Plant Organics Retail Store Opens in Sonoma

Diana MacCarthy is the store manager of the new Planet Organics Retail Store on Riverside Drive in Sonoma.


Planet Organics Opens First Retail Store
Mon, March 2, 7:08 PM
Source

Longtime Sonoma residents, Larry Bearg and Lorene Reed, have just opened their first retail grocery store in Sonoma at 19449 Riverside Dr. at Petaluma Ave. in the old Nicholas Turkey Building, just across the Ig Vella Bridge. 


Bearg and Reed have been delivering local organic groceries to families throughout the Bay Area for more than 13 years. In the process, they built their Planet Organics Home Delivery service into the largest organic grocery home delivery service in the Bay Area, serving over 2,500 customers each week. Now they are applying their experience and the many relationships they have with local area farmers and food producers to open their first retail store. The store focuses on local organic farmers and food producers and offers everything from locally raised grass-fed beef and lamb to pastured eggs, handcrafted jams and marmalades to fresh-baked local organic breads and sushi lunch boxes and fresh made sandwiches. According to Reed, the store features Sonoma’s only “just-organic” produce section, featuring a hundred or more organic fruits and vegetables weekly, many of them local and most grown right here in California.

Bearg stated that all the organic produce is offered at discount prices “because we buy in such large volumes for the delivery service, we can pass those savings along to our retail customers.” In keeping with their “buy local” philosophy, the store also offers fresh-made sushi from nearby Shiso Restaurant as well as sandwiches and salads made by the catering wing of girl and the fig restaurants. The only area in which the store departs from the strictly local angle is in its wine selection. “There are just so many great wines at great prices from all over the world, “says Bearg, “that I just couldn’t limit myself to California.” Bearg describes the wine selection as “The best wines you’ve never heard of, at prices you won’t believe.” To gather his wines he partnered with his favorite wine store, Vintage Berkeley, which provided a selection of “very obscure interesting wines, mostly priced at $10.00 to $25.00 a bottle.” “For Sonoma wine lovers, we should provide a unique selection not to be found elsewhere in town,” says Bearg.

Planet Organics’ community spirit also includes local area schools. During the past 10 years, they have donated over $250,000 to Bay Area schools through the E-scrip school fundraising program. If you have an e-scrip registered credit card, Planet Organics will donate 1-3% of your purchase to the school of your choice.

Planet Organics is open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Phone 933-3740. The website is www.planetorganics.com.