Natural Market

Unilocal’s 365 Review Challenge 2014 #351 — 365
My sister lives just a few feet away from this corner store and so it’s convenient if you’re looking to shop for groceries and house stuff.
Lots of stuff here that you’d find in a big store and the prices here are reasonable. Why can’t all small businesses be like this; friendly and welcoming.

A corner store with everything you could possibly need.
Beer, wine, liquor, milk, chips, cookies, candy, fresh fruit, soup, ice cream, pet food, string cheese — Natural Market has it.
Prices are reasonable given its convenience, and the owner is very nice.

Wassim and everyone that works there is so friendly! Waves when you walk by — greets you with a smile. Good wine selection and has all the essentials.
Best corner store!

Don’t let anyone charge you sales tax on uncooked food — so don’t buy food from Natural Market. Their selection isn’t bad, but not being cheated is more important to me than conveniently-​located snacks.

I live a few blocks away and stopped by this corner store figuring they are a dime a dozen, so quick in and out, right?
Boy was I wrong. I came in and realized the guy behind the counter actually lived in the neighborhood, and is one of the nicest convenience store guys that I’ve ever met! I only spent about 4 bucks, but he treated me like his best customer… simply put, I will be back to this spot next time I walk up Pine!

I just had to update and say Wassim makes the BEST, the STRONGEST, and most Delicious coffee every day… better than all the coffee shops in the area.
And if that isn’t enough, getting a cup of morning coffee at his place instead of Starbucks means you get to see his smiling face and start your day with the positiveness and sunny attitude he exudes.
I love this guy.

What a great selection of food products for a little corner store.
By food products I mostly mean ice-​cream but they also carry a surprising variety of soups and dried fruit. Toiletries and home essentials are fair in price if you don’t want to spend your entire paycheck 3 blocks down at Mollie Stones. I am not lying when I say that I once wanted to buy a cheap frying pan at Mollie Stones to cook dinner for my best friend. The same pan cost $ 15 at Target and $ 36 at MS. I am grateful for recession friendly shops like these.
Also, the owner has a great personality and that is a big part of why my friend and I take the steep hike up California Street for a mint chip It’s It sammy and a pack of smokes.

This is best corner store ever! Wassim is so nice and goes out of his way to help out his neighbors. He is so kind and has anything you might need. The fruit is always fresh.

Having moved here from London, I feel like there is a total lack of stores like Natural Market, so I’m really glad it’s there.
They have pretty much everything you need for a weekend emergency to save you from HellFoods or Molle Stone’s (toilet paper, salsa, beer, pasta, etc).

Waseem (The store owner) is the coolest guy ever!!! Yes, he does charge more than Safeway for certain things, but he’s gotta pay the Pac Heights rent, can you clame him? Out of all of the corner store guys I’ve had in my life, both in San Francisco and New York, Waseem is the best!
Now about the store, it’s stocked with the typical corner store items. I’ve never gone in there an not found what I was looking for, and on occasion, he has things I didn’t expect (like Brie). Thumbs up Waseem

Wassim’s store has it all, not to mention he always remembers your name, and is willing to spark up a conversation any time. My wife Gena and I are probably there daily if not more — he’s always wiling to help. We now live several blocks away, but still make the extra walk just to stop in.

sinews pulsating and muscles numb, i wipe the perspiration from my brow, descending webster street. my morning run often ends w/​a cooldown-​walk past natural market, and, amidst the bright, reflected sunshine off the storefront windows and general exhausted haze, i scan the interior for a figure…
— - wassim is, quite possibly, the nicest and most genuine corner store owner you will ever meet. ‘corner store owner’ doesn’t do him justice, and his establishment overshoots the classification of ‘corner store’ by 1,000 miles.
there’s such a variety of products to choose from! natural market carries pet food, dried fruit, pasta (and i’m not talking about kraft mac and cheese), select fruits and veggies, milk, different kinds of nuts, wine… the list goes on. the thing that i’m most impressed w/​is some of the gourmet-​ish options that they have within categories like cooking oil and chips. …usually, you don’t get more than a selection of doritos, lays, and fritos at corner stores, but here, you can turn your nose up at those brands and purchase a fancy bag of herb and parmesan chips.
also, the selection of wine is pretty decent too. there’s more than just your run of the mill barefoot and red diamond wines. i’ve purchased a few bottles that i’ve never come across before, as well as a few that were pretty good for being priced under $ 11.
this is a great place to grab a bottle of wine and some snacks and head over to alta plaza park to read a book or to watch the boats slowly slide by in the bay.
…all corner stores should follow wassim’s lead!

This is the best corner store I’ve ever lived near! The owner (Wassim) is super friendly and always has something relevant to say to to me — he remembers little details of my life, like if my car was in the shop the last time I stopped in. I know that I can always find something yummy to eat/​drink here, and even if it is a bit pricey you’re paying for the convenience. And they’re open all the time — much later than other corner stores! I love this place, one of the best parts of living in Pac Heights … the other is the friendly folks at Peets on Sacramento and Fillmore.

Wassim is the GREATEST! He has changed this store and so changed the neighborhood and the community. The place used to be depressing… but when Wassim came in … it is different he is so great! He introduces neighbors to each other, has great produce and it is lower priced than Mollie Stones! I can’t say enough about this store and Wassim. I love giving him my business.

I’ve lived a block and half from this market for the past three years and have seen it go through quite a transformation. Like other Unilocalers, I like to believe that the previous owner had to be using the business for shady undertakings (though his rather depressing story was that he lost all his money in the dot com burst and couldn’t afford to restock the shelves). Since, Wassim has taken over and turned the store into a destination! All the fruit and veggies are from local farmer’s markets, the flowers are fresh from the flower mart and his selection of Ben & Jerry’s and other yummy ice creams is competitive with any supermarket (which I like to believe is somewhat attributable to my requests for variety). If there is anything you want, Wassim will order it for you. He is open to all suggestions and is the cheeriest guy ever!

This is what a corner store is supposed to be like; the store is clean, well stocked with items you need, the friendly owner remembers you and makes nice conversation, and you don’t have to walk all the way to Whole Foods and pay $ 6 for an avocado. Ahhhh… so nice.

Greatest neighborhood corner store ever! I moved in the neighborhood last fall and usually stop in daily. They have a little bit of eveything. Ciao Bella icecream, B&J Icecream, organic produce, nice selection of wine, beer and liquor, fresh flowers, canned goods, good cheese selection, cereals, household items, etc… it’s a little mini grocery.
But the greatest reason to stop in is to chat with Wassim (the owner)! In the past year I have NEVER seen this man with anything less that a cheerful mood. It amazes me. He is the most positive person you will ever meet, not to mention a hard worker.

This corner store used to be an empty space with bare shelves except for a few bottles of liquor. Why the owner didn’t carry any merchandise is beyond me.
Then he sold the store.
The new owner has stocked the store with loads of quality merchandise like fresh fruit (maybe organic but not sure), fresh flowers, some good wines and even cowgirl creamery cheeses.
I even ran into him one Saturday down at the farmer’s market picking up fresh eggs.
So locals to the area, if you’re going to pay convenience store prices at Mollie Stone’s anyway, how about checking this store to see if they have what you need and support the local guy?

Yes, I would second BernaDevious, in that the last business at this address (runned by a crazy little guy name Shawn) might have been a money laundering or what we suspected, a «Front», for a «delivery» business.
ANYWAYS, Natural Market is a nice enough place. The couple that runs it is pretty friendly. They definitely cleaned the place up and added a larger variety of products. Prices are as to be expected, since businesses like these are essentially Costco resellers, with a couple of unique niche items.
They have a great selection of Ben and Jerry’s and Organic bananas. I stop in to grab a couple of things probably once a week.
My favorite change the new owners added was an ATM. I hit that thing like clockwork. All things considered this is a solid convenience store for my hood.

In the past three years I’ve live in my ‘hood, there have been two convenience stores that sucked — one where Shu Uemura is now and the other right down the street from me that I now believe was serving as a storefront for money laundering. Anyway. Fast forward to 2006.
The super nice new owner has completely redone this store which is exactly one block from my front door. A true «convenience store», he carries a lot of stuff that one may need at 11pm when the local grocery AND Walgreen’s has shut down for the night. Sometimes it’s a little pricey, but you pay for convenience, right?
Plus, in the AM, he sells Tully’s coffee. Yum!