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C H O C O L A T E #5 (that’s all for now folks)

Ah, I returned to my base at last.

I went to the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods again to see if the chocolate section had changed since my first time documenting it; or, if I brought fresh eyes to the wall after my other site research.

The “chocolate aisle” is located in the same area as it was during my first post. Echoing my first post, the chocolate bar section at the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods is located on a single wall by the registers at the back of the store. The chocolate bars are united with other kinds of non-chocolate candy and other chocolate products. They are next to a beer cooler and adjacent to the coffee bar.

The only major difference this time around is that the chocolate bar display was much neater, fully stocked, and lacking holiday marketing signs. I also found some chocolate bars opposite the large permanent chocolate display.

The chocolate bars are located on the left-most section of the “candy wall.” While I was there the chocolate was being stocked so there was a large cart and an employee standing in front of a portion of the display. It is still unclear to me how the chocolates are arranged vertically because the prices do not show a pattern. The organic, fair-trade, dairy free, and eco-friendly chocolate is all mixed in as well and there is no visual divide or hierarchy. 

Whole Foods brand was located on the bottom shelf again, this time they had more of a variety and even had some organic options with waterfall and rainforest imagery. The “regular” Whole Foods chocolate is organic but these rainforest chocolates are EVEN MORE ORGANIC somehow. They also claim to be made from rainforest conscious cocoa.

I found my favorite endangered species brand again, this time the package had an eagle on it (image 3). This brand also had some clearly strange marketing going on. The majority of Endangered Species Chocolate has beautiful, artistic packaging that I deeply admire. Yet, one bar has a completely different logo and aesthetic. They both clearly display the profit donation and their fair-trade label so it is unclear to me why this one bar strays from the pack.

This time around I found a much larger flavor variety, and because the shelves were stocked better it felt easier to stare at all of the brands and make a decision about trying a new one. The organization added to my shopping experience. The organization also made the wall feel more inviting color wise. There was a greater variety of colors present and it felt more inviting than a disheveled wall. 

The chocolate bars in the checkout line were significantly more expensive than those on the wall. These chocolates are at eye level. They appear to be more expensive due to the funky flavors offered such as bacon or black salt. These chocolates would go great with the canned wine below them as a treat to bring to a get together.

I found this experience to be the best of all of my chocolate searches because of the order on the shelves and the quietness of the store.  

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Pretty Chocolate/Happy Rainforests

Chocolate.

A sweet treat enjoyed in diverse ways across the globe. In the US it is a gift handed out on Halloween, a way to tell someone you love them, and an easy way to cheer up your friend after a breakup. In some ways, it feels like chocolate has always been there for me from childhood traditions to grown up bad days.

Unfortunately, chocolate isn’t immune to the negative aspects of globalization including environmental hazards and exploitative labor. In the age of globalization and knowledge overload, consumers have an ever increasing opportunity to make conscious consumption habits to combat human and environmental exploitation, or so they think.

In my liberal leaning college bubble of NW, DC, it feels like every decision my peers and I make is ultimately with a larger cause in mind—we eat less meat because it is better for the environment, we use metal straws so plastic waste is reduced, we even shop at woman owned coffee shops to combat economic inequality among genders. Because companies know people want to purchase products that seem to be better for the world, in order to make themselves feel like a conscious consumer (Johnston 2008), they purposefully market products to this target audience.

With this in mind I went to four sites in Northwest Washington, DC to see how chocolate is displayed. Although I might casually notice differences in chocolate bar packaging on my own, this detailed research is prompted by a class-assigned optical research project during which I made detailed observations and took photos.

After visiting each site once with the exception of Whole Foods where I went twice, I focused my analysis on chocolate packaging and its relationship to color and fair-trade or organic labels.

For the purposes of this research, chocolate is referring to chocolate in the form of bars or small packages intended for consumption as is—without baking, melting, dipping or other means of changing it. Chocolate is distinct from the umbrella term candy because it is made from the cocoa plant rather than being any random sugar product. Therefore, my research does not include other forms of chocolate like baking chips or hot chocolate because they serve a much different purpose than an individual chocolate does.

Chocolate is located in convenient, central areas in all of the sites I visited. It is often located near registers, making it easy for consumers to quickly be convinced to buy it. Each site had large amounts of chocolate, allowing for a diverse array of product available to consumers. Each chocolate, with different packaging, pricing, and flavor is before the consumer on a linear display, waiting to be selected. I did not witness anyone standing in the chocolate area at any of my sites for longer than a brief moment. Because there is such a great variety in the busy spaces near the registers at these sites, it appears the store is trying to cater to all kinds of chocolate buyers. If this is a transient space, people are likely not taking their time and looking at the variety—instead they might see a package or flavor they recognize and quickly grab it.

Which leads me to my next point, packaging is everything for a product that’s purchased impulsively.

As someone who studies the impact that colors and shapes have on viewers of the arts, analyzing the packaging that wraps chocolate bars for their travel from the manufacturing facility to a consumer’s hand. In the chocolate aisle, color is everywhere.

The color palettes in Whole Foods were earth tone across the board compared to the color palettes of chocolate in less natural stores. These earth tones often correlated with fair-trade and organic chocolate brands because the colors brown and green together invoke natural, earth-like imagery. These bars often had matte paper packaging which also contributes to a natural feeling that is less refined than shiny packaging. A good amount of chocolate at Whole Foods has a pattern with multiple colors that draw consumers eyes through out the display.

In CVS and Safeway, two everyday large name stores, the chocolate packaging was generally of a saturated monotone color such as orange, black, white, red, blue, or purple. I found that the chocolate that isn’t trying to be natural or good for the environment, and is simply upholding tradition like a Reese’s bar, follows traditional packaging colors. These chocolates likely stick to the colors they’re familiar with in order to easily direct consumers to them. In an array of so many options all you have to do is look for the orange packaging and you have your peanut butter cups. These chocolate bars come in shiny, plain packaging. They do not have much of a pattern or play with color palettes. Instead they sometimes have images of the main ingredient, or some other special embellishment.

Trader Joe’s is the one outlier of chocolate packaging because its chocolates combine styles typical of both fair-trade organic packaging and classic packaging. The most expensive chocolate in Trader Joe’s was visibly Swiss, and had bright monochrome packaging with simple bold lettering. These bars quickly caught my attention and held it as someone who appreciates a modest design. Beyond these bars, most of the Trader Joe’s chocolate labels were brown, black and deep purple or blue with very few embellishments on the packaging. For a store which has such beautiful themed packaging for other products, it was surprising to see that chocolate packaging was relatively simple. This could be because the product doesn’t require loud packaging in order to be bought—rather people are comfortable buying chocolate without embellishment here.

The last important comparison across all sites is the attention to fair trade and organic labels. Of all my sites, Whole Foods by far had the most options for consumers to feel good about their chocolate purchase.

Whole Foods aggressively plays in to the feel-good marketing game by not only displaying products which say fair trade, rainforest safe, and organic on them, but they also place their own tag below the product to make sure the “goodness” of the product is clear.

This tangibility for consumers, having the opportunity to visibly see the good they are doing  for the rainforest and factory workers gives them the “warm glow” (Iweala, Meyerding, & Spiller, 2019) of feeling like they contributed to something bigger than themselves through the purchase of a chocolate bar. Further, consumers are willing to pay more for chocolate that is clearly labeled fair trade (Vlaeminck, Vandoren, & Vranken, 2016). In adding to Johnston’s argument about consumers voting for social and environmental change with their dollar, it is clear that chocolate provides a cheap way to do so at Whole Foods (2008).

Despite the potential “warm glow” (Iweala, Meyerding, & Spiller, 2019) achieved through fair trade purchases, the evidence that a consumer’s extra couple bucks for the sustainable purchase is slim. Scattergood’s brief article identifies potential for fair trade chocolate to be a complete illusion meant to take in more consumer revenue (2012).

The three other sites offered fewer fair trade or organic options. Safeway had a separate section of fair trade and organic next to the “non-warm glow” (Iweala et al., 2019) chocolate. This suggests the store has a variety of people shopping and wants to have an option for both concerned consumers and people who just want a Reese’s. Trader Joe’s did have one fair trade option but it blended in with the other chocolate—making it seem like fair trade wasn’t so relevant to Trader Joe’s shoppers. CVS did not have any fair trade chocolate.

Overall, my field work shows that stores in Northwest, DC provide a variety of chocolate catering to the diversity of consumers in the area. It makes sense that Whole Foods has a large amount of fair trade chocolate because this is the kind of consumer they attract. On the other hand, it makes sense that a store like CVS would not carry a selection of fair trade chocolates since they are not catering to this kind of consumer.

Chocolate remains one of my favorite products to buy with its bright, beautiful colors and inviting flavors. After all of this, as someone who likes buying actually sustainable goods, not relying on products Whole Foods tells me are good, I recommend to keep things local and buy some chocolate made close to home.

Support independent businesses and steer clear of the “fair trade” trap at locations like Whole Foods.

Johnston, J. (2008). The citizen-consumer hybrid: ideological tensions and the case of Whole Foods Market. Theory & Society, 37, 229–270.

Poelmans, E., & Rousseau, S. (2016). How do chocolate lovers balance taste and ethical considerations? British Food Journal 118(2), 343-361.

Scattergood, G. (2012). Shoppers ‘conned’ by fair trade chocolate labels. Food Manufacture. https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2012/09/04/Fair-trade-chocolate-cons-consumers-into-feeling-better.

Vlaeminck, P., Vandoren, J., & Vranken, L. (2016). Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Fair Trade Chocolate. In M.P. Squicciarini & J. Swinnen (Eds.), The Economics of Chocolate. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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C H O C O L A T E

What’s your go to sweet?

Mine is hands down a good chocolate bar. I know what I like and often go right for that particular bar, without giving the other kinds a look over. Even though my body is in a cycle of buying the same kind of chocolate, there are SO MANY KINDS to choose from. The diversity of chocolate bars varies from store to store, and within different geographic areas. This project is an attempt to document the several different kinds of chocolate bars in my area of NW Washington, DC. 

Before I talk about what I found in my first field site, I want to talk about my understanding of chocolate. To me, chocolate is a solid substance that people with extra money use to indulge. Some kinds are appear to be healthier than others, one example of a “healthier” kind is dark chocolate. But I’m not a scientist and I’m not going to attempt to prove or disprove these perceptions. Chocolate is different from candy in general because it is made from a specific ingredient—the cocoa bean. While there are several kinds of chocolate in most grocery stores from hot chocolate powder, baking chocolate chips, and chocolate bars, I am only focusing on the bars in these field notes.  

I visited Whole Foods in Foggy Bottom on Friday February 8th, 2019 around 11 am (not a busy time for the chocolate wall). The store was mainly pretty slow except for a little bit of buzz near the hot bar.

Chocolate bars are located on one single wall, to the right of the beer selection and to the left of the checkout lines. The display was disheveled and picked over (Image 1). 

It doesn’t appear that chocolate is organized based on price. The chocolate bars range in price between $2.99 and $5.00. The only arrangement criteria I noticed was that the fancier chocolate was either on the top or the bottom of the display. This suggests that Whole Foods wants to push the cheaper generic brand by placing it at eye level.

Overall the chocolate’s packaging has earth tone colors with some bright pops of color depending on the flavor and origin (image 1). My three criteria for observing chocolate packaging are the patterns or imagery, number of different colors, and the packaging material.

I found that the most basic packaging, with the least embellishment was also the least expensive. For example the bottom most row holds Whole Foods brand chocolate in only a few flavors which was $2.99. Another one of the cheaper brands, Chocolove on the eye level shelf has thrown together packaging with a plain background, and fonts that make the package feel chaotic (image 2). Chocolove is also $2.99.

On the other hand, Whole Foods also carries more expensive brands that claim to be more sustainable or have exotic flavors. The brand Endangered Species is located on the second shelf from the floor. These bars have the most intricate packaging by far (image 3). There is a different package design on thick matte paper for each individual flavor. The matte paper alludes to a more organic, less refined feel which adds to the experience of buying chocolate which donates a small portion of profit to endangered species.

The display is minimally decorated with Valentine’s day propaganda. There are a few small signs pushing customers to buy chocolate, and connecting chocolate with love. One sign says “Your whole trade purchases support farmworker communities” next to a bunch of roses. Buying this chocolate will not only make you a good person because it supports “farmworker communities,” it also can help you out on valentine’s day!

The Foggy Bottom Whole Foods store is ripe with opportunities for consumers to feel good about the products they’re buying. Donating 10% of profits to an endangered species is always a reason to buy more chocolate, right?

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Marissa Kirshenbaum

Fieldwork Store 1: Whole Foods

You can see as soon as you walk into Whole Foods that this is not the type of store that will leave you impressed at their dessert selection. Everything about the grocery market screams fresh and organic, and most people do not associate these adjectives with ice cream. Some people love ice cream during a hot day in the summertime, usually paired with multi-colored candies and oozing chocolate. Whole Foods is not just a grocery store but a “market”. It’s a simulation of farmer’s stations where the food comes right from the ground to your plate and everything is as healthy as it can be.

I visited the Whole Foods on I Street NW at around 1:30pm on a Sunday, which could have influenced the type of people that I saw as well as the quantity of customers searching throughout the store. What I saw were mostly white upper-middle class women sporting big black coats that oftentimes adorned the “Canada Goose” logo wearing Air Pods, sporting expensive athleisure, and carrying reusable shopping bags. I assumed that everyone was picking up their weekly groceries as part of their Sunday errand activities. Whole Foods has an “upper-middle class” aura with its hardwood signage and dark floors with green letters that spell out “organic” plastered along every corner.

The ice cream in Whole Foods can be found along the back of the store on the bottom floor only a few feet walk from the escalator that leads customers back up to the cashier line. Freezers and refrigerated items outline the perimeter of the store so that frozen or cooled food can be spotted at any point from inside an aisle. Ice cream falls into its own designated section next to “Dessert” and “Breakfast”. 

The dessert section houses ice cream bars and fruit pops, while the ice cream section includes small and large containers of ice cream. This section was not visited very much, perhaps due to the cold weather. It does not appear as though you can find ice cream at any other place in the store.

Located in the ice cream section are different types of containers and ice cream treats such as dairy free, almond milk, Halo Top, Talenti gelato, Whole Foods brand gelato, fat free sorbet, Ben & Jerry’s, organic, and Breyer’s brand ice cream. Besides the Whole Foods brand gelato and the Breyer’s brand ice cream, everything else was packaged in a pint-size container. The other kinds were 1.75 quarts.

 In terms of pricing, the pints where on average $5-$6 depending on the type of ice cream and whether or not it is an organic or fat free brand. The Breyer’s 1.75 quarts went for $6. Brands like Halo Top are popular at Whole Foods and are advertised as “healthy” ice cream, with the whole pint containing somewhere from 200-360 calories. At Whole Foods, I could not find any “normal” ice cream brands besides Breyer’s, and I recognized that the pints were not economically efficient for more than one person in a household.

At Whole Foods, the ice cream is more expensive the smaller and more “add-ons” (i.e. dairy free, fat free, organic) there are. If you are an ice cream lover, Whole Foods may not be the best place to purchase your ice cream fix due to its high prices for small amounts of food. It would not be economically feasible. 

Whole Foods may not be the best option for parents shopping for groceries for their families, because due to the sizes the family would run out of ice cream quickly and have to keep purchasing ice cream at high prices. Therefore, the ice cream at Whole Foods is meant to be purchased by single people who are health conscious. 

Anyone looking for an indulgent bowl of ice cream that won’t break the bank every time would have to look somewhere else.