They compared prices at Whole Foods stores in half a dozen cities to those at various competing supermarkets to determine which stores were cheaper. They found that Whole Foods is about 15% more expensive than other conventional supermarkets, such as Kroger, Wegmans, and Safeway.
A type of igneous rock. Basalt is the most common rock type in the earth's crust and makes up most of the ocean floor.
Basalt makes up the ocean crust, and hot-spot islands like Hawaii, which is precisely where this sample is from. The sand in the middle is purple-ish due to a high concentration of garnet crystals-commonly found in metamorphic rocks.