Earth Fare

They never have enough registers open, finally got fed up with it today left my stuff in the basket and walked out the door.

I’m from Texas, and they don’t know their food, never did. At Earth Fare, I didn’t expect to find such a great selection of the types of foods I normally buy. I usually have to over-​pay or hunt down everything in DFW, TX metroplex. Originally from California, people are hip on healthy eating since the 1970’s, so I really miss being able to shop at decent stores I can trust. (I think of Trader Joe’s when it was a bit larger than a produce stand. Of course I’d pick Earth Fare over Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or Central Market in a heartbeat.)
Sadly, I got a little over excited when I got the Earth Fare bakery whole wheat bread. Since I am out of town for a while, I wanted organic whole wheat bread like I make at home, so I bought 2 loaves. They were a bit small but a little sacrifice for buying food over homemade. No big. Right? Wrong. Clearly, it turned out to be the worst whole wheat bread I’ve ever had. If I made a loaf like that, I literally would give it to the birds. I speak as an expert organic bread maker, and anyone with a bit of sense could see this wasn’t edible. The bread texture was tough, crumbly, broke easy, too dark, small (2lb? Seriously? Use 3 cups of flour and let the poor thing rise properly). Finding proper, wholesome, tasty bread has been quite a tough thing while traveling for work around the country. House of Bread (various western locales) is the best bread so far. If I had an oven, I’d made my own though.
Other than that, their meats and dairy are well priced and a reliable quality (local), which is the main reason I went there. Everything seemed to be well done. Impressive they use local and fresh foods, and packaged items of reliable, healthy quality. I wish them great success, and pray they move to Texas. We need more grocery stores like that in the country and especially towards the West. I will be shopping there while out of town.

This used to be a great place but it ain’t no more. Don’t buy their in-​store made pies. Their food bar is just below average and then they raised the prices considerably. Raising prices and lowering quality is no way to attract business. As far as the product on the shelves, well, that’s the same everywhere. Their produce is second rate.

Food is usually fresh but prices are very high. I get emails for sale items. If u don’t go right then forget about getting the sale. More often than not I go and they are sold out of the sale item. Parking is terrible. They have a loyalty program called tomato bank. You get 5 points for making a purchase weather you spend a dollar or a hundred dollars, that’s it…5 points. If you bring your own bag you get another 5 points but be careful, if you don’t remind them of the byob they don’t give you credit. Employees are generally nice unless you get one girl cashier. I won’t name names.
Like I said, prices are high so bring your checkbook and be ready to pay up for quality.

Meat 2 sides and a sweet tea for 6 $??. That bbq chicken was great as well as the mc n cheese and the black beans

Sometimes they’re okay but I typically reserve shopping here for things I can’t find at places like 14 carrots or publix. I do this generally because there are pretty over priced on a good amount of products that can be found elsewhere. Another reason it, there seams to always be a problem with the meat and fruits I buy here. The meats tend to go bad sooner than the expiration date (like 2 or 3 days after purchasing when there is another 4 – 5 days on the label). The fruit (strawberries in particular) has a tendency to be bad by the time I get it home from the store!!! I live so far away it’s not worth it to drive all the way back for a refund (I do monthly trips here).
Now to give Credit where credit is due, the managers are always nice and willing to correct the problems that arise, the thing is… how many times do I need to call or come by for a complaint about expired items (Meat, Strawberries, even protein shakes I bought off the shelf once were 2 months past exp WHEN I PURCHASED THEM… Do we not rotate shelves people??).
My final complaints and big reasons I do not enjoy shopping here are … military discounts have been restricted to Thursdays and there’s a no concealed weapons sign at the door!!! This just on principle makes it hard to want to walk through the door! As far as the discount, Saturdays or Sundays would have made more sense but why not every day like it was before… Seriously? With your over charging and competition like Whole foods not terribly far away (and 14 carrots depending on what side of town you live on), it seems silly to be so close to a military base and restrict military discounts to Thursdays.
Also the no concealed weapons sign… truly…this must be some corporate policy… or at least I sincerely hope it is. Having to disarm to go grocery shopping in an area that’s not necessarily the best, for overpriced groceries, where I can only go and get a discount on Thursdays, and hope my purchase doesn’t go bad before promised… Is there any surprise that my once a week shopping trip at Earth Fare has turned into once a month sale and hard to find items trip? Nah, probably not.

Arrived late in Columbia due to cancelled flights. Being here first time not in a hotel but in an Airbnb house there was need to go and buy some food. By chance we found that shop in the neighborhood.
I was immediately attracted since I am buying organic at home in Germany, too, and found lots of european organic delis in that Shop. I was really impressed with the variety of fresh produce, even meat and fish at a Big counter.
What really kicked me off was finding a pinkus beer bottle, a local beer coming from Münster, the german town I lived in quite some years.
Greatly Done! I left that shop with 150 $ less but packed with lots of great and healthy food.

Love this store!!! Delicious baked goods! Great breakfast and lunch bar! Wonderful service and good selection

I have a love/​hate relationship with this place, some things are great but others are really bad.
Let’s start with the good:
Their wine selection. BOOM. It’s small but great and there is always something new.
Some of the staff, the deli staff and wine staff are wonderful, always nice and friendly.
The free samples.
The fresh nut/​grain selection is awesome.
Their coffee.
Their meat and cheese section is awesome.
Salad bar (if you’re not looking for anything fancy) I just get just lettuce, broccoli, cucumbers and carrots.
The carne asada was actually really good, but a little chewy.
Their 1.5L bottle of water for $.98
Frozen ravioli that you can take home (only 4-​cheese kind is tasty, others were meh)
The bad:
Their made to order sandwiches are grease mounds.
They use sliced over salty mozzarella (not fresh) on the mozz/​tomato one.
The chicken in the chicken wrap is weird, I got a weird bite and couldn’t finish it.
The pre-​packaged sandwiches means the bread falls apart in your hands and falls all over your lap like tears of sadness.
The clam chowder used to be my absolute favorite but the last two times ruined it for me, first the onion sizes started getting bigger and bigger, WHY :(then I noticed lots of parts of the clams in the soup that you really don’t want to eat, weird stringy things.ew.
They never, ever have the oyster crackers out when they have the clam chowder… I always have to ask for them and then someone brings me one packet… ONE packet…
Could have gone either way between 2 – 3 stars but the weird strings in my chowda pushed it down to 2.

I stopped here driving through Columbia and I just needed something to eat that wasn’t fast food… unfortunately it was a Sunday and like most small cities, a lot of places are closed… so there I see Earth Fare and a sign on the window that says «hot bar»…cool, went in and saw the «hot bar» was not so hot… decided on some sushi and veggie rolls which were really good I must say… the store is like a little Whole Foods, it just doesn’t have a big selection in certain departments like the hot bar and salad bar… customer service was great, cashier encouraged me to look online for coupons… if I am in the area again, I might come back and see what they’ve done to that hot bar. for a small organic store. not bad~

Selection is limited and the prices are fairly high, even for organic food. I do try to shop the specials to save a few and get better quality food items. The nightly specials are usually pretty decent too. Wednesday’s $ 5 sushi is a good deal for lunch.

Earth fare is hands down the best grocery store in Columbia. I was introduced to EF by a friend who knew the founder and was familiar with it since it opened. Many complain that it’s too expensive to which I retort, you get what you pay for. However, I think if you shop smart it’s not so bad. Deli items and gourmet items are expensive but if you stick with staples, such as raw meat, it’s not much more than alternatives, but is SO much higher quality. And they have specials often. Unfortunately I do not live near otherwise i would shop there regularly.
The reason for the 4 stars and not 5, their corporate marketing department annoys me with their specials. Many times they are misleading, and the butcher will explain that it’s not 5 burgers for $ 5 it’s actually a discount on raw meat. Which is OK but they should say that. Also many times they run out of items on sale– such as the 5 for $ 5 where you get crackers, peanut butter and so on. they will not have them. This puts a damper on the excitement — and usually it’s the coupons that motivate me to take the drive and spend time there filling up my cart. Then they cancelled the free chicken coupon, and now the tomato bank doesn’t really have any value (used to be real money off your bill). They need to rethink their strategy.
One time I complained about this to the manager and Barbara gave me a free pound of Buffalo meat. Their customer service is super… the staff is friendly and usually very knowledgeable about the products. They have an excellent selection of cheese, wine, and specialty items not easy to find elsewhere (such as Dr. Bronners soaps — which you can use from laundry to bathing to cleaning your car!).
Overall Earthfare is the only place in town with really high quality foods, especially meat and seafood where you can see the difference. Some items expensive but I encourage shoppers to learn more about the products (for example — organic meat which does not have preservatives and chemicals tends to spoil faster, meat from WalMart will last for weeks in the fridge or longer). Also in terms of value, getting meat which is free of chemicals, hormones, and other crap, it’s really a much better value. I have 2 hens and can tell you the real price of raising hens is much more than you can get a whole chicken for.
One last thing, last thanksgiving I convinced the family to get our Turkey there — it was the BEST turkey ever. unfortunately it was HUGE — we only had a few people and the bird was enough for 10. but probably the best bird meat of any kind we ever tasted.

this review is actually going to be a compare and contrast to whole foods, as I shop at both. I actually prefer earth fare’s meat department for chicken and beef, and I have never in over 10 years of shopping there seem rotten meat. The Clemson guy (as is obvious by his clemson hat he wears often) who runs the meat department can be a little gruff in personality, as in not overly friendly, but never outright rude and it seems like he knows what he’s doing. Again, I have never seen rotten meat there as some other reviewer mentioned. And I’ve been shopping there 10+ years.
Whole foods in my experience wins on the hot bar side of things due to having just more stuff out usually, but they dont win by much and really not now that earth fare has dropped their prices. My main problem with earth fare’s hot bar was that they would close it up an hour before the store closed. I guess that’s practical but when I got off work late that just meant I could go to whole foods and still have a decent bar out whereas at earth fare they were shutting it down.
I will say this… In my opinion, as long as they dont burn/​overcook it, Earth Fare’s pizza blows Whole Foods out the water. The dough and cheese just do it for me in a way that whole foods pizza doesn’t. Every now and then they’ll burn it, but even then it’s still good.

Really love the olive bar and the awesome food that’s made to go. Check this place out if your near Devine St.,

How am I just now discovering this place after living in Columbia for over a year? Saw a review on Unilocal about their salad bar and tried it out for lunch today — filled by togo box to the brim and it cost me just over $ 5! What a deal — and there were many other options for soup, sandwiches and hot food. My co-​worker told me about the great coupons they have so I immediately signed up for those! Can’t wait to make this a regular when I eat out for lunch.

The coupons are what bring me back here more than Whole Foods. The tomato bank program saves you a bunch and I also get a 15% discount for being an Earthlete. Check it out if you’re athletic! I also love their fresh salad and hot bar for $ 5.99 a lb… get a healthy lunch cheaply! Juices are also good and freshly made.

Earthfare is a reliable staple with an excellent selection in their bulk bins, and unusual ingredients that one might not expect to be able to find in Columbia. Sure, it’s got its issues sometimes, but I keep going back because it’s close to my house, isn’t as overwhelming as Whole Foods, and has decent coupons on occasion.
I wouldn’t buy my whole grocery list from here because the produce and convenience item prices are high, but I also don’t expect it to be my one stop shop.

I went to Earth Fare yesterday to pick up a few cliff bars and an appetizer for a movie night I was going to at a friend’s house. I hadn’t been to the place in several months and have to agree with ChristiAnn B, it does look nicer. The produce looked beautiful and they took great care in making sure the presentation and quality of everything, matched up. I had to pass through several aisles before I got to the one I was looking for, and everything I passed was stocked with precision and looked very orderly. There were so many great products that I passed, it took a lot of willpower to not just pick up everything! The highlight for me though was the selection at the Deli, there were so many vegan and vegetarian friendly options, I was in heaven. A really nice employee named Joaquim (spelling?) helped me and was kind enough to let me try a few things before I made up my mind. Their wheat barley salad is delicious, it’s punchy with a sweet flavor to it without being sugary, if that makes any sense. I also LOVED their thai vegan chicken nuggets, AMAZING! I can’t wait to go back and get a pound just for myself! I also thought the vegan chicken salad was pretty tasty, another dish that has a lot to offer and is hard to believe there’s no animal product in. I ended up getting a pound of the wheat barley salad but liked everything I sampled, so really would recommend it all. Some of the prices for products here are slightly pricey but others seem comparable to what local area grocery stores are charging, so even if you end up shelling out more, I don’t think you’re paying that much more, and considering what you’ll get, it seems worth it to me.
Lastly, it was nice to see a local artist playing music right outside, he was very talented and it was cool that they allowed him to set up there.

EarthFare has definitely improved since Whole Foods opened down the street. I went in today and the Produce section was perfectly stocked, looked nice, and was super fresh, great quality. I was impressed.
The prices are competitive with Whole Foods and even had some better deals (4lb. bag of organic oranges $ 2.99!).
I will be shopping here more often.

I’m not a regular Earth Fare customer and my trip yesterday confirmed why I’m not.
A while back I signed up for the Earth Fare mailing list and every week they send me a coupon for something. Normally I initially get excited about getting a pound of free peaches when I spend $ 5 in the store but that fades and never materializes into me actually going to the store. (Publix and I are already in a long term, committed relationship and I’m not all about the store hopping in the first place.) But…
This week the coupon was for 5 organic products for $ 5. No additional purchase necessary. It seemed like an excellent deal on products we would use. So off I go.
I obviously don’t know where anything in the store is so I have to wander around a bit to find the 5 items on my list. The first area I head to was the produce section. I wrongfully assumed that Earth Fare would have impeccable produce. Nay. The bananas were way past their prime and turning brown and in some cases black and the produce on the whole was pricey. So moving on…
I wasn’t the only person wandering around with the coupon looking for these products. We started to team up and share information since the staff seemed to be a bit difficult to identify. They all seemed to be just wearing t-​shirts and shorts… some had aprons. I saw one staff member talking to a customer about when he was going to call him to offer him a new job. I guess he didn’t like Earth Fare either.
Anyway…finally found the products. They were running out of some items and DID offer substitutions which was nice. Not all stores do that and the coupon said while supplies last so they REALLY didn’t have to do that. The cashier and bagger were friendly enough and checkout didn’t take long at all. They also had those small carts which I like (sometimes I don’t need a giant cart… we aren’t all buying 40lb bags of dog food or 3 cases of bottled water).
If there is another fabulous coupon (I paid $ 5.05 and saved more than $ 12 on this trip) then I’ll probably go back but those produce coupons won’t even get me excited anymore. It’s going to take more than some cheap organics to break Publix and me up!