El Cerrito Natural Grocery Company - El Cerrito, California

Grace L.

Clean and well organized shelves, great variety of house made food.
And I love how they have a lot of refilling options!

Natasha H.

Always love visiting this store. My parents shopped at Berkeley natural back when it was a co-op and have continued to support this business today. The friendly and knowledgeable staff are very helpful. The food is always fresh and of great quality.

Pika C.

I had a rather bizarre interaction here a while back that left a distasteful impression. A friend who had worked here recommended I speak with the manager about potentially carrying my products. I came in hoping for a friendly conversation, but instead was met with a pretty dismissive attitude. When I introduced what I make, the manager responded with, “What’s so special about it?” and “Why couldn’t I just make it myself?” It felt unnecessarily defensive and condescending, and not something that I expect to come from a store that claims to be community oriented.

On top of that, the prices here are extremely expensive, and the produce isn’t very fresh. I’d much rather shop at Monterey Market or Berkeley Bowl — both offer better prices and consistently fresher products.

Tolga A.

Nice shop with good selection. The biggest downside is the constant, disgusting smell of urine that covers much of the store. Every time I enter the store, the stench is overwhelming. I told a worker about it once, but they seem unable or unwilling to do anything about it. I would recommend wearing a mask inside.

Javier R.

Mistreatment at Checkout While Checking EBT Balance

I wanted to share a deeply upsetting experience I had at your store, where I’ve been a loyal customer for over a decade. Recently, I needed to check my EBT balance, so I approached the cashier. She responded curtly, telling me I could use the card machine only after she was done — implying I was rushing her, even though I hadn’t insisted.

When I was finally able to check my balance, she had to print the receipt. Instead of simply handing it to me, she loudly announced that there were no funds on the card, in front of other customers — clearly intending to embarrass me. It was humiliating and completely unnecessary.

Because of this, I’ve made the decision to no longer shop at that location. I’ve supported that store in my neighborhood for many years, but no one deserves to be treated with such disrespect — especially in moments as vulnerable as this.

I hope you take this seriously and address how your staff treats EBT users with basic dignity and privacy.

Diema ?. D.

Lovely local grocery store that carries locally sourced products. Great selections. Mostly friendly staff.

Slippery D. (. V.

Expensive groceries though the quality is very good. However next door they have hot foods (different all the time) and smoothies/juices, cakes, ice cream. All for very affordable prices.

James K.

Well, I quite liked this place! (5/5 green stars)
I can definitely see how business owners become frustrated (enraged, even) by certain online reviews. El Cerrito Natural Grocery seems to receive more than its fair share of unreasonably whingey reviews. Wah, there are nuts in some pastries! Wah, there’s gluten in the thing I bought without looking at the ingredients list! Wah, regular parkers park in the electric car spot! If there’s a regular car parked at the charging station you would think it’s more reasonable to blame that driver rather than give the store one star.

Anyhoo, I dropped in for just a coffee and pastry and found it to be a fairly pleasant spot to do some writing – there’s no WiFi by the way. Good mix of people inside, having coffee, lunch or a beer. It’s not a place that I would have ever considered coming for a beer but they have an interesting selection in their fridge and will provide glasses. My latte was better than I had expected – the foam was dense, almost like a flat white, and considering that they use organic milk it was not expensive at $3.25 for a medium. Similarly, my hot cross bun was $2 even though it was made from organic ingredients. So I’m not sure that the complaints about prices are warranted. Wah!

I’m giving them 5/5 “green stars” for social and environmental impact, based on these reasons:

• The Natural Grocery Co. uses 100% green power and does a good job at waste minimization.
• They are employee-owned and if you look them up on Glassdoor it looks like employees are pretty happy. E.g., they are offered good health benefits after working there for 60 days and after 5 years they get stock in their company.
• They use local organic butter, milk, cream and eggs in their bakery.
• Their mission is to use local, organic / sustainable ingredients and they have partnerships with the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture (MESA) and FishWise, amongst others.
• Their beer selection is heavily represented by local brewers such as Fort Point and the East Brother Beer Co.
• Their coffee is from Equal Exchange, pioneers of the direct trade movement and a great cooperative company. The majority of their coffee is shade-grown and some is certified organic.

Interested in writing green star reviews? If so, contact me! (greenstarsproject)