Wow. Big Head DC has just received word that several City Paper staffers have been asked by the Whole Foods grocery store chain to stop taking free samples from market displays, if they do not intend on purchasing any merchandise!

The grocer’s dramatic step was taken in response to a blog post penned last week by City Paper staffer Jessica Gould, which explained to readers how to effectually steal food from various Whole Food chains.

“To sample successfully at the P Street Whole Foods, you go straight to the bakery section and work your way to the front,” Gould wrote in the controversial post. “The bakery’s good for some fresh bread and, if you’re lucky, a bit of Mo’s Dipping Sauce. Then you head to the olive section where, without risking disapproval, you can sample as many olives as you like. Sometimes you even find a quartered quesadilla atop the prepared foods counter.Gould went on to add that her favorite food to sample is free cheese.

In an almost taunting manager, she also said that she’s “always appreciated the store’s lax sample policies.”

Whole Food managers across the city, we’ve learned, have received complaints about Gould’s tactics from customers who actually do purchase after feasting on food samples.  

“Samples are for paying customers to sample, not so some starving writers can get fed for free,” one commenter wrote to Gould on her own post. “Yes, Whole Foods is expensive, but they don’t owe you anything. There was no ‘implicit’ agreement that you get to steal their samples because you were too uppity to shop at cheaper markets.”

Another commenter called Gould a “juvenile moocher.” And, now, Whole Foods apparently agrees.