Dictionary

Whole Paycheck en · PROPN

Pronunciation

• (US) audio

Etymology

Suggesting that shopping there can be very expensive. First use appears c. 2001. See cite below.

Meanings

1. (US, derogatory, humorous, slang) Whole Foods, an American supermarket chain.
   • But while the firm has made healthier foods more accessible - though certainly not more affordable as witnessed by its nickname "Whole Paycheck" - it has also driven many independent natural foods retailers out of business and promoted the cultural consolidation of organic agriculture. 2005, David Vogel, The Market for Virtue, The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility:
   • We (all right, Nancy) want to buy as much organic dairy products, fruit and produce, meat and fish as we can. So we start at Whole Foods where they have both. At absolutely ridiculous prices. The store is not known as Whole Paycheck for nothing. 2001, Consumer Publications, Limited (publisher), Madison Magazine, volume 43, page 14:
   • For a change, I actually slept to 7 am. The hotel has a breakfast buffet. I was back on the bike a little after nine, headed for Grand Teton park. Did a short hike, had lunch, looked at Jenny Lake. Stopped at Whole Paycheck on the way back for some delicatessen food. Microwave and fridge in the room means I can buy takeout and save a lot on restaurants. 2024 September 4, msno...@yahoo.com, “Day 4, Grand Teton National Park”, in Sunday Morning Breakfast Club (Usenet):
   • Some critics indicted Whole Foods of misleading consumers about the products that they were paying through the roof for. Charges of elitism were common, as was the derisive nickname "Whole Paycheck." 2015, Robin O'Sullivan, American Organic, A Cultural History of Farming, Gardening, Shopping, and Eating, page 240:
   • Key players in this fragmentation were the niche grocery stores that had begun rapidly expanding in the 1990s, such as Whole Foods Market (opened in 1980, now doing $15 billion in annual sales) and Trader Joe's (1967, about $9 billion today), followed by newcomers such as Sprouts Farmers Market and Fresh Thyme Farmers Market, hoping to cut in on sales at Whole Foods (dubbed “Whole Paycheck” by some for their comparatively high prices). 2017, Michael Ruhlman, Grocery, The Buying and Selling of Food in America:

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