Fresh Thyme Farmers Market

I want this place to succeed but they need to work on it. The name gonna confuse 20% of traffic into thinking its a weekend market. Secondly the first several items I checked weren’t even priced; the chicken parmigiana, spaghetti meatballs, wheat grass. Gourmet coffee by the cup but no sweetener other than granulated sugar packets and powdered creamer (!?). The pizza is a good idea at $ 1.99/ slice but it’s just triangles of flat bread with your selection of ingredients piled on (they missed two ingredients on mine), so a bit of a shot in the foot there. Seating area has a Halloween motif (it’s March). So all that means poorly managed, so I doubt there’s much hope unless they really pull up their socks.

You can find good to great deals throughout the week in the produce and meat sections. However, they mark up the pantry items more than most stores (in my opinion) to compensate for their lack of profit elsewhere. On occasion, they will have good sales on select pantry items though. Bakery items are reasonably priced. The cheesy pan bread is tasty if not a bit greasy. Another strength would be their sales on cosmetics which seem to be frequent. For example, Aubrey shampoo, which retails $ 10-​$ 12, was marked down to $ 7.34.

Before I start my review, I’m going to admit that ALL of it will sound, like, First-​World problems. That being said, I was thrilled that I found a place, so incredibly close to my house, that offered the items I need. I need a lot of produce. Initially, I shopped there often enough that I was recognized. I (we) have a large, house-​rabbit. She eats a tremendous amount of produce weekly. If I was unable to make the time, by better half did our shopping. Between the two of us, we were not going over a week between shopping trips.
I’m not sure what happened, but the quality of the produce, on top of having, on certain days, a massive price increase, majorly went downhill. I mentioned it more than once, and was brushed-​off, and told to come on a different day, right after their shipment. I’m not down with that. I need what I need, when I need it. I shouldn’t have to go to another store to buy produce, directly after leaving FT.
Also, more than one time, after leaving my contact info, trying to special order certain items, I never received a call.
Certain members of the staff are AWESOME, but a few others have been completely dismissive.
In ending this, if the produce isn’t fresh, and if I wouldn’t buy it for my pet, it shouldn’t be on display for purchase. I sincerely want to continue to shop at this location, but find myself leaving and having to go to another store.

I refer to this grocery store as «Five Day old Thyme» versus FRESH Thyme.
I was really excited when they opened. People in Dublin LOVE their Fresh Thyme and I was excited to have a low-​cost alternative to Giant Eagle and Kroger. I’ve given the store 3 solid attempts, and I leave disappointed each time. The produce is always at or near it’s expiration date. The deal busters (i.e. a bag of apples for $ 1.99) are always rotten.
My worst experience was about two months ago. They advertised a great price on shrimp ($ 4.99 pound). I went in and bought 5 pounds and brought them home to prepare. The shrimp smelled rancid and had black spots on them (freezer burn spots). I threw out all of the shrimp and wrote an e-​mail to the Store Manager letting them know that this had happened. This was the first time I had ever written a store manager but I felt strongly that they should know that they were selling bad seafood that could potentially harm another customer.
The manager wrote back and offered a gift card in exchange for my trouble. I went by later in the week to pick it up and I had to awkwardly find a manager to get the gift card. The manager on duty wasn’t aware of my e-​mail so she called another manager… who called another manager. I ended up waiting at least 20 minutes in the store with my toddler for the gift card. Finally– a manager came and presented me with a $ 20 gift card (for less than amount not including tax that I paid for the shrimp). I didn’t complain at that point because I was wrangling a tired toddler– but not only did they sell a bad product, they messed up an opportunity to win back a customer.
I won’t go back.

Great location for convenience! Quick in and out as this small market style store is a refreshing change from the larger super stores that by the time I park, get my cart and navigate through the cheap clothes and patio sets… I am in an out of Fresh Thyme.
The best thing about this concept is it helps our family to eat fresher, healthier foods. The small market size makes it convenient to ‘shop for the meal’ buying only the ingredients that I need for the next day or two.
My favorites are the Meat and Seafood. Before Fresh Thyme, I was grinding my own chicken. now they always have a plethora of ground chicken in the form of sausage.
Their sale prices make buying luxuries like grass fed beef and fresh fish an affordable staple.
Second is the produce. They always have a vibrant display and again great prices. My favorite find is the peeled garlic packages for $ 1.49. The fresh squeezed OJ is a treat, especially when on sale, as is their coffee and deli selection of Boars Head at least $ 1 less per pound than K — –!
Enjoy!

Grocery shopping is one of those things I know I gotta do but if food could just somehow, I don’t know, figure out how to show up in my kitchen, I would do back flips. In fact if the food could just be prepared and ready for consumption the second I walked into the house, I would be forever grateful to the individuals responsible and include them in my Grammy speech.
Yeah… none of that is happening in my life. I blame society on my complete dislike of grocery stores; yet at the same time I have to give those I blame a major shout out for Fresh Thyme who make grocery shopping quick, easy, and extremely affordable.
Has this ever happened to you:
«When does the sale end?! We gotta get to the grocery store before the new ads go into effect!» or the ever popular «Oh, we can’t get that yet. The new ad hasn’t started yet.» This will never happen at Wednesday at Fresh Thyme! Why you ask? Because Wednesday is double ad day so we get to take advantage of two weeks of sales on one day! I think this is a very cool and unique offering that reduces anxiety and stress of making a mad dash to the store for a deal.
There are currently two Fresh Thyme stores in Columbus with a third being built in the Gahanna area that I am ECSTATIC about! The stores are set up similarly and feature several Ohio Proud brands which is fantastic. Columbus based Eban’s has an endcap at the bakery area at the Worthington location. How sweet is that?!! I find that the customer service still has some bumps that need smoothing out. I’ve had a few awkward encounters there; especially with their younger associates having inappropriate conversations while I shop and they stocked.

I stopped by to check out the new store. Nice ambience, lots of ailes with fashionable nowadays items.
I got fresh apples: had some potatoe-​like texture about them. This happens, to my knowledge if they sit around too long.
Chicken bratwursts turned out to be sticky on the outside as such food becomes when it’s past due date. Lots of salt and not too much flavor inside as well.
Wouldn’t go out of the way to shop there, but will stop if it’s on my way should I need bread, milk and such.

I’m already a fan of Fresh Thyme, so I made the 14 minute trip from work to check out this location. I needed some produce anyway. It’s a nice store in a new building. The parking lot is around back. All good. My only worry is the single entrance/​exit. It will be hard to make a left turn out of the lot onto High St during busy traffic times.
Note: I am excited that a third location is currently being built on Polaris and will be only 5 minutes from me.

So far. Great! I missed the grocery give away this morning so I returned for lunch. It was pretty busy and I got a little frustrated with the parking lack thereof. However I was very impressed with my soup! It’s awesome. A wide variety of unique drinks and prices are not heart stopping.
Well now my soup is cooled down. This soup is FANTASTIC!

Wow, was this store crazy this morning. There was a line clear outside because Fresh Thyme just opened their doors today and were giving $ 50 gift cards to the first 250 people in line. Therefore as you can imagine there was no place to park this morning and police had to handle the traffic situation. Everyone started parking across the street at CVS and Dairy Queen to get parking.
Today, I browsed through the market and I couldn’t just come in and leave empty handed. I needed to get something. I went through all the samplings they had kim chi, sushi, coffee, beer, and some other things. Since it was my first time in this market, I liked the quality I was seeing. I don’t know if the prices are good compared to other stores but I would say it’s similar to Whole Foods. Your getting quality food versus price value.
My husband and I got sandwiches here for dinner. I got the red, white and green cheese melt, it was so good! It consisted of three different kinds of cheeses, pesto and a tomato hence the name. My husband ordered the flying pig and it didn’t taste quite as good I heard. He said the pork in that sandwich was just too dry.
I would suggest the store get trash bins because even though you have an indoor and outdoor eating area, you need somewhere to throw that trash away. Maybe they’ll realize it and get it soon, but I can’t blame them as today was crazy for them being the grand opening day. It looked like they sold a lot today.
As for the area, I’m happy they chose it because it is great for the seniors living nearby in the nursing homes. They can just walk up here and get their groceries. For the Worthington community it’s also great because it expanded growth in jobs I saw. The only thing I also suggest is creating more space for parking since you had customers taking up CVS parking because they said they couldn’t find parking at Fresh Thyme.
I’m definitely going to be coming back here often when I need quality meats and produce. As well as something fresh from bakery. They have everything I need all in one place.