Living Social Proves: People Really, Really Love Whole Foods

If there’s one thing health conscious hippies hate, it’s the mainstream. If there’s one thing cheap people hate, it’s a bunk deal disguised as a great one.

So when LivingSocial offered a Whole Foods deal today, it was bound to piss off some people.

On Tuesday, LivingSocial went live with a 50% off coupon—“$10 for $20 to Spend at Whole Foods.” The result? People went ape sh-t. As I write this, 789,803 deals have been purchased in Los Angeles.

So obviously, it’s been a hit. And in general, Whole Foods has been a hit in recent years. John Mackey, its founder, originally wanted to create a grocery store that sold good food. What's "good"? You know, chickens that weren’t raised as plants. Fruit that’s not drenched in rat poison. That sort of thing. But since then, the company has gone even further—and now it’s all about presentation, even if the food is packaged. Sleekness, good lighting, pretty displays—it’s what some call food porn. But unlike porn, there’s nothing cheap about this food. Generally, the prices are more than half of a regular, crappy grocery store's.

“Everything we envisioned has come true," Mackey says. “We’re just basically outcompeting everyone.”

But beyond the competition, Mackey says the company is doing something even bigger:

“I embraced the hero myth; that Whole Foods is trying to improve the world.”

That’s nice and all, but can’t you do it for a little cheaper?

The New Yorker summed up the Whole Foods phenomenon best:

“Depending on where you are on the spectrum of epicurean cultural politics, you may consider Whole Foods to be a righteous grocer or a cynical con, a prod to self-improvement or a gateway to decadence, a neighborhood boon or a blight, a force for social good or a place to pick up chicks.”

Well, the picking up chick things is right. Even celebrity matchmaker Patti Stanger agrees, once telling Hollyscoop that the best place to meet people is during “day events. Like, you meet guys if you are at the golfing range or the Whole Foods.”

Hey, if you’re not going to eat healthy for any other reason, it might as well be for the pursuit of love. Or getting laid.

But not everyone’s thrilled about Whole Foods. Critics of the LivingSocial deal Tweeted:

“I trust you all noticed LivingSocial is selling yuppie food stamps for half a yuppie food stamp.”

“Today's living social deal, it's like getting trendy groceries for the price of normal ones!”