Ozark Natural Foods — Restaurant in Fayetteville

The COOP can be a local chill or contemplative space for 1hr, (parking is 1hr ; minimal power outlets inside for laptop work, some outside) with tasty To-Go foods and opportunities for contribution to local business, farms, and charities.

Or it can be a place you go to because you haven't found another with the item you like - for me, it's the Dirty Apron sourdough loaf and To-Go chicken salad. My out of town parents always ask me to bring them the Dirty Apron sourdough loaves too.

I often go as well when I'm getting my car serviced in Fayetteville - out of town for me now - and have a wait.

Location: The space is unique, with a touch of the first Whole Foods in Austin, TX. Inside and outside there are spaces for quietish meetups, working, breaks between work, or chill solo time - swings and hammock hookups included!

To-go food and drink: Options are really tasty and priced as if you went to a chic cafe but didn't get served.

Home and Garden: The Homestead area with plants and animal care products has incredibly helpful and thoughtful staff. They often share insights if you ask questions and try to be very informed.

Customer Service: Supplements and Homestead sections excluded - there isn't a kind spirit of service or warmth generally. It's almost as if there's a snobbery and angst.

The staff replacing produce often prioritize that over you having access for shopping, for example.

You aren't greeted anywhere and check out is still awkward, even though they've gotten better at holding back resentment if you aren't an owner.

I always feel in the clear when I'm an owner - like "Whew! I dodged that bullet!"

Policies: I sense a strictness in policies that's maybe related to that cold customer service spirit - mask wearing, for example was required of the shoppers longer than at other food and retail establishments.

Dogs: I've only brought my pup in briefly (circumstantial), it wasn't a dog friendly space. There is a water bowl outside, however

I was quickly approached by a woman who said sternly and brusquely that service animals are not allowed inside, except for at the Homestead.

When I turned around to check out quickly, 10 ft from where I was before, a different woman, just as brusquely told me that service animals aren't allowed in the COOP. It was like walking into a hornet nest.

They each said it was the Arkansas State Law that they can't be around food. Which I understand to be not true. Though, perhaps the COOP doesn't permit them generally.

It was an uncomfy encounter with mismatching legal details and seeming anger at my questioning about it.

The difference would be that, I imagine, the employees at Natural Grocers would probably ask if my pup just laid down by one of them at the register or something helpful.

In contrast, for years, the staff at Natural Grocers, a competitor, have nearly all been very warm, kind,...

Most of the time I find this store blasts the worst variety of music so loud it is difficult to think, or browse, and hearing protection may not spare you. I have never seen so many other shoppers with noise canceling headphones as here. Perhaps the near 100 decibel music is to keep 1) older people / women a) spending more money, or b) hurrying up and out of the store and/or 2) to repel loiterers?

Perhaps it is the loud music combined with the following that makes this the first health food store that has almost made me cry as I mustered the strength to approach the register, to endure the gauntlet of perfunctory cashiers' many, many questions (which, if we are honest, are implying publicly perhaps multiple times that you are not doing enough for the store, planet, sustainability, even them, etc., etc.) ...

ONF is a place that makes the local gas station or Walmart seem like one is getting great customer service by being treated with, is it .... acceptance? Patience for a few milliseconds? Manners? At other stores all I have to do is pay for my purchase rather than go through a bunch of hoops every time I want some miso or bulk items at a premium price.

I have shopped at health food stores all of my adult life and mainstream grocery stores in general. Vegans and vegetarians and activists working the register at a health food store can often be misanthropes ("humans are a cancer on the planet") or grouchy due to a bad rest or malnutrition or they like anyone might, lack interpersonal skills. So I get that.

.. Yet cashiers at other stores in Fayetteville allow you to bring your stuff to the counter at your own pace, maybe say "hello" as you reach for your wallet, but at this health food store, before you set your items down, without greeting, even though there is no line and the store is quiet, first thing you are greeted with is: 1- "got a membership?" , 2-"need a bag?" meaning you get a glorified lunch bag for your dozen items if you haven't brought a bag ... 3 - they don't take initiative to bag your stuff even though you are in the middle of using your credit card and going through the machine prompts, as other shoppers start lining up making it awkward later trying to bag your belongings 4- THEN cashiers ask if you want to make a donation to some farm (making you feel guilty for setting boundaries if you say "no") and, then, 5- ask "do you want your receipt?" and then, 6- ask you to fill out a survey Lastly, 7- they start with a new customer and rush you off the register area before you finish putting your purchases...

For a long time now, trips to northwest Arkansas (we live in Little Rock in the center of the state) haven't been complete without a stop at Ozark Natural Foods in Fayetteville. Up to the pandemic period, we maintained a membership at Ozark Natural Foods, though we went there only once or twice a year.

The dried pulses (beans and peas), grains, flours, spices and herbs the co-op offers -- you measure out what you need from jars and bins -- is a big draw for us, since we can stock up on, say, dried marjoram and oregano and caraway seeds and pinto beans on a visit there, as we did today.

There's a decent selection of wines at fairly reasonable prices. Lots of cosmetic and health-type offerings, fairly good canned goods made with organic ingredients, etc. The baked goods, which lean to vegan offerings and far too doughy muffins and scones, aren't a big draw for me. I always enjoy visiting the part of the store that offers garden plants and house plants, though today I found it disappointingly ill-stocked.

During the pandemic, I did come to a temporary parting of the ways with Ozark Natural Foods, when I emailed them to ask if they ever mailed dried herbs like oregano from the store to members living far from the co-op. The response I got was disappointingly curt, downright rude, and that put me off the place so that I let my membership lapse for a long time.

I totally understand stores setting their own policies, which will inevitably not please everyone, and my beef with Ozark Natural Foods about their response to my pandemic email asking if they might mail some dried herbs to me wasn't about their policy. They have a right to set whatever policy they want.

My disappointment had to do with the lack of courtesy in their response to me, a member and erstwhile customer. Obviously, I've gotten over that pique since I still shop there when I'm in Fayetteville and have renewed my membership. Still, courtesy to customers goes a long way towards...