Recommend to a friend
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Reviews
505 reviews
Filter
Filter
Approve of CEO
Kemper Isely
275 Ratings
Pros
"Employee discount is great along with extra money every paycheck for them" (in 45 reviews)
"On top of the pay the extra benefits you get free nutrition education" (in 25 reviews)
Cons
"Constantly wishing for just a few more employees but according to home office we don’t make enough money for that" (in 63 reviews)
"They also make it very difficult for store managers to get rid of troublesome employees" (in 42 reviews)
Helpful (2)
![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"Great place to work"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time
Pros
Work environment, work-life balance, Vitamin Bucks + discounts, growth opportunities
Cons
Some aspects feel a little too traditional and old school
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2018-12-05 14:31 PSTHelpful (1)
![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"Great Position; Disorganized Company"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time
Pros
Decent pay and benefits. Every hour you work you get a dollar in groceries, and some pretty great discounts. Wonderful company standards, and commitment bringing nutrition education to the community.
Cons
No clear lines of communication between corporate headquarters and each store. The company is growing faster than it seems it is able to keep up with.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-03-21 17:07 PDTHelpful (1)
![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"Good company look elsewhere if you have a degree"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendI worked at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time
Pros
Great benefits. Way too much work for a health coach for the pay. Especially if you have a degree.
Cons
Expectations are way too high. Burnout inevitable. Plus your expected to clean bathrooms and help with all store functions after youve given classes and worked in the community and sold vitamins all day.
Advice to Management
I dont need to hear the head and owner of wellness crying evertime there's a corporate meeting. Yeah we get it...your life is tough with your huge salary.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-03-21 11:34 PDT![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"some good some bad"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookDisapproves of CEOI have been working at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Discounts, vit. bucks and having 2 days off in a row are good. Extra vacation after 4 years even better.
Cons
Pay is not commensurate with local living expenses or competition's pay in like industry. Entry level management and store support just got large raise to keep up with my state's minimum wage increase. Store support are not held accountable to do any work by upper management. Poor workers are emulated by others because there is no standard. Absenteeism needs to be addressed. Some kind of bonus should be given for good attendance. Wage increases need to be judged on actual work and good attendance. Those who are at work every day and work hard every day are paid just the same as the lops.
Advice to Management
Strict accountability, Bonus for good attendance.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-03-21 09:58 PDT![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"Produce Manager"
StarStarStarStarStarI have been working at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Vitamin bucks, Paid off holidays, becoming familiar with vitamins, room for advancement
Cons
Typical retail turnover, no overtime allowed
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-02-27 14:21 PSTHelpful (1)
![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"pretty decent"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsI have been working at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time (More than a year)
Pros
vitamin bucks, discount, team environment, talented store manager, friendly assistant manager, cool regional manager, good scheduling, chill customers( for the most part), assistance program, generally most days are good ones , theres a shower nobody uses so thats cool. relaxed dress code. good communication. decent pay. cross training. fun place to live. jason lee shops this store often so that can be exciting.
Cons
insurance is a waste of money, some employees are super slow and dont understand work ethic, bright obnoxious orange and green aprons. no employee puppy cuddling program, no overtime allowed, most staff are backup cashiers, seems like more work is being added while hours are taken away. new events seem to pop up and its hard to keep track of them all. the rewards program is confusing for everyone. company started bag checks and that feels scummy. cant wear anything that smells good and meetings are way too early n the morning. instacart shoppers are completely helpless and we should be allotted more hours just to honor these shopping services because we do a lot of personal shopping instead that takes us away from assigned tasks.
Advice to Management
honestly, weve had our disagreements but the store and asst managers here are basically superheros so no advice to them. for home office, i think they should increase labor or approve overtime. we will gladly give up weird bags and sweatshirts for more people. consider allowing overnight stocking at this location because customers here are very needy and good customer service makes it difficult to get work done but if we had one person stock after hours and one person floating helping customers during store hours, i bet customer service would improve and stock would get done twice as fast. think about making stockers and cashiers as separate positions . bring back the blue aprons. black would be cool too. nobody looks good in orange, not even oranges.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-02-20 15:40 PSTHelpful (1)
![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"Great Company"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDisapproves of CEOI worked at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Great Pay. Great Perks such as Birthday Pay and Vitamin Bucks Card
Cons
Horrible Human Resource Department, Company Threatens Managers doesn't support them, Colorado stores are ran different than all others, constant turn over in home office, Outdated POS and ordering systems
Advice to Management
Hire a new human resource department and get rid of some of the ones you have promoted up that are underqualified and operate as bullies.
Get a new program for customers the N Power doesn't work and it makes customers angry and they don't come back.
Update your Programs in the Texas stores we have computers crashing all day and are having to re-boot during business hours.
Give Managers more support.Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-03-01 13:24 PST![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"Great People, Great Manager"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
I worked at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
The management makes the team. We had a great manager.
Cons
You have to work one weekend day.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-02-07 08:12 PST![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"It’s a great starter position"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
I like the frequent breaks, it’s a nice way to break up the day when it’s hectic. You get a 10 min break after the first 2 hours, then 30 min 2 hours after that, then a last 10 min 2 hours after that. I also find the Vitamin Bucks to be beneficial because it’s basically extra non-taxed money to buy groceries or supplements with. We get $1 per hour of Vitamin Bucks that can only be used in the store, and a nice discount on top of that. For the position itself, I’m gaining valuable experience through teaching classes, and holding 1 on 1 coaching sessions with customers. It’s a great way to use Nutriton expertise especially if you are fresh out of college!
Cons
While you are your own department in the store (NHC’s are also Nutrition Managers) NHC’s are still at the whim of the Manager and the store’s needs. That being said, you may have to start at 6 AM to participate in store team meetings twice a month, and close the store (work until after 10 PM depending on when that particular store closes) a minimum of 1 night a week. You also have 2 “floor” days per week where you need to support the Vitamins Department by stocking shelves, cleaning, and other floor duties. I can definitely see the value in this, but I feel that I could be more productive if it were 1 floor day per week. The NHC task list is a LONG one, we are in charge of so much more that you’d think! Lastly, the pay isn’t GREAT but it’s manageable, and each year there’s opportunity for a small raise which is great motivation to work hard.
Advice to Management
My only advice is to have NHC’s on the “floor” one day a week, and only have to work Monday through Friday. 95% of my outreach requests are for Monday through Friday, and when communicating with businesses, they typically can only be reached Monday through Friday as well. After collecting class surveys, it seems that weekday evenings (5 or 6 PM) are when people can attend classes most.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-02-05 08:14 PSTHelpful (4)
![Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Logo]()
"Overall a disapointing experience"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookDisapproves of CEOI have been working at Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Employee discount is good, great coworkers and some nice customers. Provides great products for customers.
Cons
They refuse to hire extra workers but expect the employees they do have to work extra hard to make up for that. This has led to burnout, low morale, and depression among among the staff but corporate doesn't care. They claim that their employees are a priority in their core values but that is just lip service. Management can't really help the workers in this regard and they just recite the corporate excuse about not having money for extra help. Essentially your expected to run 110 percent on a skeleton crew. Extremely high turn over is the result. Unless your a store manager or assistant store manager, it's impossible to motivate yourself to work here long term.
Advice to Management
Nobody believes that the company doesn't have money to hire new workers, so please stop insulting your employees intelligence. Please practice compassion towards the people who actually run your store at the ground level.
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage 2019-02-11 15:43 PST
Join the Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage team
This will replace the current featured review for targeted profile. Are you sure you want to replace it?
Are you sure you want to remove this review from being featured for targeted profile?
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage Response
Dec 10, 2018 – Recruiter
Thanks for letting us know you're having a positive experience, we appreciate your hard work and glad to hear you're enjoying some great perks and benefits.