Through Whole Foods Market Missions, users are challenged to earn more than 70 badges centered upon healthy living. To get a badge, users check off the two to eight required tasks to earn it. Badges include “WFM on the WWW,” which asks users to perform tasks using Whole Foods online; “Mushroom Maniac,” in which users are challenged to eat eight kinds of mushrooms; “Cheapskate,” which has users track their food spending; and “Me! Me! Me!,” which asks users to keep a food diary and track their weight.
Although I could see an app like this being useful for teaching young ones good habits, there’s little incentive to use Whole Foods Market Missions. Users don’t have to prove they’ve actually done the tasks and other than a shareable badge, there’s no prize like Foursquare’s specials (good health isn’t enough) to make earning the badges worth the time it takes to launch the app.
In addition to the challenges, Whole Foods Market Missions also offers up tips on shopping, cooking, living, nutrition and saving time. I was particularly fond of the “In the Store” section, which offers tips on how to select a variety of produce such as artichokes and pineapple. This feature works offline, so it’s great when you don’t have an Internet connection and just can’t remember if you’re supposed to smell a cantaloupe.
