At 211 W. Rand Road, people now play pickleball in what used to be the grocery aisles. Nearby, at 201 W. Rand Road, the old Northern Tool storefront has shelves of Amy's soups, a frozen aisle stocked with Ezekiel 4:9 bread and Saffron Road meals, and a recycling center that takes cell phones and wine corks.
MOM's Organic Market opened there on October 16. It is the chain's first store in Illinois. The fact that matters for anyone who lives nearby is where it opened. Randhurst Commons spent three years without a grocery store after Fresh Thyme closed. Its anchor space went to sports, and groceries came back in a different storefront. The new store also adds a weekly errand stop just as one of the Village's own drop-off programs has wrapped up for the year.
Two storefronts, four tenants, three years
The shopping center's last few years are easier to follow laid out by address.
| Address | Tenant | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Randhurst Commons, former Fresh Thyme space | Fresh Thyme Farmers Market | Closed in 2023 |
| 211 W. Rand Road | The Picklr Mount Prospect | Grand opening Sept. 28, 2024, in the former Fresh Thyme space |
| 201 W. Rand Road | Northern Tool | Space had been empty for about a year by March 2026 |
| 201 W. Rand Road | MOM's Organic Market | Opened Oct. 16, 2026 |
The Journal & Topics reported in March that MOM's would fill the gap Fresh Thyme left "in the same shopping center." Fresh Thyme's space went to The Picklr, which the Daily Herald reported drew players and spectators on its opening weekend in 2024. So the grocery stop didn't come back to its old spot. It came back to a vacant storefront near The Picklr, and The Picklr stayed put.
The store also opened later than first announced. In February, the Daily Herald put the opening in late summer. In March, Mount Prospect community development director Jason Shallcross told the Journal & Topics that permits were approved and work was underway, with the hope of opening "later this summer." The ribbon cutting happened in mid-October instead, according to the Village's ribbon-cutting list.
A grocery store sized between two familiar names
Reports on the store's size changed over the year. The Daily Herald said 15,000 square feet in February, and the Journal & Topics said roughly 25,000 in March. The Daily Herald's October opening story settled on 19,000, the most recent figure.
That size puts it in the middle of the market. Founder Scott Nash told the Daily Herald in February that a Whole Foods often runs 50,000 or 60,000 square feet and a Trader Joe's typically about 10,000. He called MOM's "sort of a cross between Trader Joe's and Whole Foods." General manager Jennifer Kulb gave the Daily Herald's October story its headline when she said, "We're not a boutique store."
Here's what that means once you're in the store, based on the Daily Herald's walkthrough and the store's own page:
- Produce: all certified organic, with deliveries every day.
- Meat and seafood: the meat is pasture-raised, and the company says it is the only U.S. grocery chain whose seafood is 100% sustainable, down to the canned tuna.
- Bulk and wellness: a bulk grocery section, plus gluten-free and vegan options, vitamins, and clean beauty products.
- Checkout: no plastic bags. MOM's stopped offering them in 2005.
- The aisles themselves: extra-wide, with quiet music playing. "Nobody bumps into each other," Kulb told the Daily Herald.
For timing a weekend trip, the store page lists hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. The Daily Herald's preview gave 9 to 9 every day, so go by the store page on Sundays. The phone number is (847) 655-4368.
The store doesn't replace anything else on Mount Prospect's grocery map. The Journal & Topics listed Angelo Caputo's Fresh Market downtown and several national chains as the other grocery options in town. MOM's mostly brings a full grocery trip back to the Rand Road corner, the stretch that has had pickleball but no groceries since 2023.
The recycling center shows up as the Village's season ends
The Daily Herald's opening coverage spent a lot of space on something besides food. The store's recycling center accepts more than bottles and cans, and the store page lists drop-off for cell phones, tablets, eyeglasses, corks, and compost.
The timing matters. Mount Prospect Public Works ran its weekly electronics drop-off on Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to noon, starting April 8. The last date on the 2026 schedule was Wednesday, October 28. For the rest of the year, small electronics need a different destination, and for phones and tablets, the new store at 201 W. Rand Road is one of them.
Here's where common items can go this November and December, based on the Village's recycling programs page, its September 2026 recycling newsletter, and SWANCC's electronics page:
| Item | Where it can go now | When |
|---|---|---|
| Cell phones, tablets | MOM's Organic Market, 201 W. Rand Road | Store hours |
| Eyeglasses, corks, compost | MOM's Organic Market, 201 W. Rand Road | Store hours |
| Holiday string lights, extension cords | Mount Prospect Public Works, 1700 W. Central Road, west end of the parking lot | 24/7, year-round, free |
| TVs, computers, printers, game consoles | SWANCC weekly drop-off at the Glenview Transfer Station | Saturdays, 9 to 11:30 a.m., year-round |
Check the address before you load the car for the Glenview Transfer Station. SWANCC's page gives 3 Providence Way, Des Plaines, and the Village's recycling page gives 1151 N. River Road. SWANCC's one-day collection events run April through October, so the Saturday site is the regular option until spring.
Holiday lights can go to two places. MOM's lists holiday lights as one of its annual recycling drives, but it hasn't posted dates for this season, and the store page doesn't say whether the drive takes extension cords. The Village's bin at Public Works takes both string lights and extension cords, working or not, every day of the year. The newsletter says the materials are reclaimed and made into new products rather than sent to a landfill.
When the lights go up downtown
Holiday-light season gets an official date in Mount Prospect on Wednesday, November 25, the night before Thanksgiving. The Village's tree lighting starts at 5 p.m. in Busse Pocket Park, at Emerson Street and Busse Avenue. The Christkindlmarket runs from 4 to 7 p.m. the same evening in the Farley Community Room at Village Hall, 50 S. Emerson St. Both are listed on the Village's winter events page.
If replacing the strands on the house is on your list before then, the old ones can go in the bin at 1700 W. Central Road any time. If you're shopping on Rand Road that week, MOM's posted hours put closing at 9 p.m. on Wednesday. MOM's has said its Naperville store comes next, in the spring, which leaves 201 W. Rand Road as the chain's only Illinois location through the holidays.
Changes in what fills a shopping center's anchor spaces, like Randhurst Commons going from groceries to pickleball and then adding groceries back nearby, are part of how a nearby street is described when a home goes on the market. If you live close to Rand Road and want to see how that fits into pricing your home, Jake Kubota can go through the comps with you. Schedule a Consultation.
