Post-Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes changes her mood in local Whole Foods

Katie Holmes takes a stroll in NYC in April 2012. (X17)

NEW YORK – Katie Holmes has a whole new attitude since filing for divorce from Tom Cruise, according to multiple employees of her local Whole Foods supermarket in New York City, where's she's regularly shopped for the past year.

"In the last few weeks she was, well, not very nice when she came in," one employee said. "But now, she actually smiles and even let customers take pics of her and Suri."

"It's like a weight has lifted," said another. "Now she seems normal -- well, almost normal."

[pullquote]

Two or three weeks ago, employees said Katie, shopping alone, got into an angry altercation with one of the cashiers.

"Something happened, I don't know if it was because her credit card didn't swipe or get or approved or some problem like that, but she starts yelling at our cashier 'A**hole! A**hole jerk! I'm never coming back here again'," one staffer said.

That cashier hasn't been seen since, and employees believe Katie may have got him fired or transferred to another store.

But in recent days, Katie's attitude has shifted and now "she even smiles and is somewhat polite. She even let a customer take a pic of her and Suri," said another shelf stocker.

"I guess since she filed for divorce, she's no longer surly," one posited.

"Katie's got her groove back," another complimented.

Employees said they've seen Katie shopping alone, with Suri, and with a female friend with a kid about Suri's age. They said they'd never seen her with another man, and nobody had seen Tom in the store or in the neighborhood.

One employee just wants Katie and Whole Foods to be left alone already, and railed against the paparazzi pack outside.

"Who cares, she just shops here. She buys groceries here just like anyone else, who cares," the employee railed. "It's groceries!"

Since media have been camped outside her place, Holmes has had to curtail her Whole Foods jaunts, and is instead inquiring about a personal shopper, sources said.

But with the Jonas Brothers, Penelope Cruz, and several other celebs with apartments in the neighborhood, there should be no shortage of star wattage in the organic tofu aisle.