So-called "organic food" is a gigantic industry, $135 billion in revenue per year, augmented by a corporate panel created by the Clinton administration that exempts them from real U.S. Department of Agriculture oversight. They can exempt any synthetic ingredients they want and still sell an organic sticker (and do - dozens and dozens of them) and have insider corporations that "certify" organic status, but only make any money if they sell the stickers.
Yet rich people have bought into it, believing in claims of a health halo they would never accept about cell phones or vaccines. That is why the industry remains highly profitable despite some studies finding 25 percent of "organic" food is just regular food with an organic label - and why declines in quality and the experience haven't hurt them.
At least not yet.
A new analysis finds that two giants in the organic food space, Kroger and Sprouts, are considered worst in food quality and worst in shopping experience, e.g. long lines. The work looked at Google reviews from 3,000 stores in 100 that addressed customer service, food quality, prices, and how many cashiers were available, which determines checkout times.
Whole Foods has a lot of bad reviews also, just not enough to get into the top three.
None of those were worst overall, though. Surprisingly, the worst isn't in Washington, DC, where government has people captive in a way the private sector can only dream about so nothing matters. That honor goes to the Giant Eagle Supermarket on Cedar Avenue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With that low credibility I'd wonder if they are owned by Bob Nutting of the Pirates but until recently they were mismanaged by another Pennsylvania family.
