The US celebrity endorsed grocery concept store opened up last year in the old Barkers building. I visited for the first time last weekend and was a little surprised what the fuss was about. It was lunchtime but the ground floor was pretty much deserted. Perhaps not too surprising baring in mind the layout isn’t too far removed from school dinners with various offerings available for punters to scoop buffet style. They have choice that’s for sure but if the footfall I witnessed is typical they will have to bin three quarters of it each day – or worse still the next days platters are not quite as fresh as you might imagine. So I was delighted to find that they run a little ethical products store on the first floor. They stock some great products including some cool model cars made out of recycled tin and aluminium. Also a nice line in jewellery made from recycled glass of various shades. The book choices were also quite inspiring and prices all round were a little less than you would expect. Mrs H even bought an ethically sourced T-shirt with a funky design offered at a fair price.
I’m not sure if the chattering classes of Kensington and Chelsea are quite ready to have their buying decisions challenged further than selecting the organic spinach. But from my standpoint Whole Foods could do a lot worse than dedicate a bit more space to this side of their portfolio and go a little easier on the ostrich eggs.
