The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op New Location Bedazzles

Deli and buffet is located directly to the right upon entering Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

Navigating toward the deli upon entering the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op yesterday was a direct result of yearning for food at lunch-time. Gone are the days when you are forced to grocery shop when you’re starving to death and therefore buy up the entire store. At the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op new location at 2820 R Street, you can make an event out of lunch and grocery shopping. The design of the store is beautifully modern, sleek and functional.

Generous salad bar offerings at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

It seemed like an excellent opportunity on a dismal Saturday to shoot new photos of the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op and see its new location, so I opted to accompany my husband to the grocery store, an activity I rarely do. On that rainy afternoon yesterday, I had initially intended to head for the salad bar, which offered a huge array of fresh and organic selections. But then I spotted the sushi sign, and I discovered the hot potato and jalapeño soup, which made me forget all about a salad.

Downstairs’ dining option at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

My first thought was to ask my husband to shoot a few photos while he did our weekend grocery shopping at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, but he objected to that brilliant notion. Plus, yeah, when I really thought about it, I actually did want to check out the new location, even though I might not personally squeeze the melons or carefully select the green beans, one-by-one, like I ask my husband to do. You know, he just shoves his hand into the beans and grabs a bunch. He does not inspect each bean for bumps, bruises, hairiness, or thinness, which is how half of our green beans can end up in the trash if I’m preparing them.

Spacious aisles, flowers at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

Walking through the aisles was a lot easier, and I wasn’t always standing in the way of some other shopper checking my cellphone for emails like I used to do at the old store on Alhambra while my husband shopped. It was hard to find an inconspicuous spot to make myself invisible at the old store. Not so here. I could huddle quietly by the red onions and be out of everybody’s way. Then an agent called to ask me about a triplex listing, and I couldn’t hear a word he said; it was so loud I had to go outside.

Expanded department for organic produce at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

For a while, I studied a worker at the Bartlett pears station rotating out the pears with bruises and replacing them with fresher pears. I have the same problem at home. If I don’t eat them almost immediately, they rot on the counter, which is the excuse my husband tried to use to not buy any. Hey, sometimes I don’t eat everything he brings home from the grocery store, OK? He’s probably listening to that little voice in his head about the starving children in China we all had to hear about growing up.

Members save by buying from bulk bins at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

I honestly cannot tell you what half of these things are. They are foreign bits and pieces of either candy, nuts or beans or flour, I dunno. This is not a section I understand, but then I don’t have to. My husband buys this stuff, labels the twisty-ties and sticks the bags in the pantry, a place where I rarely venture.

You will find an enormous cheese selection at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

As Robyn Hitchcock would say, sound the cheese alarm! There I was, standing at the meat display case as my husband chatted with the butcher about ground chicken meat, when out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of the marvelous cheese department. The siren call of cheese lured me to its cases. So many selections. So little time in life. I eventually chose a Blue Buffalo blue cheese with green stringy veins that looked like they would melt on my tongue at $37 a pound, and when I glanced up, my husband was gone. Vanished. Where is the telephone for locating lost wives in the cheese department? Adam Weintraub pick up on cheese aisle . . .

Expanded check-out counters at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

We had heard the store was a bit disorganized, and thought perhaps it was due to all of the new employees hired by the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op for its new location. But we did not really find that kind of experience. Everybody seemed happy, helpful and on task with whatever they were doing.

More parking is available in the garage on S Street at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

Further, for the Sacramento Midtown agent who told me the parking was still a nightmare at Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op, and I won’t tell you who that person was, let me inform her that there is a full garage behind the store on S Street. It is accessible from the alley, just follow the more parking sign. Even the parking lot out in front is bigger than the previous parking space when the store was on Alhambra.  We parked on the second level, and there is an elevator, too!