Whole Foods Here I Come...

I started with Whole Foods this week. It’s a part time position in their bakery dept but this first week is all paid trainings on company values, policies and a Texas Food Handler Certificate.

I learned some interesting company history. Whole Foods started in Austin, Texas in 1981. 8 months after opening, Austin had a 100 year flood. Water was recorded at up to 20’ in parts of the city. The store and its inventory were totally trashed from the flood and mud. People pitched in to help and in a couple months the store got back on its feet. This experience solidified the company’s values.

Today you probably live near a WF store which we often call Whole Paycheck. Fortunately I won’t be spending my whole paycheck there because we get 20% off food as a perk and I can see when specials are posted in the store. Being an original store, this was is kind of disappointing. It doesn’t have the beautiful bakery that the stores in Las Vegas, Hawaii and New Mexico have. It’s as if it were an afterthought. I’ve been told at some point they will renovate it to be more like their newer stores, but we’ll just have to go with the flow. Right now, where a bakery could be, is an Amazon return and pickup counter. One thing I do like is that they hire diversity. I saw all ages, and races in the workforce, even people with green hair.

I have never really decorated cakes but I’ve decorated plenty of baked goods I’ve made. I even made some succulent cupcakes but not all the roses and stuff you see on most bakery cakes. I’m sure I can pick up this skill very quickly though, and they’d be smart to let me have my hand at it. I don’t see much chocolate in use at the store so I’m hoping we can change that a bit, even if its just something like cream puffs or strawberries. A lot of the baked goods are just baked off in the stores and made from scratch elsewhere, but cakes are decorated on site. We shall see how it goes, as well as how aligned their corporate values are in reality. Like everyone else , since Amazon bought it I’m a little skeptical. Plus, I’ve worked for myself for 20 + years and just a little skeptical about working for a corporation.

I am glad I decided to wait until fall to pick up chocolate making again though. Texas is having a brutal heat wave. I think we are up to our 40th day at 100 or better. Breaking records as many places are this summer, and dry as a bone too. We all know chocolate and heat aren’t a great match, so I’m being patient for cooler weather to dive into all the Pay It Forward orders my customer base so kindly supported. In the meantime I’ve been making various chocolate salami’s and am loving these! I am working on some packaging for them with butcher paper and string and some fun flavor combinations. They are the perfect snack and addition to a charcuterie board. More on them soon.

Stay cool everyone!