 by Anne Dailey Issue 44 (December 08-February 09) [Copyright © 2008, The Valley Table] Walk into a health food store today and chances are you'll find few, if any, remnants of the good old days--the wooden shelves, narrow aisles, dim lighting, that persistent (not unpleasant but distinct) odor, the bulk section, tofu and soymilk, nuts and dried fruit bagged at the store, handwritten labels and twisty ties. The commercial products--Nature's Gate shampoo and conditioner, Tom's of Maine toothpaste, Mother's Cereal, Doctor Bronner's soaps and Lundberg Rice--had a certain folksiness that said "niche product," and there was a focus on "whole," unprocessed foods, and almost nothing contained added sugar. The stores appealed to older customers looking for vitamins and alternative medicines and to concerned parents looking for healthcare products that didn't contain chemicals. Much has changed in the 30-odd years since the health food heydays of the late 1970s and early 1980s spawned stores like Mother Earth's Storehouse (first in Kingston, now in four locations), Nature's Pantry (in Fishkill and Newburgh) and Sunflower Natural Foods (in Woodstock). Many of the old, iconic products have been swept up into the mass market--bought out, repackaged and watered down. Health food stores have taken on entirely new functions and meaning, and they now cater to a much wider audience with far different needs. The earliest shifts, in the 1980s, can be traced to the products. In 1978, when both Sunflower Natural Foods and Mother Earth's Storehouse opened their doors, there were a few recognizable "health food" brands--a tiny fraction of what appears on shelves today. "Health food initially was about brown rice and steamed vegetables and tamari," says Sunflower founder Bob Whitcomb. "There were a few products that were on all the health food store shelves. We were small because there just wasn't that much to offer." Once health food stores began to reach more mainstream customers in the 1980s, their offerings began to increase. Chris and Kevin Schneider, brothers and partners in Mother Earth Natural Foods, recall the health alerts of the '80s as driving people to their doors. A 1985 report from the federal Food and Drug Administration, for example, stated that oat bran could lower cholesterol. It created a health food frenzy. "It was the first time that [the government] acknowledged that you could actually improve your health with food," remembers Chris Schneider. "A lot of people who would never go into a health food store were coming to us--where else could you buy oat bran? We couldn't keep it in stock." With the increasing number of new customers shopping in health food stores, demand for a wider range of products began to grow. "People's needs and wants were changing," Whitcomb says, responding to concerns about pesticides and an increased public interest in organic. Companies rolled out new products at an astonishing pace. By 1990, Whitcomb had expanded his store to offer 40 percent more products. "Our sales went up 40 percent, too," he says. "Everything we could get in, people wanted." Richard Masterson, who worked for Shop Rite for 19 years before buying Nature's Pantry in 1989, remembers that the first distributor's catalogs were thin little booklets, about the size of the section of his August catalog devoted just to new products. "Fifteen to twenty years ago," he says, "the vast majority of companies we carried had been started by a family and became very successful as the industry grew. But the generation that started those companies--mostly baby boomers in their 60s and 70s--are allowing themselves to be bought out now." The Schneider brothers agree, noting that many of the products exclusive to the natural foods industry were sold to companies like Kraft and General Mills and are now in the supermarkets. "We try to support the new, smaller companies providing products like we used to get," Chris Schneider says. "We're really selective about what we're offering here." His brother agrees. "We have always been about the alternative, cleaner, better product; we don't want to be the health food aisle in the supermarket." At Nature's Pantry, Masterson also focuses on the smaller, emerging companies. "We go to the trade shows to find the small, competent companies who put out a good product and aren't the size of Nabisco or Kraft," he notes. "They're dealing with a niche market like we are, which is how a lot of the original natural foods companies started. Now you find it in those smaller niche segments of the industry--with gluten-free foods, for example." Indeed, dietary trends or needs and awareness of a product's ingredients have always influenced what health food stores put on their shelves. But, by their nature, needs and trends continually shift. "There isn't as much concern about sugar as there was 30 years ago," Whitcomb observes. "It used to be a big factor in what was health food and what wasn't, but that has changed." When information began to emerge about rBGH (the growth hormone given to many conventional dairy cows during the 1990s), demand for organic milk and hormone-free meat products began to grow. The introduction of fresh organic milk, when it finally happened, was a huge step for health food stores that had long carried nothing but dairy alternatives. "We wondered if we would even sell a case of it," says Kevin Schneider. "I was nervous that we were going to be pouring it out (and I think we did pour a lot out in the beginning), but we stuck with it." Now, milk options are staggering: There's ultra-pasteurized, pasteurized but unhomogenized, grass-fed, pastured and grain supplemented, or organic; you can pour your milk from plastic containers, paper containers or glass bottles. Kitty Sherpa, who worked for years in small health food stores in New York City before she and her husband opened Beacon Natural Market, has noticed a shift away from the "health food" store concept to more of a "full-service" store. "Early on, even if there were cookies on the shelf, they were all sweetened with fruit juice or molasses or honey," Sherpa says. "You'd never see cane sugar--now they all have it." In the changing natural foods industry, there always will be new niches and new trends, Masterson reiterates. "We don't lead the customer like Proctor and Gamble, which might create a market for a product. It's really just that we respond." The owners of Sunflower, Mother Earth, Nature's Pantry, and Beacon Natural were drawn to open a health food store for the same reasons that early customers chose to shop in them--environmental awareness, the desire to serve, concern for health. Masterson was fed up with the conventional grocery model and, as a committed runner, was increasingly aware of the connection between diet and health. Ditto for the Schneiders, who were struggling to find the kinds of food they wanted to eat and products they could feel good about. Bob Whitcomb saw a huge need in Woodstock (and in his own life) for healthier, more traditional foods and a store with progressive principles. Kitty Sherpa had worked for Greenpeace and had an herbal medicine hobby, and the health food store industry melded her passions. Her husband, LT, wanted to give more to a customer, and to feel a connection. Their founding principles are what set them apart 30 years ago, and continue to differentiate them from the mainstream supermarkets today, keeping them unique and edgy in an increasingly changing marketplace. "I think what you're seeing is a nostalgia for the way things used to be," notes Whitcomb. "But there's also progressive thinking for the way things could be. People are trying to go back to the way it was, and yet move forward. Today's health food stores, natural food markets or whatever you want to call them, are, perhaps, the perfect model for how to live--balancing the old with the new, changing with the times while staying true to your core, and being there, through it all, for the people who depend on you." When the Sherpas opened their store they commissioned a huge "farm-to-table" mural on the wall above the dairy and produce sections, reflecting the increasing level of consciousness of both the consumer and storeowner. "Customers have really evolved along with the workers and the owners--from wanting whole food to wanting everything organic to wanting local things," Sherpa says. The health food stores of the late 1970s and '80s were essentially in denial over meat or dairy--30 years ago, there simply was no organic meat or dairy available for the stores to carry. Now, of course, there are dozens of clean options. "We used to sell Land-o-Lakes, just so people could buy butter from us," Whitcomb recalls. "Companies were not able to meet organic standards for animals--it was really the last thing to come along." "[Our customers] would've killed us if we had meat in the beginning," laughs Kevin Schneider. "Now, no one bats an eye." It's the same across the river in Beacon. "We're finding a whole evolution of people who were vegan or vegetarian that have decided to come back to eating some meat," Sherpa says. "There is a strong concern among those people about the kind of meat they are getting. Again, this is where we can respond and be ahead of the curve. Maybe it's not just 'organic'--it's 'grass-fed' or 'pastured' beef, pork and dairy. It's important to us to get clean animal proteins for people--meat that is clean, ethically raised and definitely meets organic standards." Consumers, in fact, have influenced the shift and evolution in natural foods stores as much as any other factor. "The core health food store shopper is eco-conscious, cares about animal rights (even if they are not vegetarian) and made the connection between diet and health long ago," Sherpa says. "But they want more out of their health food stores and they are much more engaged. In the '80s, you might have had a really strict, diehard vegan shopping at a health food store, but maybe they didn't really know where stuff came from. There was ethics, but not the connection to the grower, to dirt, to local ecosystems--that seems to be entering the equation now; it's another way the industry is evolving." Kevin Schneider agrees. "Our customers have always been either for the environment, for animal rights, or for their own health issues," he says, "but it used to be that those three groups were very distinct--if somebody was for the environment, that was their thing and they didn't care about the other issues as much. The same with vegetarians and health advocates. Now, everyone is more tolerant of everyone else." There also is a whole gaggle of customers who are new to shopping in a natural foods store. Many will venture in for one product and discover other items that can affect their lifestyles in a big way. The standing joke that a health food store's customer base consists of "seniors and sandals" no longer applies. "In the past, we would never see early-20-somethings with their kids unless they were hippies," says Chris Schneider. "Now, young parents are in here all the time--they have kids and think more about what they should be feeding them. And we have lots of guys in their 40s and 50s who are starting to have health issues--now they're walking around in here with a basket, asking questions. We are seeing people we never would have seen in the store when we opened." Sherpa noted a similar change in clientele. "There are all these people who are more mainstream--who would have thought of [us] as 'crunchy granola people' in the past," she smiles. "but they're coming in now because they need to make a health shift. And [I] sort of take them softly by the hand and lead them in. I actually really like it when we get customers like that." At Nature's Pantry, Masterson made a concerted effort to appeal to just that type of customer when designing his first store. "We didn't want to be all granola and rice cakes," he says, "so when people came in, we had them meet the cereal aisle first--so there was a comfort level, something they recognized. Now, we basically are a full-service supermarket grocery store where our customers can recognize the same product mix, the same variety they would find in a grocery store." Whitcomb has come to view Sunflower as a sort of support network for the customers who shop there regularly. "A lot of people see a business that's aware of their needs and is there to serve them," he says. "For example, after 9/11, people were very needy, tender and upset. We responded to that, because it's not as simple as 'people need food and you give it to them.'" In fact, the modern health food store isn't just about food anymore. Managing the health and beauty section of Nature's Pantry, Donna Kraus has watched huge growth in a segment of the store that used to offer few options. What used to be known in the industry as "personal care" now extends to make up, candles, hair-styling products and dozens of kinds of oils, bubble baths and creams. "The selection is amazing," Kraus says. "For people who used to go to buy high-end facial care, Clinique or Lancomme, we have several lines now-age-defying creams, products for wrinkles that are about deep moisturizing, not chemicals. We have a company now that has products just for people with rosacea. It's so much more specialized." Kraus also notes that most people don't come in for beauty or skin-care products alone. "A lot of times it's really about what's going on inside--so they work on taking supplements, cleaning up their diet, and cleaning up what they put on their skin. It all works synergistically." Natural beauty products have become huge, to say the least. "I'm a breast cancer survivor--I don't want any grays in my hair," Kraus says. "That's something they told me I couldn't do--dye my hair. But now there are all-natural hair dyes that my doctor approved." Masterson, who got his start at a time when selling make up at a natural food store was unthinkable, seems pleasantly surprised at the changes. "You would never even find mascara in a health food store before," he laughs. "Now, there are three kinds!" For her part, Kraus is thrilled. "I have people come in who cannot wear regular make up because they have such sensitive skin. I can now offer them a pretty decent selection of products they can put on their face. They look pretty, feel good, dye their hair. I have the most fun in my department," she says. "You need to eat, but you don't need to fluff--now people can buy things just because they make them feel good." At Sunflower, Whitcomb has watched his customer base (and his store) diversify greatly over the years. "We are now Woodstock's supermarket," he says, "so that comes with a lot of responsibility--trying to satisfy everyone. It's a diversified town and there are a lot of different wants and needs." A major function of heath food stores is to provide information to the consumer--information that probably couldn't be found at a standard supermarket, Witcomb stresses. Chris Schneider elaborates: "People want to shop somewhere they can trust," he says. "They can figure that we've done a lot of things that work for them, that if they come and see our products, they can be pretty sure it's the best you can get." Sherpa agrees. "It's important that people feel that we are doing the vetting for them," she says. "They know that we are, for example, calling up our meat vendors to find out where their meat is from, what they're doing [to it]." That trust extends to the store/distributor relationship, as well. "There is scrupulous supervision at the distributor level," Masterson notes, "so really, there are two levels of product scrutiny--our distributors and us--before a product ever makes it onto the shelf." With the increase in products and broader consumer base, it's not surprising that competition from more mainstream sources has increased exponentially. Every supermarket now has an organic section, and many opt for the "store-within-a-store" concept--sporting a small, wooden-floored section in the midst of their aisles of conventional products. Yet, the same factors that set small health food stores apart in the beginning are keeping them successful today. They tend to be quicker to respond to consumer demand and important trends like gluten-free foods, or more eco-friendly toiletry and cleaning products. Their staffs are well trained and knowledgeable. "People expect service when they come in, and so we have more knowledgeable employees," says Chris Schneider. Between the three Mother Earth stores, the Schneiders employ 90 people. "We could probably cut it back to 60 if we just wanted to run it strictly as moving stuff in and out, but that's not the point." The growing understanding of the importance of community has helped these stores as well. Most health food stores carry local products, but more and more are available each year, pleasing consumers who want to keep more of their dollars in the local economy. "Customers want the connection to where they shop, the economic health of buying local, and how shopping in an independently owned store brings you back to a more connected way of living," Sherpa says. She and LT made a very conscious decision to open on Beacon's Main Street. "We're actually filling another need beyond the products we're offering, and that's to be part of the community," she says. "We found ourselves a lot more involved in community things, sponsoring a Clearwater event or something, because it's local and goes along with the concept of what we're doing. That's the difference between an independent health food store and a chain, these days." Her husband ventures that the owners of health food stores in the Hudson Valley are largely unconcerned with the mainstreaming of the industry. "I am glad that I see that Wal-Mart is doing its part to try to do organic," he says. "I am glad to see more Whole Foods opening, I'm glad to see regular supermarkets do the store-within-a-store concept, because, number one, it means people are being exposed to a healthier lifestyle, but it's also creating a bigger customer base. More people are being exposed to all these products, and maybe down the line they'll say 'You know what? I've got a store in my backyard, I think I'll go there.'" Beacon Natural Market, 348 Main Street, Beacon (845) 838-1288 Mother Earth's Storehouse, Kings Mall, Route 9W N., Kingston (845) 336-5541 www.motherearthstorehouse.com Mother Earth's Storehouse, 1955 South Road, Poughkeepsie (845) 296-1069 www.motherearthstorehouse.com Mother Earth's Storehouse, 249 Main Street, Saugerties (845) 246-9614 www.motherearthstorehouse.com Nature's Pantry, 1545 Route 52, Fishkill (845) 765-2023 Nature's Pantry, 142 Route 17K, Newburgh (845) 567-3355 Sunflower Natural Foods, 75 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock (845) 679-5361 |
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