Coffee is decent; the employees are great!
We used to shop here regularly, but in the last year a large percentage of what we came here for is no longer available. (1) While fruit is pretty varied, the range of vegetables is modest; (2) The flower section has been dumbed down a lot. It's fine if you want a composed bouquet (which I never buy), but otherwise is mostly roses, tulips and alstromeria; (3) The deli now has less of a range of options than Hannaford's; and (4) the prepared salad table is at least half pasta salads at 250 calories a serving. This used to be a place to get things unavailable elsewhere in Portland. Some still exist (the breads are good, for instance, though the range seems to have narrowed), but not enough to motivate me to make the trip nearly as often as I used to. I am disappointed in the store's decline.
Just ok. Not bad. Inside the grocery store.
The various food bars available at Whole Foods look like something out of Fine Dining Magazine but the looks are all they have. Everything we tried tasted like cardboard and while it looked like it should have been scrumptious, they were devoid of flavor and cold falafel really doesn't taste good at all. I can go into depth here but what's the point? The presentation was overwhelming with quantity and choices bit it was not good to eat and isn't that what it's all about anyway? My recommendation to the chef would be to try everything before you put it out for consumption. The area was clean and well kept so that was never an issue and after eating we did shop in the store for things that you don't normally find in regular grocery stores. I recommend shopping there but avoiding the salad bars completely.
We regretfully chose Whole Foods Market for lunch while visiting a couple of the local micro breweries. There is not much to really say, the food was not good, the tables were not cleaned and dirty, the garbage cans were full and overflowing, etc. etc. We were not familiar with the area, but there has to be much better lunch choices in the area, my bad for not investigating more.
After a 2.5 hour drive, we were ready to grocery shop. This and Tjs were primary reasons we came to town. I've been to a lot of Whole Foods and even worked as a temp in their corporate headquarters. It is one of the nicest stores of theirs I have ever been in. The diverse staff was great. The selection and quality was outstanding. My mom is an Amazon Prime member and John from New Hampshire was top notch. He helped us walk through the entire process. What a friendly and dedicated employee to commute each day! He deserves kudos. What a great store. Yay!