The store as village square
The six Nature’s Fare stores in B.C. have become hubs of community support, learning and sustainability
By Lynne Shuttleworth
Photography by Lorrie Jane Arnott
With every retailer, from corner stores to superstores, selling natural products these days, integrated health retailers need ways to differentiate themselves in order to become indispensible to their customers.
Nature’s Fare in B.C. is one retailer that has positioned itself as an important part of community life. Its strategy entails selling exactly what people are looking for—as well as becoming a hub for learning, charity, environmental initiatives and support of local producers and businesses. In essence, each Nature’s Fare location has taken on the feel of a historic village square.
“Our customers want more than a store, and we want to be more than a store. We want to be really active in our community, and work on giving back to the people that shop with us,” says Alexa Monahan, director of marketing.
Monahan is the 29-year-old daughter of Rick Monahan, who started the business back in 1982 by opening a health food store in Victoria. Nature’s Fare now has six stores in B.C., with the newest one in Langley.
Recession-proof
Monahan maintains that Nature’s Fare’s community activism is what helped the retailer make it through the recent recession without any scars.
“We were affected really slightly, if at all,” she says. “So we felt very lucky about that. Our shoppers are people who chose to forgo other things in their lives when they found themselves with not as much money. Their health and the health of their family is a priority for them.”
Nature’s Fare stays tight with its customers by offering them products and services that fit their lifestyles and values.
“We’re very active in donations and community events like Bike to Work Week,” Monahan explains. “We walk the walk, and talk the talk. Our customers are looking for organics, and we offer only 100 per cent organic produce. We’ve seen significant growth there. And people are looking for local produce; they want the farm-to-table experience, so we buy from local people as much as possible.”
As far as what products are most popular, Monahan reports that sales in the gluten-free category are increasing. As well, vitamins and supplements are big sellers, including those that address the issues of stress, anti-aging, cholesterol and weight loss.
Events for everyone
Being a community hub also means hosting events for customers and local residents. “We’ve shifted to a lot of in-store events,” Monahan says. “We bring in different speakers and host a ton of different educational events—customers can come in for free, and experts in the field come in and talk. Customers respond really well to this.”
This is part of the Nature’s Fare mission to connect with the customer at a personal level. “What sets us apart is customer service and creating that sense of community,” she says. “We want to make a strong connection to our customers by providing value-added services that you won’t find at mass market stores.”
Of course, in order to provide this top-level service, staff needs to be very well trained. And this is something Nature’s Fare is
known for.
“We make sure all our staff are very knowledgeable,” Monahan states. “We have an extensive training program. For example, everyone knows what gluten-free means. When anyone comes in our store, they know they’re going to get the best service.”
No revolving doors
The employees of Nature’s Fare tend to stick around for a long time. That’s because they know they’re appreciated. “We’re a very fair company,” Monahan says. “We pay a good wage, give bonuses, provide staff incentives, and pay for staff education. We give staff gift certificates so they’re being recognized for doing a good job. We help them when they need it, and let them know we’re always here for them. We make staff feel important and that they’re valuable, contributing members of the team. Everyone has an equal right to be heard and give their opinion.”
To keep the connection with customers strong, Nature’s Fare goes above and beyond, even sending out Christmas cards with gift certificates in them, as well as offering a loyalty program. “We make an effort to get to know our customers, and make them feel special,” Monahan says. “We have amazing staff. They’re very passionate. They take extra time to listen to people’s stories. They genuinely want to help them. That’s why we have such a loyal customer base.”
Catering to the needs of customers also includes helping them eat well during their busy days. To that end, Nature’s Fare has opened full-service delis in each of its stores. There’s a kitchen at head office where a chef and culinary team prepare meals from local and organic ingredients, and these are shipped by truck to the deli counters of all six store locations. Sandwiches and wraps are made right in the delis.
“People are looking for a healthy place to eat, with healthy convenience food,” says Monahan. “That’s why our sales are growing. We make the majority of everything in our delis ourselves.”
Healthy convenience
The delis serve a wide variety of entrées, which you can take out or eat in the store. Monahan notes that the “lunch crowd” is growing.
“We have quite a few items,” she says, listing two soups every day and hot lunch specials that include butter chicken, daal, veggie curry, turkey stew, lasagna, moussaka, wraps and fresh salads including bean, cabbage and green salads.
As for whether Nature’s Fare will be opening more stores that draw in the community, Monahan says this will happen, but not any time soon.
“I see us expanding in the future. However, we definitely don’t want to rush into opening new stores,” she affirms. “It has to be the right time and place. We don’t want to aggressively expand. We’ll open one store every few years. That gives us time to put a lot of attention into the new store, to make sure our systems are in place, and get our training up to date. We don’t want to spread our resources too thin. We need to give the new store a lot of support and make sure it’s up and running before we open another new one.”
Knowing the niche
It’s not the goal of Nature’s Fare to be another Whole Foods. “We don’t want to be the biggest,” Monahan says. “Our stores are a bit smaller. They’re cozy. We’ve found our niche.”
After all, there’s a built-in limitation to how big the stores can actually be. Monahan explains: “We’re really strict on the products we carry—only the best quality. There’s a massive list of ingredients that are banned from our stores. To get bigger would be difficult because we limit what we sell. We need to feel comfortable eating these things on a daily basis.”
In keeping with the philosophy of slow expansion, the biggest project recently has been renovating and expanding an existing store: the 11,000-square foot Vernon store. “We opened a new fresh food section and a deli seating area. And we gave the whole store a facelift,” Monahan says.
Nature’s Fare has been working to establish itself on the lower mainland of B.C. “We were a relatively unknown brand and company down there. We’re creating a strong image for ourselves and a good customer following, with great staff. It’s been really fun and very challenging.”
New generation
Although Rick Monahan has officially stepped back from the daily operation of the company, he’s still “very much involved as a mentor,” the younger Monahan maintains. She works closely with general manager Shaun Daniels, and her younger sister, Claire, is also part of the family business. They both benefitted from their father’s expertise.
“Dad was a smart businessman and a brilliant accountant,” Monahansays. “He taught us business sense and financial information.”
For her part, she’s helping to bring some new perspectives to the business. “We try and come up with some new ideas, such as integrating social media and other things our generation finds important,” she says.
Energy-saving efforts
Keeping active with “green” initiatives is something Nature’s Fare shines at doing. For example, the company has been putting a lot of effort into sustainability. Last year it had B.C. Hydro do an energy assessment in all the stores, and became a certified climate-smart business.
“We’ve implemented energy-saving measures across the board,” Monahan says. “We’ve updated our refrigeration units, and installed new lighting and low-flow toilets in all the stores. We’re doing different things that lessen our environmental impact. This is a really big thing for us.”
Employees have completely accepted these green initiatives. They receive healthy living incentives and are encouraged to ride their bikes to work.
At head office, Monahan says, it’s “a really fun work environment. Everyone brings their dogs to work. It’s really casual. We have an open-door office policy.”
Whatever way you look at it, Nature’s Fare seems to be on the leading edge of integrated health retail, serving as a great example of how to connect with and serve the community.
