How often do you/we rationalize our way to coherence? At what point do we forgive incoherence?

For NYE, my three sisters (one by blood, two others by choice—love them all) planned a paella dinner. We wanted fresh ingredients, particularly the seafood (we used fresh chorizo made by chef and sausage king Sam Waterson), so we headed to the new Lincoln Park Whole Foods at North and Sheffield in Chicago. Besides, we wanted to experience this new food retail phenom first hand. We had heard it was awesome. Indeed it was.

The Whole Foods spans 75,000 feet on three floors, plus parking. It’s an incredible array of food options, not to mention a coffee bar, beer pub, wine bar, gelato station, cooking school and wellness center. WF has always been a haven for hipsters, but this? This was a Mecca. Everything about it appealed to my inner selfish, materialistic Boomer.

Well, almost everything. First, this is no place for the adult ADD-ridden. Way too much stimulation. The cheese bar alone creates anxiety. 

But much more than that was the antithetical messaging that didn’t correspond to the experience. The elevator from the parking lot promoted the spa on level 2, but when we emerged on the main floor, we entered immediately into the bakery and its neighboring gelato bar. While Whole Foods wants us to think of them as holistically good for us, it’s clear they intend also to lead us astray. 

And though their signage screams their interest in my health, the food bar seemed not to reflect that message. Floating grease was as common as the lentils. And I saw no rooftop garden, though I would expect Whole Foods to lead by example in the city.

So, while I completely enjoyed my visit and found the mussels, clams, scallops and shrimp we needed, I came away a bit conflicted. And though I think I may choose this site for my next vacation (you really could spend days here), I noticed lots of incoherence that, as you know, troubles me.

What may have been most troubling was my own willingness to forgive Whole Foods for these trespasses. Maybe it was the good spirit of Christmas that increased my tolerance for such blatant sins against coherence. Or maybe it was my own delight and sensual pleasure that allowed me to overlook my own participation in these false pretenses.

Okay this little ditty may lean a bit on the hyperbolic side (really, under what circumstances is coconut gelato ever a sin? ((please don’t answer that))), but it does point to one of the crucial issues of marketing, doesn’t it? Truth-telling has some grey areas. Especially if we want customers. This is not easy stuff.

P.S. The paella was awesome.

-Rick Bailey is the principal and founder of Richard Harrison Bailey/The Agency and author of Coherence: How Telling the Truth Will Advance Your Cause (and Save the World). Follow him on Twitter @RichardHBailey.