Only a handful have hard liquor in California and with limited selection. None carry any big multinational brands and products like Coca Cola, Procter&Gamble, Colgate/Palmolive, etc.
In my experience, comparing organic food at whole foods vs elsewhere whole foods is similar price and sometimes the better deal. However, the conventional stuff they have (that makes up a large portion of the food they sell) seems to always be more expensive than elsewhere. I'm guessing the idea of avoiding the same exact brands is to make it a bit harder for customers to notice how much more expensive that stuff is at whole foods or at least think maybe the quality might be a bit better.
Last time I went to WF I went just for cold medicine (OTC robitussin, etc) they didn't have anything but more "natural" options. It was probably a year ago. Color me dumb, I usually shop at HEB but the WF was on the way. That really surprised me. Pretty sure I left empty handed.
They do, but they don’t carry the mainstream versions of things: GUS soda instead of Coke/Pepsi. Cape Cod snacks instead of Doritoes.
The thing I hate is they don’t carry regular Aspirin or Tylenol, Nyquil (your usual and basic over the counter medicines) instead they carry ‘homeopathic’ whatever useless ‘natural’ ‘medicines’ & ‘supplements’
Those aisles along with clothing are really the most useless ones in the stores I've been to. Can't imagine people really buy that stuff.
Amazon has a big opportunity there as well. They've just started their vitamin Solimo brand which is actually decent, and private-labelling generic drugs is just easy money for most retailers.