Sprouts Farmers Market — Attraction in Yuma

I am relatively new to Yuma, having bought a newly built home here in 2021. I only purchase and feed my family organic produce.

Due to the limited stores offering such items, I have had no choice but to shop at Sprouts in Yuma.

I arrived here in late 2021, and I remember the first time I visited this store—it was practically empty. I was shocked to see a 5 lb bag of organic potatoes priced at $8.99, or possibly $7.99. Either way, it was so overpriced that we went without potatoes until I could get back to my home state. Since then, however, I noticed the price dropped to $5.99 for a 5 lb bag of russet potatoes, so I now buy them. The only organic sweet potatoes are sold in bags, and half of them are rubbery and close to spoiling because no one is buying them.

A 2 lb bag of organic apples costs double what a 3 lb bag costs where I'm from, which, by the way, is considered one of the most expensive cities to live in today. I was also shocked by organic bread being priced at $8.99, organic spaghetti sauce on sale at $8.99, and various other items priced so high that we simply go without.

I have purchased fish that smelled so bad when I got it home to cook that I felt sick to my stomach and had to return it immediately. I’ve also bought bagged cucumbers and mini sweet peppers that were rotten and slimy when I opened them to make a salad. Usually, I don’t hold on to the receipt after putting my food away, so I couldn’t return these items.

To make matters worse, sales are often “buy one, get one half off,” instead of “buy one, get one free.” What kind of deal is that?

The city of Yuma has an income level that is 22% lower than the national average, and I find it criminal and absurd for such a store to be located in a place where people are struggling to afford even conventionally grown food. Many have to go without or cut back on other necessities just to afford healthy food.

To add insult to injury, I was disappointed when this store began charging for bags.

I am thankful to have a relative who travels here every other week from my home state and brings me the food I need for a quarter of the price it costs here. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to continue eating as well as we do.

The idea of adding another Sprouts to this area is not only absurd but absolutely ridiculous given the national average income in this city. Sprouts doesn’t even have a 100% customer satisfaction policy, and the fact that I can buy organic bread and spaghetti sauce elsewhere for a fraction of the price tells me all I need to know about this company.

I shopped at this store when it was Boney’s and later Henry’s, so it’s not as if I’m unfamiliar with the company. The one item I used to have to go to Sprouts for in my home state isn’t even available here. Meanwhile, they enforce their “national policy” for selling bags, which feels like a slap in the face. I bring my own bags, but I believe they should give people a break.

Sprouts’ price gouging is shameful, and it shows how out of touch this company truly is. I now go out of my way to find organic items elsewhere to avoid shopping here.

This mission statement:

"Sprouts Farmers Market's mission statement is to support customers' healthy living journeys by providing friendly and knowledgeable service."

"Support customers," really? By jacking up prices and charging for bags? Most people who shop organically already do their best to have a low environmental footprint. They charge for grocery bags, yet most of the packaged organic items still come in plastic. What's next? Is this company going to charge for produce bags too?

Another statement from the company:

"Sprouts Farmers Market is a natural foods chain that sells fresh produce and other healthy products. The company's marketing strategy focuses on making healthy food appealing through a variety of options and an emphasis on healthy eating."

How exactly is "healthy food appealing" at Sprouts? It is legitimately the most expensive store I have shopped at for organic produce, and I'm...

We’ve been getting our chicken from here for the past year or so because we thought they had the best quality chicken that you can find in a grocery store.

This is now the 3rd time in the past month and a half that we’ve bought boneless, skinless chicken breast from here where the meat literally tasted like chemicals or some sort of chlorinated/plastic chemical taste. It’s Absolutely awful and to be honest, it’s extremely nerve wracking because we’ve spent the rest of our night after eating dinner terrified and paranoid that we’re going to be sick as dogs or something because of the strange taste of the chicken.

Obviously, no one forced us to buy and eat the chicken from here, but we kept coming back because in between the times of buying these bad batches, we’ve actually had some great tasting chicken and would think all is well, so we buy more the following week or so, but would soon end up with another package of chemically tasting chicken again.

I don’t know what we are tasting exactly and why this has happened so many times now, but I’m pretty tired of it and it really ticks me off that we keep ending up with these weird batches because it’s literally ruining our dinner and sending us into a state of fear and paranoia. To add insult to injury, the chicken is some of the most expensive chicken sold in stores. What I’m trying to understand is: What the heck are we tasting and more importantly, is it unsafe for our health??? This chicken is supposedly “Air Chilled” and Organic so I can’t understand what it would be? Meat that tastes like this can’t be a good thing.

We are definitely done buying our meat here and are done shopping here in general. Someone needs to figure out what is wrong with this meat and needs to inform us of what the hell we are tasting and eating. I’m sitting here writing this review the day after cooking the chicken and I still can’t get this awful taste out of my mouth.

One thing I want to add, I’ve noticed in recent months that some of the red meat options on the shelf like steak and other types beef seem to be rotting on the shelves, literally turning brown and spoiled looking. It’s honestly unbelievable that a store and its management would allow this to stay on display for everyone to see, as if there isn’t anything wrong with it???? It’s honestly Unreal. I wish I would’ve taken pictures of the meat on some of these visits and posted them here to this review to give you all an idea of what this store is offering to their customers. Yea, definitely not coming...

I’m going to start off by saying I love Sprouts. I’m from Tucson and used to shop there frequesntly, so I was very excited when Yuma got a Sprouts. It’s disappointing how one location can completely change your outlook on an entire company. I’ve had nothing but terrible experiences at this Sprouts. Customer service is subpar, which is most places, but it really looks bad when the nicest employee I’ve talked to was a young girl handing out cheese and meat samples and I’m assuming she worked for a third party company. I stood in line once for nearly thirty minutes while the cashier made mistake after mistake ringing up the lady in front of me, and then when it was my turn she rang something of mine twice and gave me the wrong change back. This location is constantly out of soups and all the cool little mixtures at the salad bar area. Almost every time I’ve gone to get soup they’ve been out of large lids, which would be a nightmare if I tried to drive home with an open tub of piping hot soup. (That’s if they even had soup available.) Lastly, the employees that make the sandwiches behind the deli counter need to be retrained or something. Every now and then when I’m out and about and just want to home and not have make dinner or I need a quick lunch I’d stop in for a sandwich, but I have never gotten what I ordered. They’ve been out of all kinds of meats, even once all they had was just bacon and turkey. I don’t love onions and mustard but I feel like my sandwich is naked without them so I’ll select the option that states I want them to go easy on the onions and mustard. Then when I get my sandwich mustard will be spilling over the side and there will be a fist sized amount of onions hanging out on my sandwich. I’ve gotten everything from the wrong bread, to the wrong cheese, and just all together things missing that I requested. Long story, short: every time that I’ve gone in, I’ve come out disappointed.

If you’re just going in to grab your fruits and get out, you’ll probably be fine. Well, as long as you get in...