Green Mountain Natural Foods — Local services in Newport City

Been going here for many years over the various incantations of this place. I appreciate that it is and remains a stalwart of our area.

I'm still not sure I understand the 'no counter service' hours on the weekends...I guess the more profitable days must be during the week.

Recently I was surprised to see they were open at 8:00AM on Saturday. This was great as the weekend hours didn't start till like 9-10 or something.

I went in knowing full well that the weekend would be a 'no counter service' situation. Knowing I couldn't get an iced coffee on the weekend due to counter service limitations, looking at the chilled drink cooler I thought I would be able to easily find one of VTs many cold brew options...but turned up empty.

No worries I thought. I'll just get a hot cup for the road from one of the thermoses. I turned to find a person waiting in front of me at the pump coffee station, so I waited behind them. After a few minutes someone came by and the patron asked if they could have some cream. The staff person said nothing and left for several minutes. (I'm not sure if they were upset at the request or not). After several minutes the staff person appeared with what I must assume was cream, to which I am uncertain because they just set it down, and when the person thanked them for bringing the container the staff person said nothing in response but walked away.

I then approached the pump coffee station and realized that only the medium roast coffee thermos was present. I could see that the dark roast container was still under a coffee Brewer but not producing coffee ...not sure if it had coffee in it or not but I decided it was probably best to not disturb the staff there with their current mission behind the scenes and left...

The health food part is OK, but the cafe is just dreadful lately. I've been in several times in the past few weeks and it's worse each time. It takes a long time to be served, even with no line. The staff seems indifferent to say the least and there's less staff each time. A few days ago the employee couldn't find container covers and couldn't come up with a solution. The carrot cake used to be amazing, but recently is stale with dried out frosting. Today, I went in for a sandwich and finally gave up and went elsewhere. The staff on the grocery side is great, but the cafe is just not worth the trouble anymore. Even the to go has been relatively empty lately and when I picked up a salad and saw brown rotting lettuce on the bottom, that took care of that. Not sure what happened, but it went from great to less...

The erosion of what was a gem in Newport seems to be accelerating. On our visits this fall: no deli service - gone are the wonderful Panini sandwiches, along with anyone to make them. The cooler that once held great “pre-fab” grab-and-go sandwiches now has enormous slices of carrot cake. Yummy, but not exactly lunch fare. Hot coffee? Sometimes. Baked goods? Get there VERY early. Lots of empty shelf space. Signage is everywhere trumpeting the transition to a Co-op. A Google search reveals the former(current?) owner had/has serious financial issues, and serms to have cut things to the bone. Perhaps we’ll need patience while the new team finds itself. This was our go-to spot on our yearly visits; this year there’s been little reason to stop...