Whole Foods shoppers who have grown accustomed to their generous return policy over the years might want to cover their ears: the grocery chain just announced that it’s completely cancelled amid the current health crisis!
Yes, that’s right, you’ll just have to keep those kale chips or gluten free muffins even if you don’t like them; COVID-19 has forced the Amazon-owned chain to cease their beloved return policy until further notice. Here’s what you need to know:
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Whole Foods joins the likes of Publix, Stop & Shop, ShopRite and others in suspending all returns, exchanges and refunds amid the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The company just changed the language on their website to reflect the change: “To ensure the health and safety of our Team Members and customers during this critical time, we are suspending our current return policy and all sales are final unless there was a quality problem with the product at the time of purchase.”
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This is a huge change considering that prior to the crisis, you could return pretty much anything to the healthy food store--often times without a receipt. "If you have purchased an item from Whole Foods and despite if it's defective or out of date or damaged, they we will return it no questions asked for the full price," bulk buyer specialist David Roif revealed on Quora in 2018.
"We would like to have the receipt, but if you don’t have it and the item is something we carry even if it’s from another store we will honor your return." Wow--so generous, right?
The new policy is meant to stop the spread of the virus from shopper to shopper via contaminated items (although the CDC recently revealed that the virus is less likely to be spread across surfaces than they originally thought), and pretty much every grocery chain has taken the same steps. Additionally, stores want customer to be in and out as quickly as possible, which certainly wouldn't be the case if there were long return lines. It's safe to say that anytime you walk into a grocery store right now, you should just assume that all sales are final.
But many would argue that because of Whole Foods' price point for many organic and specialty products, there should be some leniency with returning products, say if that organic almond butter or kombucha beer just doesn't taste right. And the company is already facing backlash about this on social media.
"I tried a new flavor of this kombucha beer and I honestly want to return it," Twitter user lexissxo posted on the platform on May 21.
"Unfortunately, all sales are final at this time unless there was an issue with the product at the time of purchase," Whole Foods' official account replied. "We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused." Yikes!
So--what do you think? Will you still be shopping at Whole Foods, given this new strict ban on returns?
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