The Living Earth

overpriced produce, stuff needs more training.
I decided to visit this place after reading some of the good reviews, big disappointment! The produce are way overpriced, single bunch of green onion for $ 2.49, really?! The stuff double charged my item and mistakenly charged the bag produced by pound, i only find out when i got home…
I’d never come back again, stick to wholefoods or trader joe’s for organics!

Contrary to one reviewer, «hot» employees do not a great store make. However, I will agree that their staff’s friendliness is hit or miss. I got hired as a cashier there but could not take the job as they only paid minimum wage. (I have tons of nutrition knowledge and years of experience). I imagine most of their employees are making hardly livable wages, so perhaps that is part of it.
I do enjoy the selection and how much they really seem to focus on offering you the most healthy of every department. It looks like someone’s done a good job researching their produce, meats, and grain/​flour/​nut substitutes. Their supplements are a bit lacking in my opinion but they have a couple of items I have never seen before (and I’ve been to a LOT of these types of places all over the country).
The restaurant was good the one time I went (will do a separate review for that) but overall the staff could know a bit more and at least pretend to like their job a little. I know minimum wage ain’t fun but that is a pretty low key work environment and many of their workers are teenagers in high school or college so it’s not like they have a great chance of making much more at this point in their lives.
The prices are a bit high. Although one has come to expect that for healthy food I know that some of their items are ridiculously priced while others are quite reasonable.

Love this place and wish I could shop here everyday but the prices are incredibly expensive! You definitely pay for healthy!

I’ve stopped in infrequently over the past few years and never felt the need to rush back. Yesterday I stopped in because I needed coffee beans and I like to buy organic and or fair traded when I can. Bought some, got it home and noticed that the bag was pretty sloppily closed (not sealed, simply fastened with those attached «wire tie» type things typical of paper coffee bags, and not carefully fastened, at that). Don’t know why but decided to check the weight on my digital kitchen scale. It came up not quite an ounce short, bag included. Hmm. «Well, maybe the scale’s off a little» I thought and checked a few other similarly packaged products in my pantry, all of which came in over-​weight. OK, maybe not the worst sin in the world — and I’ll concede that my scale isn’t certified for trade — but still, that just fed my overall unfavorable impression of Living Earth. Produce there looked pretty tired, though they have an amazing selection of good-​quality packaged products. They’re the only game in town for this type of store, and the staff sure act like it, evidently feeling no need to smile nor greet customers with anything more than a seemingly obligatory «hi». Oh, the coffee I bought? Ugh, awful.

The only Independent Organic Market in the city, the Living Earth has been a staple of the community for 1971.
I myself have memories of coming here as a young child and helping scoop granola, and make raw peanut butter. Since then they have shrunk to make room for their restaurant. This has resulted in a more intimate environment and a condensing of their selection. Despite the contraction of physical space, they still retain their Produce, Health & Beauty, & Supplement Departments.
So onto what they are most know for: price. I think Living Earth gets an unfounded bad reputation for pricing. While not as inexpensive as Trader Joe’s for Organic food, Living Earth is comparable to the local Shaw’s Organic Department, while retaining their focus on Locally Sourced Produce.
Given that they are Independently owned they are my choice for Organic groceries and supplements over the larger chain stores.

Went to Evo, which is the restaurant at Living Earth for those not familiar, and the area seems nicer these days.
Maybe it’s the panhandling ordinance, maybe it’s the nicer weather, or maybe I was just too harsh during my last review after the «incident»… I suppose it’s probably a combo of all three.
Anyway, I felt I needed to amend my previous review and admit I was probably too harsh on Living Earth, it’s not their fault after all, and mostly to admit that I’d ventured back over there.
Nice place to shop, just a crummy neighborhood to visit.

The only natural food store in Worcester. Great selection, reasonablly priced for the quality. Has some great and unique products that can’t be found anywhere else nearby. The produce section is amazing. Only organic produce and local when possible (Note to some: Some produce doesn’t grow in New England, some things have to come from California and/​or Florida). Always displayed nicely and pretty cheap. Keep an eye out for sales. Also, the staff is very knowledable and helpful. Has a great little community vibe, places like are dwindling in the area.

Went back to see if it is any better. Still sucks, stay away. Several years ago they had a few good looking hippie chicks who worked there. Tracy was one of them, a laid back hippie chick, she was hot. I think she did not know how hot she was. Now, forget it… Back in the day, health food stores were great. That’s when it was very interesting and somewhat underground. Mostly hippies, young people, a few old school health freaks went there. Now, it has basically become a yuppie haven for the most part. I have seen it all over the country. Times changed, the real health food stores are long gone for the most part. Now it’s mostly the boomers, who buy overpriced goods, not all but most. Just not fun anymore. Also, they made it a lot smaller, much smaller than before. Expanded the restaurant, obviously more profit than a second rate health food store.

I first visited The Living Earth this past Wednesday afternoon. I wanted to like The Living Earth, really I did. I wanted to support the store’s efforts to offer whole and organic choices to an urban population. But after what I witnessed that day, I won’t be back.
I was browsing the Supplements section when an older gentleman came in and asked for B vitamins. The female clerk treated the man with impatience and contempt. Couldn’t agree with Jam B more; I hightailed it out of there but I’m certain eyerolling ensued.
It is just this type of elitist attitude toward those new to the vast choices of supplements and alternative products that turns people off.
I’ll give my business to Simple Enough in Westborough, next to Tatnuck Bookseller. Small store, mostly supplements, dry goods and cleaning products but the staff has always been friendly, answered my questions AND if they didn’t know the answer, they were all too happy to pull out references.

Small health food store, but this is the place to find specialty items that Trader Joes and Whole Foods don’t have.

This is a small organic/​health food store (there is also a café in the building). For a small store, Living Earth has a good range of products — in the past I have been able to do all of my grocery shopping there, though one can also find some similar organic items for slightly lower prices at other chain stores in the area (e.g. Organic Valley dairy products or other ‘chain organic’ products). In fact many prices are noticeably higher than at chain stores, though most of that differential is probably due to the higher price of organic in general, and to the fact that this is a smaller, independently owned store.
One caveat for the carbon-​emissions conscious: be sure to double check the sources of produce and other fresh foods. Quite a bit of it is not always locally grown.

This is a small organic, health food store that carries some items you would find in a Whole Foods but on a much smaller scale. I had been searching for unprocessed bran for a while and went to all the chain supermarkets, but finally found it here. Overall, the prices are a bit higher than a chain store but that is expected considering it’s a small, independent store and organics are pricey anyway.
My only observation is that the people who work here didn’t seem very happy. A smile and a hello goes a long way.

it’s too bad that all of the employees here are total assholes (did every question that i asked have to be met with at least 5 eye rolls and/​or apathetic lifeless stares?), because this place has a lot of good and hard to find stuff (great homeopathics, fresh organic produce, a lot of great albeit overpriced gluten-​free cereal).

Pricier than Whole foods for people with food allergies, but well stocked. If you need Gluten Free food in Worcester, this place is great. Also, it carries Green’s gluten free beer, which is one of the better ones. I go here almost everytime I go see my boyfriend in Worcester.

The Living Earth is a local health and well-​being minded grocery store as well as café.
Although Worcester does not have a Whole Foods it does have The Living Earth. While you may not be able to get quite the same level of smug satisfaction for all to see from shopping at the Living Earth (LE) as you would at Whole Foods (WF), you get something almost as valuable… health.
Located on the corner of Park Ave and Chandler St next to a Hess gas station, the LE lacks that culturally sanitized feeling you get from a WF. Granted, I have only shopped there as a specialty store since the prices are comparable to a WF; but I do realize that the extra cost is part and parcel of breaking out of the grip of macro agro-​business.
The unfortunate reality is that the least healthy foods generally cost least, while the cost of living an organic, pesticide and chem. free lifestyle is prohibitively expensive for the vast majority of people. The irony of the LE being located in the heart of inner city Worcester is not without merit. At least the LE is physically accessible to the inner city, if not economically within reach.

I enjoy shopping at the LE occasionally for certain items because it has grown with Worcester, not in spite of it. The patronage of a local business is as beneficial as the healthy food. In fact, the LE is an example of an organic relationship among business, customers, and community; an important concept that has been lost among the success of larger chains such as WF.

An organic grocery store + café, right in Worcester! I didn’t frequent here for the groceries, so I will focus mostly on the café.
The dishes are prepared right in the store, and have all organic ingredients. The salads are delicious, and there is even an excellent LE salad dressing.
Depending on the day (dont ask me), they provide complimentary tofu+garlic dip with pita bread. On the days its not provided, I often ordered it because its quite good.
For drinks, they offer smoothies and the usual soda fare, although you can also go into the store and pick out your own drink (they will just put it on the tab). Water is free with the meal.
If you are looking for a good healthy place to grab lunch or dinner, stop here.