote from a WF shopper talking about their prices. They said how great it was to see lower prices on the produce, meats, etc. but that if you ever found her shopping the health & beauty section it meant she won the lottery.

Got a good chuckle out of that because I’ve also never dared shop those aisles at WF either!

No added hormones is normal in most countries, but apparently in the USA you need to go out of your way to not do that.

When I think of a national brand in the US that everyone would assume the worst of, that is available at ordinary non-WF supermarkets, I think of Tyson, and yet their chicken is prominently labeled "no antibiotics ever" and "no added hormones or steroids".

I think this may be a case of "gluten free sugar".

Added hormones in chicken are illegal in the USA

(and as far as I know only chicken)

The US also has radically cheaper groceries than virtually any other developed country.

Nonsense. A quick Google search[0] shows that the following countries all have cheaper groceries than the US: Spain, Germany, Netherlands.

[0] http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/stats/Cost-of-livin...

Partly this is due to lower transport costs.

I disagree. in my experiences (anecdotal, I know), WF was a lot earlier to larger varieties of organic produce and organic products. It is true that many stores have caught up, but WF still has a larger selection of organic/fair trade certified/high quality meats than most other stores. Their animal welfare rating system alone is pretty pioneering (if it is to be believed). They have also partnered with more local growers and farmers than most other national chains.

Organic does not mean healthier.

organic celery is healthier than regular celery. So in some cases yes.