Mother'S Markets In Orange County, Ca Usa

[jfchandler]

Being somewhat health food minded, I have a six-markets small specialty foods chain in Orange County, California, USA called Mother's Markets that is great for finding all kinds of really good groceries, gourmet and organic items, vitamins and supplements, and all variety of other cooking ingredients, including specialty things like gluten-free and more.

Every time I travel back to So. Cal., I always head over to a branch of Mother's Markets to stock up on a variety of food and nutrition items that are either impossible to find in Thailand and/or excessively expensive here. So along with my clothes and such, I usually end up bringing back a suitcase full of goodies, enough to last me until my next trip back.

But this time, something else caught my eye: I saw an item in a Mother's Markets brochure saying they do "mail and special orders." So I called to inquire and sure enough, they will and do mail out internationally anything in their store inventory (except for perishable items) at regular store prices plus U.S.P.S. postage.

On my recent trip back, I spoke over the telephone at some length with the staff person in their corporate headquarters who handles their mail orders, both domestic in the U.S. (since their stores are only located in one part of Southern California) and internationally. And indeed, their staff person recounted for me that they have regular customers around the world in all different areas who email or call in their orders.

When I asked about the details of ordering and delivery, I was pleased to hear the staff person explain that they typically mail out their international orders via U.S.P.S. Priority Mail, since using the alternatives such as FedEx, UPS and DHL would almost certainly incur such enormous duties and customs fees in Thailand as to make ordering prohibitively expensive.

As their staff person explained the process, an international customer can either look at their web site for the kinds of things they carry, and or call-email simply saying you want such and such things and how many. Then they will call or email you back with the price of the items and the weight and postage calculation. At that point, the customer can accept or change the order, and then have it billed to their credit card.

The variety of things on offer in their stores is quite amazing. For example, they don't just have wheat flours or bread flours for baking. But they have wheat flour, oat flour, potato flour, spelt flour, white rice flour, brown rice flour, amaranth flour, buckwheat flour, almond flour, garbanzo flour, millet flour, soy flour and more... That kind of variety and selection gives an indication of the range of products they stock.

For anyone who is familiar with them, I'd say they're very similar to the Whole Foods Markets chain, albeit on a much smaller six-store-chain size.

Their contact person for international ordering is Sharon, who can be reached by email to SharonR at mothersmarket.com. Or by asking for extension #5 after calling the company's 1-800 telephone number.

Attached is a photo scan of one of their recent advertisements with additional info on the chain.

[ricklev]

Thanks for the info!

[maxjay]

Thanks for the detailed report. A refreshing change from some of the vague posts posted by other members on other threads & forums.

Edited June 26, 2010 by maxjay

[jfchandler]

Glad you guys found the info of interest...

It's easy for me, since I tend to travel back to L.A. every six months or so, and use those trips to stock up on things I can't get/have a hard time finding/won't pay ridiculous prices for here.

But of course, not everyone travels so often or back to Orange County. But I think a lot of folks here would like to get various kinds of specialty food and nutrition/vitamin things as suits their tastes.

Shipping costs (from USA to Thailand) are still a bit expensive, especially if it's heavier items, since the U.S.P.S. calculates their rates based on weight. But some things are worth it, if you really want them. And others may be small and light, making them relatively easy to send.

If anyone else uses any other similar resources for specialty foods and such, I think folks here would like to hear about those as well.

My recent shopping list/bag to bring back here for home use included (from a variety of U.S. sources):

I'll mark the items below as either, AFAIK, not avail (NA) here or ($$$) significantly overpriced.

--Japanese Matcha Green Tea ($$$)

--Decaf coffee (for iced coffee at home) ($$$)/(NA)

--Brown Rice flour for baking (NA)

--Good Earth Herbal Tea (NA)

--Ziploc freezer bags (NA)

--Pure Eucalyptus Oil ($$$)/(NA)

--Bottles of Vitamin C and E ($$$)

--Various beauty items for the wife

--DayQuil and Nyquil cold medicines (NA)

and a variety of other things...

The flour, eucalyptus oil and vitamins came from Mother's Market. The coffee and teas from Amazon and Trader Joes.

[nakachalet]

Glad you guys found the info of interest...

It's easy for me, since I tend to travel back to L.A. every six months or so, and use those trips to stock up on things I can't get/have a hard time finding/won't pay ridiculous prices for here.

But of course, not everyone travels so often or back to Orange County. But I think a lot of folks here would like to get various kinds of specialty food and nutrition/vitamin things as suits their tastes.

Shipping costs (from USA to Thailand) are still a bit expensive, especially if it's heavier items, since the U.S.P.S. calculates their rates based on weight. But some things are worth it, if you really want them. And others may be small and light, making them relatively easy to send.

If anyone else uses any other similar resources for specialty foods and such, I think folks here would like to hear about those as well.

My recent shopping list/bag to bring back here for home use included (from a variety of U.S. sources):

I'll mark the items below as either, AFAIK, not avail (NA) here or ($$) significantly overpriced.

--Japanese Matcha Green Tea ($$)

--Decaf coffee (for iced coffee at home) ($$)/(NA)

--Brown Rice flour for baking (NA)

--Good Earth Herbal Tea (NA)

--Ziploc freezer bags (NA)

--Pure Eucalyptus Oil ($$)/(NA)

--Bottles of Vitamin C and E ($$)

--Various beauty items for the wife

--DayQuil and Nyquil cold medicines (NA)

and a variety of other things...

The flour, eucalyptus oil and vitamins came from Mother's Market. The coffee and teas from Amazon and Trader Joes.

DO YOU cook for yourself? or do you cook for your family? or do you cook for people as a profession....?

i prepare lots of food and there are numerous good quality substitutions in place of items such as, ziploc, vit c, nyquil.... etc....

are items offered at paragon and surrounding areas inadequate for your liking....?

or it is just your personal preference thing....?

just curious, alright? not meant to criticize or anything like that, but on the contrary.... kind of like your taste as well.... :jap:

[jfchandler]

No problem, Naka... I'm glad to have the discussion, and hoped this thread would spur that....

Nothing professional for me, I just like cooking and do so at home... But obviously, Nyquil isn't about cooking:)

I'd be interested to hear your suggestions as to specific things.... I'd really like to find local options for these kinds of product....that are competitive both in terms of quality and price. That way I'm not depending on periodic shopping trips back home.

So let's talk specifics. If you have suitable alternatives, I'd love to hear them.

Ziploc freezer bags... I've scoured the major grocery stores around Sukhumvit and environs, and never found freezer bags.. Zip bags yes... but not yet seen the freezer variety.

Nyquil - Never seen it in any store in Thailand, and seen other posters here on TV bemoan the fact that it's not available for purchase in Thailand.

Brown rice flour (which has the advantage of being gluten free for baking - Same having scoured the stores, even the baking and bakery supply places, and even went as far as calling the rice mills around BKK, who replied they don't stock it.

Pure Eucalyptus oil (for steaming): I've seen on sale at Paragon food hall, but it's much cheaper and I can buy in larger 4 oz bottles back in the USA.

Vitamins are certainly widely available here, but for example, things offered by GNC are usually several times the price per bottle for what I can pay in the U.S. I've seen it commented here on TV by various posters that Thailand is very bad in terms of the market pricing for vitamins and supplements.

Re Decaf instant coffee, I don't think I looked in Paragon, but I did look in Tesco and Big C and Carrefour, and as best as I recall, only saw one brand stocked which was Moccona for about $15 per jar. I paid about $8 per jar in the U.S.

Japanese matcha green tea certainly is available here, including at the Japanese markets like Fuji. But it's imported and thus pretty pricey, The variety I bought in the U.S., produced in Japan but distributed thru Costco, worked out to about 10 cents per teabag....

Good Earth Herbal Tea - Never seen it offered for sale here....

DO YOU cook for yourself? or do you cook for your family? or do you cook for people as a profession....?

i prepare lots of food and there are numerous good quality substitutions in place of items such as, ziploc, vit c, nyquil.... etc....

are items offered at paragon and surrounding areas inadequate for your liking....? or it is just your personal preference thing....?

just curious, alright? not meant to criticize or anything like that, but on the contrary.... kind of like your taste as well.... :jap:

[MisterMan]

This is great news as you said many health food stores want to ship Fedex or UPS.. Will they keep the receipt invoice out of the package too?

I had a dehydrator sent here and managed to only pay 800 baht customs.. The shipping was $100

I had to have a family memeber send it and I made my own shipping lablel online at the USPS.com..and put it in a Thai name.. Also the dehydrator cost like $200 but there is not much to it so easily passed for $20.

Oh I miss miss Trader Joes an also stock up there when I am in the LA.

There is a new online health food store in Thailand now that just launched. I have not ordered but will soon as I found some harder to find items.. Himalyan salt, petro free shower gel.. and some other stuff. As I live in Phuket I do not have the same options as living in Bangkok or making a trip to LF.

www.healthfoodthailand.com

[bonobo]

Please let us know if there are any entry problems with packages sent here.  I go to Trader Joes and the military commissary  to stock up on things, but I would love a good mail order option.

[jfchandler]

Just to update on this a bit.... I just came back from a Thanksgiving trip to L.A. and restocked the pantry at home here... with food and drink goodies from TJs, Mother's Market and a variety of generic drug store stuff from Target.

Maxed out the luggage allotment, squeezing out every available KG right up to and bit over my limits....

In the months before, when I thought I might not be making a holiday trip because of high airfares, I did order several different kinds of boxed teas (Good Earth) and some other foodstuffs via Amazon. Shipped to my mail house in the USA, and repacked there and shipped onward to me here via USPS Global Priority....

All the packages arrived intact, pretty much within the scheduled times, and each time I got a little paper slip from the Thai Post man telling me which regional PO to go to pick them up, which happened to be the Phra Kanong P.O. that fortunately is a block's walk up from the Phra Kanong BTS station.

The duty amounts varied, sometimes none and other times up to 25% of the actual (real) declared prices.... When adding in the shipping costs, the end result generally often was about doubling the total original purchase price of the shipped items. But I bought in bulk and items on special discounted sale price, so the end result wasn't too bad cost wise.

Edited December 10, 2010 by jfchandler

[jaideeguy]

Mother's looks like a great source, but I was unable to find a product list on their site. Looking for masa flour......

[jfchandler]

Jaidee, they're not principally a mail order operation, it's just a small part of their main retail markets operation, so I don't think their web site has a complete list, or even close to it, of all the things available for order thru them -- which is basically anything they stock in their stores except perishable items, which can't be shipped in a regular box.

Call or email the contact person there. I know from knowing the markets, they'll certainly have masa...probably multiple varieties. They'll be able to tell you the choices, sizes, prices, and then you can decide what if anything you want to order.

Please do report back, and let folks here know how it goes.... I'd be curious to know myself.

Mother's looks like a great source, but I was unable to find a product list on their site. Looking for masa flour......