Whole Foods isn't a 'whole paycheck' anymore, its cofounder says. Here's what I found buying groceries.

I visited this store around noon on a Monday when it wasn't very busy.

Whole Foods has a variety of quality standards, from animal welfare requirements for meat to bans on certain artificial ingredients.

This 1.25-ounce container of basil was $2.99 with my Prime discount. Nearby, I picked up a 12-ounce package of trimmed green beans for $3.99.

At $6.99 a pound, these pre-portioned packs of ground beef were the best option. Slightly larger packs were $7.99 a pound.

Five ounces of grated parmesan cheese was $4.49.

Many of Whole Foods' store-brand products were close in price to store brands at other supermarkets I've been to. These packs of spaghetti, for instance, were $1.39 each.

Whole Foods is also planning to open some smaller stores later this year that focus on 365 products.

This Marinara sauce was $2.69 for a 25-ounce jar. I also picked up some dried, ground oregano for $2.29. Both were 365-brand products.

A gallon of whole milk at this Whole Foods was $4.59, about a dollar more than at the grocery store where I do most of my shopping in Washington, DC.

Many supermarkets use items like milk as "loss-leaders," or products they sell cheaply — or even take a loss on — to attract customers and get them to buy other things. Perhaps Whole Foods is relying more on Prime members trying to get value for the membership to get people in the door.

These Manoa Chocolate bars were $8.99 each — by far the cheapest price for them I'd seen anywhere, including in Hawaii, where they usually sell for around $12.

I noticed similar low prices on other specialty and organic products.

I got a total of seven items. It would've been eight if I had picked up the ground beef. In that case, my total would've been roughly $28.

I chose Safeway since it's a well-known chain in the Washington, DC area that has middle-market prices. This one was also located a few minutes from the Whole Foods store I visited.

I was visiting on a Monday. While fried chicken wasn't on my shopping list, I thought it was notable that Safeway is trying to court shoppers who are still dealing with the effects of food inflation.

A pack of store-brand basil leaves at Safeway was the same price (and the same size) as the one I bought at Whole Foods ($2.99), while the organic version was $1 more.

These packages of green beans were about 70 cents less than at Whole Foods.

Pasta sauce was also cheaper by 70 cents a jar.

Per pound, 90% lean ground beef at Safeway was $6.99 a pound — the same price I saw at Whole Foods. I didn't see any single-pound packs at Safeway, though, so you would've had to buy this one-and-a-half-pound pack and spend a little more.

I had to use my Safeway loyalty card to get $1 off.

Basic grocery items at Safeway varied from similarly priced to Whole Foods to much cheaper.

It's peach season here in the mid-Atlantic, so I expected to find deals on the stone fruit at both grocery stores.

With a digital coupon, these non-organic peaches were 99 cents a pound at Safeway. Whole Foods' peaches were organic and went for $3.49 a pound for Prime members.

Yes, you read that right: This basket of items was more expensive at Safeway by 48 cents.

Admittedly, 10 cents of that was the cost of two plastic bags at checkout. But I was surprised that the result was essentially a tie price-wise.

I used a Prime account to shop at Whole Foods, which costs money. At Safeway, I used a Safeway for U account, which is free, to get many of the discounts.

A Prime account comes to $14.99 a month or $139 a year. If you get certain kinds of government assistance, such as SNAP or Medicaid, you can pay $6.99 a month.

That added cost could well be worth it, especially if you do most of your shopping at Whole Foods or use other Amazon Prime benefits. But most grocery stores don't require a paid membership for customers to get the best deals.

Without the Prime discounts, my Whole Foods purchases would've been slightly more expensive than the Safeway equivalents — though by less than a dollar.

Earlier this year, I visited a store run by hard-discount grocer Aldi in Maryland. Based on my experience there, I could've probably saved more money by shopping for my spaghetti ingredients there.

There would have been fewer organic and specialty options at Aldi, as well as fewer choices for each product, though.

Five years ago, Business Insider found that Whole Foods was clearly more expensive, based on an analysis of commonly bought grocery items. The fact that many items are now similarly priced to conventional grocery stores shows that the cuts made under Amazon's ownership have made a difference — even if you have to pay admission in the form of a Prime membership to get the best prices.

I guess John Mackey had a point.

Do you work at Whole Foods, Amazon Fresh, or another part of Amazon's retail business and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com