Not trying to hijack the thread, just inserting some links with info from well informed resources (and some drone on blabbing from me) for those who might be interested.
https://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee-storage
http://legacy.sweetmarias.com/packaging.woes.html
Being a severely anal-retentive chef type, when I had my own restaurant and first started to really get into coffee, I setup a side by side tasting for the staff one day.
We tasted:
grocery store bought pre-ground
grocery store bought whole bean
professional roaster bought whole bean bag at 4 days of age, which I ground 3 days earlier than the tasting
professional roaster bought whole bean bag at one week of age
chef in house roasted whole bean at 2 days of age, which I ground 3 days earlier than the tasting
chef in house roasted whole bean at 2 days of age
I like side by side tastings because it gives me my best chance at forming a more educated opinion. Also side by side tastings with the staff helps them to better understand what and why we do things the way we did, and enabled them to be more enlightened when interacting with guests.