We just got back from lunch at the new Whole Foods. They haven’t even got the security cameras up yet. There’s a waterfall, a pommes frittes counter with twelve dipping sauces in varieties of cinnamon and salt, a fromagerie, a land of powdered confections, and NYPD keeping watch over it all from the 2nd floor bridge, probably to deter any unfortunates who who decide they can make the rounds and fill up on the satellite hors d’ourves trays. Because, really, you don’t have to buy anything. You can just munch on all the samples. You don’t even have to move. We were there for twenty minutes and were set upon by no fewer than five employess in crisp whites offering salmon, cheese and crackers, sushi, more cheese and more crackers.

The apples gleam, the oranges have nice dinosaur-hide texture, and the asparagus shines with an otherworldly green radiance. The floors are swept clean. It smells like a grocery store. Finally all the people who work in those lighting fixture stores on Bowery will have somewhere to get fresh veggies.

The doors work and there may even be restroooms. There you have it. Go forth and multiply. This is the promised land.