I was at home, working, when my wife called and said, “There is a new organic market in town. Why don’t you check it out? They may have those grains you’ve been wanting.” She told me where it was, more or less, and gave me the name. I did a web search and found it quickly: Mother Nature’s Market in Snellville.
This is an established market that has moved from a location in Tucker, Georgia to a location along Highway 78. For me that’s a huge difference in terms of time, as it takes roughly half an hour to get down to Tucker. I called, to find out if they had the red lentils I wanted. The young man who answered took a look and said, “Yes, we have them, red split lentils.” That pretty much clinched the deal.
The market is located about 2 blocks east of the Oak Road-US 78 Intersection, about one block east of the Wisteria-US 78 Intersection. It’s in a strip mall on the left (north side of the road), as you’re traveling east on US 78, and it’s roughly opposite South Gwinnett High School. It has a large sign on the outside. If traffic is good, it should be pretty easy to spot.

Mother Nature's Market is a neat, clean store on Highway 78, just opposite South Gwinnett High School in Snellville.
Inside, the store is well organized, neat, clean, with a lot of free space. They have a terrific array of supplements, as well as a large array of spices. A good portion of what they sell is outside of my interests, as I’m not much for supplements more complicated than a children’s chewable. In some cases the prices are just surprising. As an example, a relatively small bottle of organic maple syrup costs in excess of $30.00.
On the other side of the cost spectrum are the whole grains, peas, beans, and lentils. I found just about anything I could have wanted, short of amaranth, and the store was particularly rich in whole grains, such as whole wheats, hulled barley, oat groats, etc. I judged the prices to be competitive with any supermarket, most less than $2.00/lb. Bulk pearled barley differed from the Publix price by just pennies a pound, and no grain I judged terribly expensive. Now the bulk quinoa was $4.55/lb. Given kind and type (they had red quinoa as well as traditional), this may be a moderately high price or a great price. I haven’t done enough comparison shopping to tell you just yet. However, for many of these bulk grain items, the only other source I know is Return To Eden, and as far as Return To Eden is, you could make up in gas savings what you lose in immediate expense.
I asked about vanilla “Better Than Milk”, a dry soy milk product my wife uses, and which they didn’t have. But they said they would be happy to special order anything we wanted. I thought that was more than fair.
Now the hours are not terribly commuter friendly, as they are open Monday through Friday 10am to 7pm, but they have Saturday hours, 9:30am to 6pm. The Saturday times and extreme closeness make this store accessible to working families.
Even if you’re a die-hard Kroger and Publix shopper, drop by this place sometime. You won’t regret it.
March 8, 2009 at 6:16 pm
[…] (substituting jalapenos for serranos this time), and I have hard red wheat and red quinoa from Mother Nature’s Market soaking on the kitchen table. I’m thinking along three lines: black beans and rice as the […]
May 30, 2009 at 12:06 pm
[…] new shopping has to be Mother Nature’s Market in Snellville. Best place nearby to buy inexpensive meats is probably Lilburn International […]
November 26, 2009 at 8:14 am
a great place to shop
December 6, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I am going to go there and get some quinoa to try. I hear it has lots of protein and I’m not a huge meat eater so I’d love to try it. Have no idea how to cook it though – any tips?
December 6, 2009 at 3:42 pm
You cook it like you cook rice, though I find it easier to handle than rice. I actually have at least three article on making food from quinoa: examples are here, here, and here.
April 20, 2013 at 2:00 pm
I have shopped at this location three times and each time the service is bad. From the owner/manager following me around to rude cashiers. The owner ask if he can help, but it is so forced that it sounded insincere. They are out of most items that you are looking for and blame a spike in demand to a TV doctor and make negative comments about people that watch his show. I made my last purchase on Friday, I will not shop there again. I will take my money to some that can a least “act” like they appreciate my business.
October 3, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Do you sale Dandelion coffee
December 30, 2013 at 1:11 pm
Apparently some customers are priorty over others in the Snellville store. I waited for a customer to get help so I could ask a question.. In the middle of asking the salesman questions, the lady comes back to ask another question and I was dropped as unimportant and he never returned .. I WONT go back! Maybe Im just one customer but if he treats others the same way, he’ll lose more business. I will go where I feel like they want to help me