Credit: Photo by John Anderson

Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers

3901 Guadalupe, 323-5100
www.vitamincottage.com

If it isn’t apparent from the name, Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers is an old-school chain of health food stores, and the newest location is the old Rooster Andrews Sporting Goods store north of the university. Based in Colorado, the Natural Grocers chain has expanded from Colorado into Texas and New Mexico, currently boasting 32 stores. Even in the current economic climate, the chain is continuing to expand. (Even into Austin, the birthplace of Whole Foods! Talk about taking coals to Newcastle!) How is this possible? What are they doing differently?

A few things: It is a family-owned and -run business, and when it was started in 1955, the core mission was to make health food “affordable for everyone.” That mission is the byword of the company and is still the yardstick by which the company measures its success or failure. They are quite serious about this: I did some price comparisons, and I was suitably impressed. Some examples: bulk pecans for $6.08 per pound ($9-$13 elsewhere), Kashi Go Lean Cereal (14 ounces) for $3.69 ($5.29 elsewhere), Grandpa’s Pine Tar soap for $3.15 ($4.29 elsewhere).

Also, much of the emphasis is on helping people to achieve optimum health: Every store has an on-site nutritionist providing free customer nutrition consultations, and roughly half the store is devoted to vitamins, supplements, and body-care products.

There are enough differences among Whole Foods, Wheatsville, and Natural Grocers for all three to be complementary rather than competitive. Although Natural Grocers has a deli aisle featuring prepared foods made by local companies, it does not have the myriad in-store restaurants Whole Foods offers. The Natural Grocers produce section is rather small but is 100% organic; the fresh and frozen meats and seafoods offered are similarly held to a very high standard. The produce section is 100% organic but rather small. Natural Grocers sells its bulk items prepackaged only and keeps most of its bulk stock refrigerated. Says CEO Kemper Isely: “In Boulder, we have shared a parking lot with Whole Foods for the last 10 years. It hasn’t hurt either store; I would say both stores have profited from the proximity.”

This article appears in June 26 • 2009.

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Kate Thornberry worked in renowned Austin restaurants for 30 years while pursuing a reasonably successful career in music. She began contributing to the Chronicle in 1988 and became a regular contributor to the food section in 2006.