A customer at Whole Foods posted a viral video in shock after buying $20 worth of mac and cheese at the hot bar. Viewers left tips on how to not make the same mistake.
Tristan (@treatswithtristan) who uses his account to post travel vlogs and food reviews, has more than 118,000 views on his TikTok. He left a caption that says, “Getting robbed at Whole Foods.”
To start the video, the cameraman films Tristan filling up a to-go tub with mac and cheese and a carton with fried chicken breasts at the Whole Foods hot bar. Then the video cuts to Tristan sitting at a table back home, as he opens the lid of mac and cheese and says, “Looks good, don’t it?”
Before digging in he says, “Here’s what you should know.”
How much is mac and cheese at Whole Foods?
Tristan explains that the quart-sized tub of mac and cheese that he purchased came out to a total of $20. “To my utter disbelief,” he says.
“Not once have I been to a restaurant and mac and cheese has cost more than maybe $15,” he says while the camera moves closer to show a view of the food.
“Whole Foods… I have a bone to pick with you,” Tristan adds.
Next he mentions that once he saw how much the mac and cheese would cost at checkout, he didn’t feel comfortable leaving the cash register to go back to the hot bar and dump out the food.
“You guys trapped me,” he explains. “The woman’s awkwardly staring at me like, you gonna pay for that?” Tristan says he was moments away from “having to commit a crime” just to get away with the mac and cheese.
However he says that after he made it home, he’s trying to “cool off and enjoy the moment.”
As he takes the fork to try his first bite he says, “this better be the best mac and cheese I’ve ever had in my life.” While digging his fork in he adds, “so far, no cheese pull, so I’m a little bit concerned.”
Tristan looks at the camera with a smirk after taking his bite and says, “that’s pretty good.”
Then he puts a bite of mac and cheese onto a piece of chicken and tries it as a combo. “That might actually be worth $20,” he says while nodding his head.
Before ending his video Tristan mentions that he’s still upset. He says “In this economy, I think that is a crime for you to be selling it for that much.”
“You trapped me, you got me,” he adds, rating the meal a 3 out of 5.
So how can you tell how much food at the hot bar costs before you spend $20 on mac and cheese at Whole Foods??
A viewer told Tristan in the comment section of his video how to avoid this on his next visit. “You aren’t supposed to weigh the quart containers,” they said, “There’s a barcode you scan on the bottom.”
“There should be instructions by the hot bar,” another mentioned.
Although one agreed, “$11/lb is insane for some of the stuff.”
Under the reddit thread r/NoStupidQuestions users gave insight to the Whole Foods hot bar.
“How do I buy prepared food at Whole Foods?”
“The self-serve buffet-style food,” they continued, “There’s no barcodes on any of it. What’s the deal? How am I supposed to use self check if I can’t scan it?”
@treatswithtristan Getting robbed at whole foods 😐😐😐😐 #treatswithtristan #wholefoods #macncheese #hotbar #foodtok #foodie ♬ Neo Soul, Cafe, Adult-like fashionable songs(1372096) – Jasper Lab
A loyal Whole Foods customer explained that the self-checkout scanners have a scale built in. “You put your food into the provided containers. At check-out, there’s a button on the touchscreen for each type of self-service item,” they explain. “Hot bar, cold bar/salad, soup, pizza, cookies. It then asks you what type of container you used (paper, plastic, soup cup) with pictures of them, so it can deduct the weight. You place your item on the scanner, it gets weighed, and the total price is added to your bill.”
The Daily Dot reached out to request a comment from Tristan via TikTok comment section and DM. We reached out to Whole Foods via email.
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