Lois’ Natural Marketplace

I’ve heard mixed reviews of Lois’s and after visiting many times, can understand the gripes people have. The store in Scarborough is a bit bigger and also has a seating area for dining in. Overall the food selection is good but feel the prices are jacked up a bit too high for some of the local farm produce.
I get the fact that the best food should cost more then the average but I’d rather give it straight to the farm rather then paying more because a store needs to pay the rent. I’ve always received good customer service from employees in both locations and continue to come back for odds and ends.

great place to stop for lunch. Lois carries some great brands you cant find anywhere else.

I was abundantly impressed with the selection at Lois’:
+ I consider myself well-​versed in organic, natural, and vegan food products, but there were options here I had never even heard of which was so fun and refreshing to see (like a new brand of vegan jerky and some himalayan pink salt popcorn)!
+ A couple items I LOVE and can’t seem to find anywhere… I found here (I’m looking at you, Oskri bars). Also — items that are perpetually out of stock at other grocers (PG Tips, don’t you even try and pretend you’re ever available elsewhere) seemed to be here with no problem. I can see myself coming to Lois’ when I need specific items or a guarantee that I want I need is actually in stock.
+ The amazing variety of local companies they seem to be promoting/​partnering with. I’m addicted to Kids Gone Raw’s Coconut Curry Kale Chips. They actually carry them here! Hip hip hooray!
+ All the fresh produce!
+ You can order lunch at 10am (convenient for those of us who have no concept of time)!
+/​-​The prices on some items were delightfully low to similar larger chain grocers (a brand of chips I like was about $ 1.00 cheaper here); on the other hand, other prices seemed exorbitant compared to those same similar larger chain grocers (vegan fish was over $ 2.00 more here).
The store was clean, well lit, well organized, inviting, and comfortable to navigate.
The only reason why I can’t give this location full marks is because of the customer service at the sandwich/​deli area which was appallingly rude. I went up to order a sandwich and an older woman barked at me: «What do you want?» So I tell her. «What bread?» She barks again. At this point a loud beeping from one of the ovens starts going off. The woman frantically looks back and forth between me and the source of the noise. So I smile and say, «Hey, if you need to check on that, I can wait. It’s no big deal.» She squints at me and — very loudly and very condescendingly — says, «You. NEVER. NEVER touch another chef’s oven. NEVER. They’re doing whatever they’re doing for a reason.» And then she stares at me waiting for me to acknowledge her statement. So I nod and say, «Okay.» She responds with: «OKAY?!» I nod again — feeling like a reprimanded child — and say, «Okay. Can I just get the rosemary bead?» She scribbles the order down then says, «Now, I’m going to make your sandwich from scratch.» (I’m still not sure why she made this statement.) And she storms away.
It’s too bad this is the thing that stands out the most about my first experience here considering the sandwich — a vegetarian reuben — was AMAZING: tempeh bacon, tomatoes, sauerkraut, swiss cheese, tomatoes, and dressing on rosemary bread grilled on a panini press. It was a perfect balance of all the ingredients, the cheese was beautifully melted, and it was extremely filling and satisfying (and one of the better vegetarian reuben’s I’ve ever had) at just a $ 7.99 price tag. I’m really hoping today was just an off day for these folks, because I could easily make this a new lunch haunt.