Food & Culture

Whole Foods Tops Covid-19 Safety Survey

Whole Foods ranked high in areas such as mask use, sanitizing and enforced social distancing

By Nat Rubio-Licht September 4, 2020

April 14, 2019 San Jose / CA / USA - Whole Foods store displaying an ad for Amazon Prime Membership

Whole Foods ranked No. 1 of 33 brands across several industries for its coronavirus health and safety practices. 

Whole Foods, which was purchased by Seattle-based tech giant Amazon in 2017 for $13.6 billion, ranked high in areas such as mask use, sanitizing and enforced social distancing, according to the Consumer Health & Safety Index by research firm Ipsos. Whole First also ranked first last June, when the index was created.

Using mystery shoppers at thousands of stores across the country, the Ipsos found that employees at 76% of Whole Foods stores actively sanitized high touch areas. The industry average is 59%, according to the report. 

Employees at all Whole Foods stores were wearing masks correctly, and 98% of customers complied with mask policies. Social distancing policies, such as closing every other check-out lane and closing self-serve food and beverage stations, were enforced at around 99% of the Whole Foods stores visited.

Issaquah-based Costco was ranked No. 5 in the index, dropping three places from the first time the index was released. However, Costco ranked first in the installation of physical barriers to promote social distancing. 

An Ipsos survey of 2,000 Americans in the spring found that 62% would stop shopping somewhere if it did not take health and safety seriously amid the pandemic. 

Join The Must List

Sign up and get Seattle's best events delivered to your inbox every week.

Follow Us

Costco Goes for the Gold

Costco Goes for the Gold

Have a sudden need for gold bars? Better act fast.

The warehouse retailer known for everything from its popular food court to organic maple syrup and bulk, well, everything, is now in the business of selling gold. That’s right. Costco is peddling one-ounce gold bars online. But you have to be a member to buy them. And they’re not cheap. Shoppers have two options: One…

Fave Five

Fave Five

Apparel, Art, Ice Cream, Music

1 SATISFY your fashion appetite with sustainable luxury. Sell Your Sole Consignment features only mint condition women’s designer clothing and accessories. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, The Row, Hermèes, Celine, Chanel and many others wait inside this inconspicuous boutique in Belltown for their second life with you. Feel good knowing you’re reducing your environmental footprint when you…

Holiday Gift Guide 2021

Holiday Gift Guide 2021

Surprise with these unique offerings

Perhaps we’re a little biased, but who doesn’t love a good magazine? Big Little News, a new newsstand in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, boasts more than 250 domestic and foreign magazines. Add beer, wine, Champagne, gifts and sundries, and Big Little’s bimonthly subscription box makes for a creative and unique holiday gift. A sample gift…

Laura Jennings: The Giving Guide

Laura Jennings: The Giving Guide

The entrepreneur has a 'Knack' for gifting

This story appeared in the November-December issue of Seattle magazine. Visit seattlemag.com/subscribe. The best gift Laura Jennings ever received was a baseball It couldn’t have cost more than $5, and Jennings wasn’t heading to the dugout anytime soon. But with the unexpected gift came a note from her husband, who wrote that Laura had proven…