Why No Donuts at Whole Foods??

To: Whole Foods Market
RE: Why No Donuts at Whole Foods??

Hi there!!

I happened to notice that there is an entire wall of cupcakes for sale at your Columbus Circle location, but no donuts whatsoever. May I respectfully ask you what is up with this?

I certainly understand that Whole Foods prefers to champion products that are healthy, organic, cruelty-free and generally wholesome, and perhaps you simply do not feel that donuts fit that profile. But, in that case, I ask again: What's up with the cupcakes?

Although you have not made the nutrition facts for your two-bite cupcakes available on your Web site, I did notice the information for your blueberry muffins. (They look delicious, by the way.) Now, a blueberry muffin has to be healthier than a cupcake, right? And the Whole Foods blueberry muffin has 330 calories and 13 grams of fat. That's about the same as a Dunkin' Donuts old fashioned, which has 280 calories and 18 grams of fat.

So again, I ask you (respectfully of course): If your muffins and cupcakes are just as unwholesome as a Dunkin' Donuts old fashioned, then why no donuts? What's up with that?

Is this because cupcakes and not donuts were featured on "Sex and the City" and this makes you somehow feel that donuts are not chic enough for your customers? I hope this is not what you're thinking. Because just upstairs from you, the Bouchon bakery sells an extremely popular, extremely high-end donut that is all the rage among the wealthy and beautiful. (You know that Bouchon is run by Thomas Keller, who was the first chef in America to get three Michelin stars, right?)

I hope that by now you are indeed asking yourself, or perhaps even someone in your company's senior management team who has decision-making power, "Wait a sec! What is up with that?"

I look forward to seeing donuts for sale in a New York City branch of Whole Foods very soon.

Yours truly,

Duane Reade
International donut reporter

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