"It’s not really the prices that ensure 80 percent of your co-shoppers at Whole Foods are, comfortingly, also college grads; it’s the cultural codes."

I'm a college grad who's not into "comfort shopping" and the cultural codes mean zip to me, it really is the prices that keep me away. I shop at Market of Choice( because it's a "local" business) occasionally, but limit my purchases to a few sales and the occasional splurge. Brooks may be a bit more astute on this topic than the average upper middle class denizen, but he's in his own bubble.