getting lost in wholefoods

I went to Wholefoods Market on High Street Ken when it opened several years ago. It was carnage. I berated myself for being so dumb as to visit during its opening week. The upstairs food area in particular was a seething mass of people trying to work out the complex systems. It was like the worst kind of canteen and left me desperate to make for  the nearest exit. I have to confess I never went back – until now. I did however visit a number of Wholefoods during trips to the US. I found them to be a much calmer affair, with superb quality food at great prices. Other than being shouted at when I didn’t understand the horrendously complex, numbered queueing system, it was pretty much plain sailing. Last weekend I was in High Street Ken and feeling hungry. With great memories of the Wholefoods sushi that I had in the US I decided to give the store another chance. And guess what, I had a great meal, despite Wholefoods using every trick in its arsenal to prevent that being the case. Its systems remain bewildering. Can I get food at the sushi counter to take away to eat in a separate area, or do I have to eat it in the sushi-designated area? Who knows. Why do I have to leave my table and go downstairs to a completely separate counter to buy a cake – complete with massive queues – to bring back upstairs to go with my coffee.?  And why can’t I pay for said cake upstairs? Yet on the other hand because there are no tills on the lower floor – and unsurpisingly no signs to this effect – everything has to be carried upstairs and paid for there. Everything is slow and cumbersome. The guy who takes the coffee orders writes them slowly on a piece of paper that he hands to the person standing next to him! Honestly. There seems to be no separation of roles. Everything is blurred with no one appearing sure of what they are meant to be doing. That applies to both staff and customers! Never has a retailer put such a Byzantime system in place. So why did I put up with it all? The memory of the great food I had in the US was what did it. And guess what, despite the appalling experience, the quality of the food in High Street Ken was brilliant. But Wholefoods, you could do so much more business if you made it simpler for consumers and based your systems around the way people behave not the way you want them to behave. How many people are going to be as dedicated as me to spend 10 minutes trekking down a flight of stairs and queuing for a piece of cake to take back upstairs? If the truth be told, the cheesecake I chose was that good I’d do it again. Problem is, so many people won’t know this and will simply give up the will to live. Wholefoods, please get a grip. Surely in this age of austerity, putting the customer at the heart of what you do should be the Holy Grail? It’s not that High Street Ken doesn’t have loads of other great places to eat!