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

• Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey says the grocery chain isn't so expensive anymore.
• He credits Amazon and Jeff Bezos for making changes to Whole Foods over the last several years.
• I compared Whole Foods with another grocer and found that it is cheaper under certain circumstances.

Whole Foods has long had a reputation as a pricey place to buy groceries.

No more, according to cofounder John Mackey .

Since Amazon acquired the grocery chain in 2017, it has cut prices several times. The reductions appeared to take aim at Whole Foods' higher-than-average prices — something that had long led critics to refer to the chain as "Whole Paycheck."

"Amazon let us drop our prices four times," Mackey said in an interview last month with Fortune. "I hardly ever hear the 'whole paycheck' narrative any longer—that's due to Amazon."

Mackey said former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos deserves credit for the price cuts. He called Bezos "a genius," saying he believed in a long-term strategy to make Whole Foods more competitive.

Seven years after the acquisition, shoppers can find evidence that Whole Foods is trying to appear more budget-friendly. Shelves at many stores are full of yellow tags pointing to discounted items and signs on endcaps that read "Sale."

And this year, Whole Foods has cut prices on more items, such as oysters and rotisserie chicken, CEO Jason Buechel recently told Fortune .

To see if Whole Foods has truly shed its expensive reputation, I visited one of the supermarket's stores in Fairfax, Virginia — a suburb of Washington, DC.

I then compared the prices I found there with those at a nearby Safeway, a middle-market grocery chain owned by Albertsons.

I put a couple of conditions on my shopping trips. Since I was focused on affordability, I looked mostly at store-brand products. I also used loyalty programs to get discounts at both stores — including Amazon Prime at Whole Foods.

And while I compared prices on some of the most commonly purchased grocery items, like milk, I also decided to shop for ingredients for a specific dinner recipe — spaghetti with a side of green beans.

Here's what I found.

I started my comparison by going to this Whole Foods Market store in Fairfax, Virginia.

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

Despite the price cuts, Whole Foods still has higher standards than most other grocery chains.

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

First up was the produce section, where I found this pack of basil for my spaghetti.

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.

Next, I headed to the butcher counter to get some ground beef.

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

I also picked up grated cheese.

Five ounces of grated parmesan cheese was $4.49.

I was surprised to see how cheap many of Whole Foods' store-brand products were.

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.

I also bought pasta sauce.

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.

Basic groceries, such as milk and bread, seemed slightly more expensive than other stores.

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.

Specialty foods, like these chocolate bars from Hawaii, were cheaper than I'd seen elsewhere.

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.

At Whole Foods, my spaghetti ingredients cost $20.62 including tax.

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.

Next, I headed to a Safeway store located just five minutes from the Whole Foods store.

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.

This poster for cheap chicken led me to believe I'd be getting some good deals.

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 number of items were the same price as Whole Foods, such as basil.

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.

Other ingredients cost less at Safeway than Whole Foods.

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

Pasta sauce was also cheaper by 70 cents a jar.

Ground beef was the same price as at Whole Foods.

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.

Grated parmesan was cheaper at Safeway, though only because of a sale.

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

Milk was only 20 cents less expensive at this Safeway than at Whole Foods.

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

The sale items seemed cheaper than Whole Foods.

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.

At Safeway, my spaghetti ingredients cost $21.10 including tax.

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.

Most discounts at Whole Foods require a Prime membership, which costs money.

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.

There are also even cheaper chains in the area that would've likely underpriced Whole Foods.

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.

Ultimately, Whole Foods is cheaper than it used to be.

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

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