Bare Essentials Natural Market

Join us at Bare Essentials Natural Market
Friday, November 11 from 3pm to 6pm
for a Local Wine and Food Tasting featuring area artisans.

Come on by and sample

• Wines from New River Winery
• Artisan Breads from Owl Creek Breadworks
• Heritage Homestead Farm natural farmstead goats milk cheese and fudge
• Fire From the Mountain salsa and hot sauces
• Bella Rooster jams and jellies
• Goodies from The Farm
• and even homemade dog treats from Mountain Dog Naturals.

We’ll have some great food along with awesome holiday entertaining ideas.
Here’s an opportunity to try before you buy.

SAVE 10 %! On wines from New River Winery
(Offer good only on November 11 2011.)

Bare Essentials Natural Market not only
supports local growers and artisans
~ We Are Local!

Support the Hunger Coalition by Getting A Massage

At Bare Essentials Natural Market
November 6-11

No matter what is going on in our lives, we could all use some relief from stress. Now, you’ll have the opportunity to relax, while helping others at the same time. What could feel better than that?

Massage therapists across the high country have declared the week of November 6th “Massage for Hunger week.” They will provide chair massage during business hours at Bare Essentials Natural Market on Boone Heights Drive.

For just $1/minute, you can receive a guilt-free massage, knowing that 100% of the proceeds go directly to the Hunger and Health Coalition.   Over Fifteen professional massage therapists will be participating.

In addition, the following massage therapists will donate a portion of their office proceeds for the week to the Hunger and Health Coalition: Tim Winecoff, Kirsten Tiedemann, Eileen Laird, and Lauri Whyte.

If you’re a massage therapist and would like to add your hands to this effort, it’s not too late. Call one of the coordinators of this event: Nancy Green 964-8691 or Lauri Whyte 297-4140.

Reprinted from Vitamin Retailer Magazine, July 2011 issue.

When Bare Essentials Natural Market opened in 1984, it was a 1,000-square-foot store that sold “a little bit of everything.” But co-owners and husband and wife team Ben Henderson and Mary Underwood saw great potential in the tiny shop serving a small Blue Ridge Mountain community of 45,000 when they purchased it in 1988.

Being newcomers to the industry, they joined Southeast NNFA (now Southeast Natural Products Association). Today, Henderson is the organization’s president and also serves on the NPA Board of Directors. In addition, Bare Essentials Natural Market is a member of the Independent Natural Food Retailers Association.

“Our growth coincided as DSHEA was shaping up,” said Henderson, who is also the general manager. “When you’re around other industry people, especially independent retailers, you see their passion and it’s easy to catch that fever.”

In 1996, Bare Essentials Natural Market moved to a 4,800-square-foot location. Of the 4,000 square feet of selling space, about 60 percent is dedicated to organic produce, bulk, packaged foods and natural pet foods, while 40 percent is dedicated to homeopathic remedies, herbs, supplements, and health and body care.

Competition

In June 2004, a small regional chain opened a 30,000-square-foot store about three miles from Bare Essentials Natural Market. While the opening impacted its profitability for about three years, the single store has since recovered and, in 2007, entered a growth cycle that continues today.

“Last year was our best year ever, with more than $2 million in revenues,” said Henderson. “Store margins are about 40 percent overall, with grocery being 35 percent and supplements close to 50 percent And our sales are seven percent over 2010 (year to date).” It reclaimed those sales the same way all other small retailers differentiate themselves, with outstanding customer service, according to Andrea Morgan, wellness department manager.

“I routinely hear customers say [our competitors] don’t have anyone on the floor to answer questions,” she said. “We have four fulltime staffers dedicated to the wellness department to answer questions, take special orders and help customers compare labels. We provide a truly different kind of shopping experience.”

Education

Bare Essentials Natural Market has made a full-time commitment to making sure its staff is ready to answer any and all questions. About 10 percent of the wellness department’s time is devoted to research and education, be it attending educational programs, conferences and phone- and internet-based training, etc. This 16-hour a week commitment equates to about $1,000 a month, but it’s something Henderson views as an investment, not an expense.

“As a result of the investment, we have the potential to see $20,000 more in sales. Educated customers buy more, and they’re more satisfied with those purchases,” he said.

And as Bare Essentials Natural Market is truly a gatekeeper, having a knowledgeable Staff is paramount. Morgan expressed that when it comes to the wellness department, she’s seeing rep visits increase substantially as brokers make a bigger push with high-pressure sales.

“Suppliers once cultivated a long history of trust by offering us scientific information as their sales pitch, but we’ve lately seen a shift to slicker marketing campaigns,” she said. “I feel we have to be more vigilant than ever in asking scientific questions and for documentation, studies and research, where it was once offered up front.”

Future

By press time Bare Essentials Natural Market will have rolled out an expanded private label section from a new manufacturer. The four-foot floor-to-ceiling display will include a full set of A to Z vitamins, protein powders and supplements.

“We chose the line because the company offers trademarked branded raw materials,” said Morgan. “We can offer branded raw materials at a better price—not a bottom-shelf price—and a good quality for the price. I think we really nailed it.”

The private label marries well with the company’s future goals, which are all about meeting customers’ needs.

“Customers are starting to mistrust conventional medical model, so a lot of the service we provide is the right information to bridge gap when asking their doctor what might be appropriate to take with their medication,” said Morgan. “We need to offer well-documented options to incorporate natural therapies while maintaining relationships with their physicians—good, safe, efficacious choices they can take to doctor.”

“The burden of proof is on us,” said Henderson. “It’s important that we offer solid information to give our customers the ammunition they need to achieve better health.”

Drop by the Bare Essentials Wellness department
on Friday afternoons for
a taste of something new!

You might find a liquid multivitamin or a protein bar one Friday
and a goat whey mineral powder
or a chewable greens for kids the next Friday.

We’re not always sure what we might be offering week to week,
but we are certain that it will be nutritious and delicious!

This came to us in a email. I’m not sure of the author or origin. Whoever is responsible…Well Said!

THE GREEN THING

The cashier told an older woman that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren’t good for the environment. The woman apologized to him and explained, “We didn’t have the green thing back in my day.”

The clerk responded, “That’s our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment.”

He was right — our generation didn’t have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over.
So they really were recycled.

But we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

We walked up stairs, because we didn’t have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn’t climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn’t have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby’s diapers because we didn’t have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 220 volts — wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that old lady is right; we didn’t have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house — not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana.
In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn’t have electric machines to do everything for us.
When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used a wadded up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, we didn’t fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn’t need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she’s right; we didn’t have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We hadn’t made thirst into an irrational obsession to hydrate every five minutes no matter where we were, including at the opera or in temples.

We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn’t have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service.

We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn’t need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza joint.

But isn’t it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn’t have the green thing back then?