Bare Essentials Natural Market

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.”

Our Store Manager, Steve Wyatt, was surprised today by the Outrageous Customer Service Prize Patrol.

Members of the Boone Area Chamber of Commerce arrived with balloons and official plaque in hand. Steve was awarded the certificate as a positive ambassador of Boone and the High Country and for exceeding customer expectations.

We’re so proud of him we just had to shout it out! Well deserved, Steve joins three other Bare Essentials employees that have received the award in the past.

Next time your in the store give him at pat on the back and tell him

Great Job Steve!!

By: Scott Nicholson

Ben Henderson took something he was passionate about and built it into a successful small business whose best investment is in his customers’ overall well-being.

Henderson, who owns Bare Essentials Natural market with his wife Mary Underwood, switched sides of the counter in 1988, when he was a customer of the store in its downtown location.

“Mary and I had always been interested in it,” he said. “I had a graduate degree in public health and Mary was always interested in natural foods.”

The couple purchased the business and operated it out of a 1,000-square foot storefront on King Street, but the business outgrew the facility in a few years. They began laying plans in 1995 for a new location when the Heavenly Mountain development seemed poised to bring hundreds of health-conscious residents to the area.

The new store at 273 Boone Heights Drive opened just before the end of 1997, and the next year Bare Essentials was the first company to use ECR point-of-sale software, which marked the launch of another successful local business.

“We were kind of the oddity in the area,” Henderson said. “We were trying to make people aware of food that tasted good. There’s been a general recognition on the part of (grocery) businesses that if it doesn’t taste good, people don’t want it.”

That fundamental prospect has allowed Henderson to successfully compete with chain grocery stores that operate on quantity and variety. But Henderson said that very operating model is what causes consumers to second-guess their food purchases.

“In the bigger stores, people see these little sections of organic and natural foods touting how good they are for you,” Henderson said. “And the consumer wonders, ‘If it’s so much better for me, why isn’t everything like that in this store?’”

Along with health consciousness, people are also more sensitive to local economies and local foods, which cause them to look at more than just a price tag when calculating the true cost of food and its impact on the world.

“Our core customer is health conscious and socially conscious,” Henderson said. “It’s more than just giving lip service. Our customers are willing to go out of their way to support local foods and local businesses. We continually reinvent ourselves to meet the needs of the marketplace and become better business people.”
Henderson also supports local farms by offering their products and serving as a pick-up spot for community-supported agriculture shares.

“It enhances our business and brings people into the store,” he said. “Actually, our job is about education as much as it is customer service. It’s not your traditional retail outlet.”

Bare Essentials has a separate section devoted to herbal supplements and other natural products to support healthy living, and three of the 14 store employees operate that section and share their knowledge.

“They are extremely articulate and well educated,” Henderson said. “There is no certification for what they are doing, but they know their business. They are not prescribing or practicing medicine, but they know about the products we are carrying.”

The growing health movement caught the eye of corporate stores as they beefed up their entry into the natural-foods market. Henderson said demand is beginning to outstrip supply, and he welcomed more rigorous standards to earn the “organic” label. The social consciousness that led people to become vegetarians has adjusted as more local meat entered the market.

Henderson said that 20 years ago, only “factory-farmed meat” was available, but now there are free-range options and products approved by the Animal Welfare Institution, an organization that monitors how animals are raised and treated.

Photo by Scott Nicholson

“Six years ago was just the beginning of the local food effort,” Henderson said. “There’s almost literally an explosion of local eggs, meat and cheese. There’s a general awareness of the healthier products out there and that you literally are what you eat. The awareness goes beyond individual health issues to how the products are raised, produced and prepared.”

With Bare Essentials now in its 27th year of business, Henderson is ready to change even more and has been an ardent support of community events while retaining loyal staff members who have been there a decade or more.

“We didn’t start out to be revolutionaries,” Henderson said. “We just had a passion and it became popular and fashionable.”

Bare Essentials Natural Market is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon until 6 p.m. on Sunday.
To learn more about the store, call (828) 262-5592.

Article courtesy of Watauga Democrat

The July 2010 issue of High Country Magazine. The article by Anna Oakes takes you back to how we began to the present and relates our mission and our commitment to the community.

A Career and a Calling

Andrea gives some sound advice if your thinking about getting (or not getting) a flu shot this year.

“For people who are wary for whatever reason of flu shots, healthy habits that support and strengthen the immune system are essential”, said Andrea Morgan of Bare Essentials.

Read the entire article by  Bernadette Cahill in the High Country Press here.

Black Elderberry to reduce the severity and duration of flu symptoms