Hot Hot! Pumpkin Alert: Jack O’ Lanterns Burn the Kirby Whole Foods Market

The scene outside the Whole Foods Market on the corner of Kirby and West Alabama this afternoon, where a ginormous outdoor pumpkin display turned into fire and smoke. Five fire trucks later, the flames were out, and the store was closed. Store managers report there were no injuries and no damage to the store’s interior.

Photo: Justin

42 Comment

  • Wow.. Someone’s insurance just went up…

  • But the straw must have looked great as some bright spark carefully arranged it around the burning candles. Sounds like someone might be looking for a new job in the morning.

  • Well to temper my sarcasm, glad no one was hurt, and the business is for the most part in tact.

  • Yeah, well, you can put the organic roasted pumpkin on sale for $3.99 a pint, but I ain’t buying.

  • Instant Classic. I wonder what it smelled like…

  • But did the hipsters make it out ok?

  • Do hipsters shop at Whole Foods anymore? I thought that it was mostly just wannabe blue-bloods.

  • The Flaming Pumpkin – sounds like a great name for a gay bar.

  • So… to want to buy organic and/or gluten-free and/or better quality food we have to be either a hipster or a “wannabe blue blood”?

  • Why do people forget that the average life expectancy was about 48 in the year 1900, when all of our food was organic?

  • No kidding, 1986. Who ARE you bitter people??

  • @1986: yes

  • They’ll be drug testing today for certain.

  • The life expectancy in 1900 was more related to the level of healthcare and medicines available in 1900, which were non-existent.

    If Americans today had the organic produce from the 1900s along with our current health care, we might be living to our “healthy” 100s, instead of our Alzheimer-inflicted 80s.

    Kind of like a lot of people in Japan, Iceland and Switzerland.

  • I just got an insatiable craving for red meat. …fried. Yep, today is definitely chicken fried steak day.

  • I find it incredible hilarious when people doubt the nutritional value and overall better quality that a person gets when they eat organic.

    It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that less pesticides going into your body = better for your overall health.

    And to say that the lower life expectancy in 1900 has anything to do with the fact that people were eating organic is honestly, hilarious. I’d love to know where you read/found such information.

    I’m not a hipster or a wannabe blue blood and I shop at Whole Foods. There, I said it.

  • Me, either, 1986.

    Silly as saying chicken-fried types are ill-informed hicks.

  • From 1986:
    It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that less pesticides going into your body = better for your overall health.
    —————
    Well see, that’s a problem. It doesn’t take a genius to propose that ‘intelligent design’ is a realistic theory. …or to propose 9/11 conspiracies . …or that all pesticide residues are necessarily harmful to humans. All it takes to achieve followership by a substantial proportion of society is media buy.

  • Merely commenting on the fact that if you’ve ever stepped foot into the Alabama Whole Foods you’ll see a lot more hipsters in there than you would normally see out in the wild, not that just because you shop there you are one.

  • Chicken-fried red meat ingestion achieved!

  • Chill people, it’s just a grocery store.

  • CFS, drool. Headed to Salt grass/old hoffbrau tonight.. MMMM..

  • I have a client who gets pretty much everything she eats from there because she has horrible food allergies. Should she just nip off and shoot herself because she can’t eat gas station hot dogs?

  • Picky people are generally full of it, most food allergies are fake.

  • And the tough crowd keeps getting tougher.

    I’m starting to think I better get that ark built before December 2012 gets here.

    I need another pug, another bulldog, a couple of organic free-range chickens…

  • Hey, don’t get me wrong. I’ve got a cousin with a wheat gluten allergy that emerged just a few years ago, pretty randomly, which tore up her digestive tract and very nearly killed her. I get it.

    But she lives out in the exurbs, not even remotely close to a Whole Foods, and has lived thousands of days now without once becoming dead (or perhaps worse, a pretentious sucker for luxury branding).

  • How many people really think that Whole Foods is the best, cheapest way to get healthy, organic or gluten-free food in Houston? Much of the food-allergy crowd are not using a Whole Foods budget to cope with their trouble. Heck, even if you wanted the exact same pricey *brands* of organic and gluten free stuff, you could find them cheaper at other specialty groceries. Whole Foods is a giant, cash-sucking vacuum cleaner. The argument is not Whole Foods vs. junk food.

  • There is a causal link-shown decades ago-between a saturated fat-rich diet and earlier onset of heart disease.

    It’s not really a revelation.

    I like WF because there’s an active effort to minimize use of same. There are lots of us out there. Yes, you can do it without setting foot in WF.

    BTW, I lived w/in walking distance of the Alabama store, and now shop at the Holcombe store. Only hipsters I see are the employees, who stand out amidst the Norton-Ditto types who shop there.
    I thing everyone but TheNiche should limit sat fat. TN should double up.

  • “I like WF because there’s an active effort to minimize use of same.”
    ———–
    What does that mean? Sounds like you’re trying to use weasel words to avoid making a full-out bs statement.
    The “active effort” is and should be undertaken by the consumer, especially in a place like Houston where there are so many choices. I don’t need the high prices of Whole Foods. I manage to get mostly fruit and vegetables when I go to the grocery store or the farmer’s market. I can get enough fruit and vegetables for about 30 meals for $30 at the farmer’s market. And the last time I checked, every grocery store bigger thatn a ghetto convenience store has a seleciton of fr&v.
    There are many places besides Whole Paycheck where you can get healthy food. Maybe you could spend some time searching for them instead of wishing TheNiche an early death.

  • Saying that Whole Foods is a “giant, cash-sucking vacuum cleaner” reminds me of when people complain (whine) about how rich Oprah is.

    At least O is using it to raise awareness and help those less fortunate. And at least WF is making healthy food more available, more accessible, and more desireable, for that matter.

  • Y’all put the crack pipes down… if one knows how to shop then Whole Foods can be just as cheap, yet better (in selections and quality) than any other grocery in town.

  • HEB and CM are more than enough for me, for all else there is Hmart. If I need kaffir lime leaves, maybe I’ll set foot in a whole foods, though it is a rare day. It’s not rocket science, nor is it keeping up with the joneses, nor should it ever be we all have to eat..

  • eiioi:

    “weasel words”?

    Sounds like your full-out hatred of WF (and maybe me) blinds you to simple English.

    I said “Yes, you can do it w/o setting foot in WF.” Miss that? Yes, you did.

    I don’t need to “look around” for alternatives to my favorite grocery store.
    I’m happy. I’m also not demanding that anyone else shop there. Frankly, as much as I used to eat out, WF (healthy) pre- prepared stuff is cheaper, so I don’t mind paying more.

    Also, jackass, I don’t wish anyone an early death (though thanks for confirming the sat-fat heart disease link). The poster referenced has openly lusted after satfat a couple of times on this thread;after enduring his vitriol innumerable times, I want for him what he seems to want for himself. Red meat.

    Enjoy your 30 meals for $30. Ho hum. Jerk.

  • Unfortunately my client’s allergies aren’t limited to food additives. No perfume of any sort, special sheets, upholstery, no carpet in the house….she was a rather successful interior designer once upon a time. Don’t think she’s faking it.

    WF will aways have my gratitude for two things: potted herbs that even I can’t kill and Seeduction bread. Nothing better on a cool autumn evening that some with potato soup, a little sharp cheddar on the top….I’m about to bite into the keyboard.

  • WF kicks arse!

    +1 on the Seeduction bread, Hellsing.

  • Well, if I’m going to support corporate behemoths, better Whole Foods than WalMart. That being said, why hate on where anyone shops when this city has a wealth of groceries in nearly every price range? When I’m really broke, I can go to Food Town. Just broke, Fiesta… on a normal budget, HEB or Kroger. Nowhere else to go, Randalls. Feeling flush- Central Market or Whole Foods. I don’t mind being the only white guy in a Fiesta because the pan dulce is awesome, but I have no problems enjoying my $1 fancy cupcakes at Whole Foods. Better than $3 a piece at Sprinkles! And speaking of WalMart, why shop there? They stopped being the cheapest place for groceries a long time ago when they decided that “low prices” meant 10 cents below Kroger while jacking something else up 25.

  • Whole Foods is convenient for us. It’s a few blocks away and we’re willing to pony up some extra cash to get scratch dinner ingredients in one place. We still hit Kroger, H-E-B, Randall’s, the farmers’ market, or wherever, for random additions to our less pesticide-laden fare needs when it’s convenient, but WF has the best chance of fulfilling our ingredients list in about 20 minutes.

  • Isn’t Central Market a fancy HEB?

    I’m not near a CM but I have seen quite a few Central Market labels in the local HEB.

  • Are we arguing about a grocery store here? I won’t pay $4 a lb for free-range chicken at WF. I don’t care if that chicken was smoking a cigarette before he died….I’m not paying over 49 cents a lb. VIVA FIESTA!

  • Well, THIS was fun.

  • Haters hate.