Mountain View Market Co-Op

OK. This is a difficult review to write and I am excited to update this to 5 stars in the very near future as I have been a loyal mvm member for 6 years. First off, the kitchen. Joey is a fantastic staff member in the kitchen. It’s to the point now that if he is not there I don’t bother. My sandwiches come out to about 8 – 10 dollars each. So, if I get a sandwich for myself and my boss I will usually pay about 20 dollars. For 20 dollars 2 sandwiches should both be pretty freaking amazing. There should be something in between the slices of bread. And when you are greeted at the counter the staff should be pleasant. No one needs to celebrate and cartwheel when I walk up but I do not want to be made to feel as if I am a huge inconvenience. If you’re open til 6 then take care of customers until 6. Not 5:50 and then slap the order ticket at them and slam the closed sign on the counter. Close at 5:50 if you can’t be courteous or at least fake it long enough to make an 8 dollar sandwich. Salad bar and hot bar open til 6? Can there still be food out please? Or change the hours to when it’s manageable. Vegan means no meat, no butter, no cross-​contamination. I didn’t request «vegan» of a traditional restaurant that they don’t understand, I got it off the hot bar under the label «vegan». It should be vegan. The orders are constantly messed up and salad bar is a total disaster with wilted lettuce and depleted items, yet it’s still over 7 dollars per lb. It should cost less or be worth more. With several wonderful exceptions the staff is frequently indifferent and uncaring, especially in the prepared food area. 2^nd, store items are outrageously over priced on a frequent basis. Most people know this but make the allowance due to the culture and to shop local. As someone who shops it in this store 2 – 5 times per week, every week, and spends a substantial amount of money per visit, I would like to feel a bit of appreciation and welcoming. Again. No need to cartwheel but let’s be courteous, even if you’re ten minutes away from no longer taking orders. I would appreciate the staff putting themselves in the customer’s shoes. You go to a local store FOR A REASON. Couldn’t I just as easily spend my money at a different store? If I had to guess, the staff should be paid more and get some kind of perks so that they don’t need to appear depressed and disgusted while at work.
I’d appreciate a friendly «co-​op» feeling in this store and not like I walked in on the snotty girl clique in high school. You’re too high priced to not be nice to people.
Please take a cue from Sierra, Chandra, Riley, and Joey and NOT be victimized by the people that you pretend to care about. If you’ve ever slammed a closed sign down in front a customer, this might be for you.
Clean up your food area and have fresh lettuce and don’t cook vegan sausage with meat sausage. And be nice.

It’s an Mega hippy grocery store. I mean that in a good way. I have no idea what the co-​op member thing they have going but I will say the restaurant has some tasty food and juice. The have everything you need in the grocery store too. I had a pesto panini and a green juice. The sandwich was AMAZING and the juice was really good. it’s interesting to see how different cities and states do healthy juices differently. In CA they will put Kale in everything, at this place they don’t use Kale in the juice, just interesting to see the differences.
The grocery store has a community room, sage, incense, a section for honey, a section for herbs, tons of Ginger Beer (yay) vegetables, fruits, books, candy and its a geared toward healthy living. Good for them… rock on.

This place is awesome. They have a lot of fresh & hard to find items, plus a small restaurant serving delicious & mostly healthy food.
I had the Eggplant and mushroom sandwich… served hot with cheese on the most delicious bread, along with pepper chips. YUMMY.
I also tried their crust-​less veggie potpie from their grab & go deli section that was also very delicious.
If I lived here, I would definitely be a devoted patron here!

At the co-​op I can always find what I need for a quick fix of healthy rich food. Tonight we walked in less than ten minutes before they closed and were able to find everything in our short list. The store is excellently organized. The layout is open and doesn’t feel crowded. They had plenty of local produce and it all looked fresh. Not a huge selection but definitely all the staples.
The workers were super kind and forgiving as we obviously kept them a few extra minutes after closing. Thank goodness our exhales were friendly and even humorous. Since it was a spontaneous shop by we didn’t have our usual reusable grocery bags so we used one of their free boxes which looked nice and new.

Having just started a zero waste lifestyle, this store is a godsend. They have so many bulk options like local honey and coffee as well as nut butters, grains, and many other organic options. Their bulk herbs and spices section is also extensive. I enjoy the bulk loose leaf teas which are quite yummy! They also carry bulk shampoos and soaps! Hooray! This place is a zero waste heaven in a town with not many options.

Comparing this place to Whole Foods (which is a favorite of mine) I was VERY impressed! There is a great amount of healthy food options here; produce, milke, coffee, sweets. They have essential oils, natural beauty and body products– whatever you may need! The prices are really affordable from what I saw!
I really like the spacing of the aisles and the layout of the store. The staff was so helpful as well! When I had a question about local restaurants, they were very willing to help out. If I lived in Cruces, this would be my store!

This market is a savior in a town full of crappy food. Good smoothies, conscious options, and friendly employees.

Prices seem to have inflated & gave up the box delivery for local produce with Skarsgard farms… boo! Have not renewed my membership… so sad because I loved this place & it was my go to.

I wish we had a food co-​op in El Paso, but I don’t mind making the 30ish minute drive to Mountain View Market. I’m not aware of any other food co-​ops in the area so if you’re looking for organic or locally sourced food, this is the best option.
MVM is decent sized, definitely big enough to be your one stop shop. I actually went for the kitchen/​café, but I did a quick once around and I like what I saw. They do have a mix of local, organic, and a few regular-​Joe items like Vitamin Water. I’ll definitely be back for the shopping.
The café is great! I ordered a Beeta Carroteen and the Indonesian Sandwich on recommendation from a regular. The Beeta is a delicious deep red concoction of carrots, beets, apples, and lemons. The beets were mellowed by the apple juice, but it was still the most prominent flavor. I like beets, my cell mate (apparently) does not so I really liked this drink and it gave me the little pick-​me up I needed after a CrossFit class. The Indonesian was pretty dang good too. It had a heaping amount of shredded chicken and carrots, cucumbers, sprouts, tomatoes, and a thin peanut sauce. The bread was locally made as well. I’m a slow eater so this eventually became a little hard to handle, but with a fork I finished it off like an open faced sandwich.
I always find the most interesting of people in Las Cruces and MVM was no exception. It’s charming and kind of refreshing to see the group of ladies that are making their weekly trip to MVM to swap gossip and eat a quick meal or the couple with their two small children that look like they just got back from the most exhilarating hike and now need a juice or two. My fiancé described me as a nomad… regardless of what you call me, I found my people, my little sanctuary of a community of people that really care about going local and enjoying all the things their city has to offer.
A big ol’ recommendation for both the market side and the kitchen side. I’ll definitely be trying out their coffees next time. Great stop for shopping or eating, definitely give them a try if you’re looking for something healthy and fresh on the go.

This co-​op is dear to my heart. The only community owned store in all of Las Cruces. Support local, sustainable organic foods. I will always love this place… to another 40 years in the community.

Best place for lunch in town. The café has an excellent vegetarian selection (great not just for vegetarians, but also those trying to keep halal or kosher or just like alternative proteins). Great atmosphere too and very community-​oriented. Only thing weird for me is the pre-​packaged bulk section. Seema counterintuitive

It used to be a cooperative –now it’s just another store. Though I’ve been a long time member, I don’t see much of a benefit in that anymore. The selections have declined while the prices have skyrocketed, making regular trips unafforadable. I rarely see in-​store member discounts anymore, and there is little incentive to use the weekly coupons since they are only $ 1 and require a minimum purchase to be valid. They did not disburse their member rebate this year, supposedly to raise money for renovations that I see little evidence of… rearranging the layout with old shelving doesn’t count. I used to recognize most of the employees, now there are few familiar faces, which says something about management. They seem to have lost a sense of their mission as a co-​op, and thus their core customer.
On a postive note the cashiers are friendly, and they are one of the only places outside the farmers market to find local produce –which is a good thing, otherwise I sadly find little reason to visit anymore.

Very disappointed with the remodeled mvm. The food bar always looks gross and old. They use deep containers so food is rarely fresh and sits around for a long time. I’ve never seen anyone cleaning up the dropped food so it always looks terrible and you worry about wether food handled have touched food spreading bacteria. I like the idea of an organic whole food bar but this just seems unsanitary. It looked do bad the other day that instead u opted for a homemade bran muffin out of grocery store area. I bite into it and it was slimy and smelly with bacteria. I doubt I’ll eat any prepared good there again and will stick to groceries. The available juices also lack in imagination and ingredients. Why no leaf greens in any of them?

Stopped by from Alamogordo and loved the Café menu! Tasty! Nice place! Only bummed there werent a butcher.

We were so excited to visit Mountain View Coop on Christmas Day while on a climbing trip to Hueco Tanks State Park. With practically all other stores closed on Christmas we were looking forward to exploring the little shop. We are vegan and coop lovers and we were so excited to see their claim of being open until 4pm Christmas Day so we decided to drive the 1.5 hours to get there from our campground. To our dismay, when we arrived at 2:15, the doors were shut and the last of the employees were leaving. They told us they were so slow they decided to close early.
Obviosly, we were quite irritated after the long drive just to visit the shop and find it closed. In the news article stated that they would be open on Christmas Day; they acknowledged that they are usually slow on Christmas, but they wanted to keep with the tradition of being open on the 25^th and be there for those last minute customer needs.
We just felt that it was very unprofessional to close early. If you are gonna be open on Christmas and acknowledge you may be slow, that is the risk you take. We felt deceived and cheated because we spent the time and gas to go and visit the coop. So it only received one star from us. Although the shop looked nice through the window, we were left with a sour taste in our mouth with our experience.

This place has a long way to go until it gets some kinda vibe going on. I see a lot of people walking into the office or back yet the rearranging or remodeling is been going on forever … Also even tho they have some kinda kitchen … The soup of the day its always the same … The guy looks almost bothered when asked for one … Put it in a bucket and let people selfserve … Create some kinda food bar … Let people make their own salads … Anyways
I’m only disappointed on the place based on the amount of people walking back and forth yet nobody actually does any real work
Food is limited and the same, the bulk area needs some love …
I love Coop’s BTW and what they stand for…
The cashiers are very pleasant and the membership is $ 20 a year …
Bring this place to life and people will come… its sad when Natural Grocers looks better …

Hands down the best grocery store in Las Cruces. It saved us when we were there visiting for a week long medical treatment. They have good organics, supplements and a good selection of packaged goods. We didn’t try the juice bar, but hope to return again when we are back in town.

This place has a friendly, laid-​back vibe. I got a Caesar wrap with tempeh as recommended by one of the other reviewers and it was great, with a delicious garlicky sauce. They threw some free tortilla chips in with my order which I thought was a nice touch.

This is the only member owned cooperative grocery store in Las Cruces. Their website is awesome — 90% of local Las Cruces businesses don’t seem to have a website — theirs is cool. Their principles are as follows:
1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4 Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Information and Training
6. Cooperation among Cooperatives
7. Concern for Community
Anyways, for such a small space they have amazing selection. The produce section is small but I can always find something delicious and organic. The thing I’m most impressed with is the attempt to locally source many items. Honey, eggs, some produce, dairy products, etc. Great spot, the employees are friendly and prices are good.

This is the other place in town where I do my «specialty» grocery shopping. I’m going to keep this review short because I really only come here for two things, but for those two things, they are the best «game» in town.
The first is their bulk spices. They have an amazing selection of fresh spices, herbs, and teas. When I need something special for my spice rack, this is the place I go, and I’m rarely disappointed. The other thing I come here for is local, homegrown eggs. I got spoiled in Sierra Vista with the farmer’s market and their fresh eggs. Well these guys stock eggs from local farmers, so this is where I go to get them.
So for those two things, this is an awesome place. I probably wouldn’t SHOP here unless I were independently wealthy, but they fit the bill for the little things that I need.