Last week Josh and I had the opportunity to attend an event at the now opened Natural Grocers on Val Vista and Williamsfield in Gilbert. This is Natural Grocers 121st store. I also thought it would be fun to share our grocery shopping trip with you and show you what we purchased on this visit.
Grand Opening Event
The event we attended focused on educating about Natural Grocers and their commitment to quality food and supplements. We were treated to a wonderful meal that included a green salad, chickpea salad, chicken salad, fruit, and the hands down best vegan and grain free cookie I have eaten!
Why You Would Want to Shop at Natural Grocers
Natural Grocers does NOT carry products that contain artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives. They do NOT sell hydrogenated oils or partially hydrogenated oils. My favorite thing about Natural Grocers is not having to search between conventional and organic produce! You will only find USDA Certified Organic Produce at Natural Grocers.
They also believe healthy foods and nutritional supplements should be affordable to everyone and they are the low price leader in this industry and they will price match. During this shopping trip we wanted to see what the prices were on items we typically purchase at Sprouts and Whole Foods. If the items were cheaper we purchased them, more on this later.
Things to Know Before You Shop at Natural Grocers
They don’t have a butcher but they do carry Mary’s, Applegate, and several other popular non-GMO brands. The reason they do not have a butcher is to keep their costs down so they can provide better discounts throughout the entire store to their customers. Natural Grocers is also a bagless store. Either bring your own, buy reusables from them, or grab some boxes at checkout to carry out your purchases.
Another point I want to mention before I get to our shopping trip is that each store has a Nutritional Health Coach that is available for FREE consultations to shoppers to answer questions on special diet needs, design eating programs, and can educate consumers on individual health and fitness goals.
Sara is the Nutritional Health Coach at the Val Vista location and has been a dietician for 11 years. She began her career in hospital and clinical settings but soon realized that she didn’t truly believe in what she was being trained to tell her patients about nutrition. She is thrilled to work for a company that wants to promote whole food eating and she would love to work 1 on 1 with anyone in the community looking to better their health through nutrition.
Natural Grocers is very big on community education and has a separate room at the front of the store for this purpose. Be sure to check out their monthly calendar in store to see upcoming events you can participate in FREE of charge.
Our Shopping Trip
Onto our shopping trip! We wanted to really try to stay true to what we would normally buy during our weekly grocery shopping trip. We tend to buy most of our organic meat these days at Costco as well as whatever organic produce they have in stock. In order to give a good idea on what a typically shopping trip would cost we did purchase Mary’s chicken while at the store. We did also buy a few supplements which would normally not be an item we include in our grocery budget.
Supplements
We LOVE Natural Grocers vitamin selection! There many great quality brands to choose from and by far one of the lowest prices for many brands we have seen locally. If you are running low on your vitamins be sure to check out their prices before you purchase at another local store. We ended up purchasing several different supplements along with a body wash and sunscreen on this trip.
While Natural Grocers does carry a plethora of different brands they unfortunately do not carry the major brands that we use in our household. Want to see what supplements we use in our house and why we picked these brands? Additional Reading: Vitamins and Supplements for a Healthy Family
Produce
We didn’t go crazy in the produce department, but we easily could have. All the produce is so pretty and vibrant. Our kids adore watermelon and we snagged up this almost 10 pound organic beauty for $5.63.
Meat and Cheese
For meat and cheese we purchased Mary’s chicken, our beloved Applegate Organic Hotdogs (and yes I know they are still hotdogs but if you are going to eat a hotdog this is the brand to choose) they were a full $1 cheaper then what we normally purchase them for, and Rumiano cheese. The cheese was hands down an amazing deal! Each block was $3.99! These typically cost us between $5.69 – 5.99 a block. With the price being so amazing I bought several and put the extras in the freezer.
Bulk Section and Inner Aisles
And then we came to the bulk section and inner aisles of the store. We really try hard not to go crazy in the inner aisles of grocery store and shop the majority of our food along the outer edges. Which is a really good thing for me because at Natural Grocers my new found favorite cookie dough, Capellos, is in the refrigerated section along the outer edge of the store.
Some of our favorite brands/products we wanted to mention that Natural Grocers carries are Namaste Waffle and Pancake mix (this is so good and gluten free and GMO free) and Yummy Earth Fruit snacks (the kids love these, the price was $5.69 for a 10 pack, and let’s be honest we love them too). Josh was also really happy to peruse the bulk section and he discovered an assortment of raw/organic nuts and coconut date rolls.
Total Cost of Shopping Trip
I am sure, by now, you are all wondering how much money we spent on this little shopping trip. While we only left the store with two reusable bags filled with our purchases and carried out our watermelon we did feel like we still had a very successful shopping trip. Our grand total was $240.78.
Now this amount also included supplements that wouldn’t normally be on our list and we also were kindly given a $30 gift card after the VIP event that we applied to this amount. If we subtract the supplements, soap, and sunscreen and the gift card from our total our shopping trip cost $141.26.
Final Thoughts and Overall Impression
I do feel like we did get some good deals on products and brands that we normally buy but there were a few items that we typically purchase that we had to pass on at Natural Grocers. We always buy organic apple juice to add to the kids water bottles for flavor but found that because they don’t carry their own brand of apple juice the price on the brands they did carry were more expensive, $10.99 compared to $7.99. So we had to pass. We also buy canned coconut milk for smoothies and breakfast porridge and the canned organic coconut milk was $2.99 compared to the brand we normally buy $1.99.
Our overall impression after shopping at Natural Grocers was a positive one and we will definitely be back. We were happy with our purchases and what we were able to buy at better prices.
1625 E Williams Field Rd, Gilbert, AZ 85295
Store Hours: Mon-Sat 8am – 9:04pm, Sun 8:30am – 7:35pm
(480) 917-9000 | www.naturalgrocers.com
I want to hear from you! Have you ever shopped at Natural Grocers? What is your monthly food budget?
PS…Natural Grocers also has stores in Gilbert (Baseline/Gilbert) and Chandler (Kyrene/Ray)!
PSS…While we were invited to the grand opening event and given a gift card to Natural Grocers this post was not sponsored or solicited. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
