A big reason natural food and medicine took so long to become mainstream, as it is today, is that most of the growth was through word of mouth, either through family, a friend telling a friend, or from people working in a health food store.

“Live Rust” album was, “It’s better to burn out than it is to rust.” For many, it could be a call to burn bright and passionately rather than resign ourselves to a complacent life of dull routine. I wonder, though, if many department managers across the country haven’t misread Neil’s message or the unwritten message known throughout your store. I encounter managers in many stores who have lost their vision and motivation.

At my store, we have been very fortunate in more ways than one. We have enjoyed being a small, family-owned and operated business for a long time. Outside of one part-time employee who has been with us for 10 years, we have not had to work with anyone other than immediate family in four years. We also haven’t hired anyone new in over seven years. In the retail world, I think this is quite abnormal and even unheard of. However, this all came to a crashing halt this past spring. We were given a year of notice, but it was still not enough. My brother decided to move on, and we were faced with only one option. We had to hire new staff.

Employees have a right to know where they stand. Simply taking the time to meet one-on-one with an employee says, “You matter to me.” Although business literature is full of stories about how people hate performance appraisals, the employee surveys my colleagues and I have conducted at 200 natural food stores paint a different picture.

Impress new customers and thank existing ones by hosting regular in-store even

Consider hosting a BBQ, pancake breakfast or even a ladies night. The themes really are endless and no matter what you think of – I’m sure you’ll have a vendor to support you. Be creative; come up with catchy names for the event and fun ads to promote it. Most importantly, get your staff excited about it. For as many staff as you have on payroll – that is the number of ambassadors you have for your store – you get them talking about it and the event is sure to be a success! Here are a few steps to start planning your first event:

Plan your theme. This could tie in with the time of year (summer BBQ) or events topical in your community (if there is a local summer fair, host a summer fair showcasing your local suppliers during that time).  You can really pick any theme and dates you like.  Test which days of the week work best for your store, ideally your busiest hours of the week so you can impress the most people in the shortest amount of time. Your event should be a finite period of time, two to three hours maximum.

Think of vendors to partner with.  Your theme will decide which items you’re promoting, which can help you narrow down which vendors to partner with.  Consider also asking a charity to participate with a portion of the event’s proceeds donated. You’ll want to pick vendors who have dynamic people to provide demos as well as great literature and samples to hand out. Vendors and charities can help to promote your event through their social media channels and with additional word-of-mouth advertising.

Create promotional materials. You’ll need to advertise your event in a variety of mediums.  Create in-store handouts so your regular customers are informed.  Consider mailing or emailing your best customers so they get a personal invitation from you. Utilize your website, e-news and social media to spread the word. Be sure to let people know it’s ok to bring a friend to the event – referral customers could be made! Lastly, post notices on community boards like Kijiji, your local TV station website and local newspaper – they often advertise community events free of charge. Remember, you want to not only thank your existing customers but create new ones, too.

Example of Event Planner

Theme: Ladies Night

When: Thurs, May 11, 7-9 pm (near Mother’s Day)

Feature Products: Natural skin care: supplements for skin, nail polish, local body care, organic chocolate, strawberries

Vendor/Items to demo/Contact List: list all you’ve invited based on the space you have to work with in your store

Charity: Local women’s shelter, contact is Jane, will set up table/signage and attend event

Special items for event: Single rose for each attendee, assemble swag-bags with vendor samples, order balloon bouquets for decorations, print coupons and rain checks.

Staff to work event: Mary, John, Bruce, Sue, Carla

Develop a checklist. If you keep a checklist of all vital information, you’re much more likely to produce a quality event with little-to-no stress for everyone involved.  Verify the items you’d like demonstrated with your vendors, what they’re bringing for supplies (table, sample cups, etc.) and the time you like them in-store for set up.  If you need samples for goodie bags in advance, specify that early enough so you’re not scrambling on the day of the event. Also verify that your inventory of the items that will be featured is sufficient and calculate your special price for the event. Stock lots of the feature items and print rain checks in case you run out.

Event day!

Ensure your best staff are working and the store is looking its best. Program your special pricing, have any decorations up and a plan where each vendor will be positioned to demo. The owner or manager can walk the floor and personally thank the customers for coming to the event and for their support all year long.  Offer up goodie bags as you walk around or have it marketed as ‘free gift with purchase’ and have them at the tills. (FYI: women love swag – offer a free gift and we’re there!)

Most importantly – have fun, it is an event after all.

Once you’ve done this a few times, you’ll have a checklist created for future events so nothing gets forgotten and the event really becomes ‘routine’ for you and you’ll be amazed at the reception you receive from your customers. They’ll be so appreciative. A little effort really does go a long way.  •

In times of conflict, it’s incredibly important to keep a bright, smiley face.

Nobody wants them, but we all have them – customers who are on a mission to bring a stormy cloud into your day, regardless of whether or not you are personally responsible for their bad mood.

Sound familiar? Back To The Future? I am sure we have all seen the movie and enjoyed the silly possibilities and scenarios featured in it.  I picked this title for my column because just like the movie, sometimes we need to put ourselves in a position where we think ahead of time and then look back. Is that a bit weird?  Not really.

It happens all the time. Co-workers get attracted to each other and next thing you know….  Workplace romances can impact the productivity and morale of the protagonists and their co-workers. That impact is greater still when a supervisor and subordinate are involved. 

 A conversation I often have with owners, general managers and produce managers these days concerns how to take their produce to the next level. My usual answer to the question is multi-layered, depending on where the department is at that moment.

Take every opportunity to visit other health food stores.  Getting out into the marketplace to see what’s happening can really motivate you to adopt changes in your store.

The floods that hit Alberta in June of last year were the costliest natural disaster in our nation’s history, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada—$1.7 billion and counting. And as one IBC official said, “While the monetary cost of the floods is huge, the emotional toll on Albertans is incalculable.”

  Do you remember those old Western movies where the settlers moving west would have to circle the wagons to better protect themselves from the arrows that seemed to be coming from all directions? Some stores may be feeling that way, as their once-safe marketplace now seems to field competition coming at them from all sides. 

The demand for natural food and natural medicine will continue to grow for decades to come.

• The natural and traditional grocery stores will experience ongoing consumer demand for organic foods. Mainstream grocery and drug will continue to create more space for natural health products. Natural health products may reach the tipping point over the next five years.

• In 2015, 65 year olds will outnumber all other ages, so in 15 years, the 80’s will be the predominant age in Canada…

• Boomers will want a better quality of life than is currently being experienced by 75’ers.  The majority are unhealthy, with brain disorders, bodily functions out of control, in pain or have a serious illness, and on 10 or more prescription drugs.  I believe at least 20 per cent of boomers will look to natural health products to ease their way through the aging process.

• Every day for the next 17 years, 10,000 people will turn 65 in North America.

• Home delivery for food and medicine will increase in coming years due to seniors unable to get out and about.

• Urban population is expected to grow dramatically as aging boomers move closer to amenities.

• How do you market to a nine second attention-span audience? Who has time to read an email over one paragraph long without their mind wandering? We live in an ADD techno- illogical society. Holding a consumer’s attention will be an ongoing challenge for marketers.

• The ability to stay connected to customers and remain relevant will be a major challenge as brand loyalty is becoming a thing of the past.

• Natural medicine is safer and proven as effective, in many cases, as pharmaceutical OTC drugs and prescription drugs. Though a slow process, I see more MDs, integrative clinics and hospitals using natural health products as the first choice of medicine and prevention.

• Next to boomers, there are more early 20 year olds. Over the next 15 years, they will be mid-30’s, have families and become the next major influencer of market trends. How do you message to them? They are a major reason sports nutrition is so big, with so much future growth!

• Facebook is the best retail promotion for some stores and this should continue to grow as we live in the time of connection. Connecting with your most loyal customers and communicating messages that assist their overall well-being, not just your bottom line, will resonate best with consumers of natural health products.  Give recipes, exercises, health tips.  A sales pitch is okay, but should only be in every four to five communications you send out.

• Stories will be the best form of promotion/communication as they keep a person’s attention and appeal to their emotions.

• Think – how can I best communicate with my community, the homes and businesses around your store where your customers work or live?  How can you make their lives better, easier, happier through the products and services you provide?

• I have no idea what will happen to traditional media as it becomes more difficult to hold a person’s attention, especially young people who are averaging seven hours a day on their handheld.  Perhaps one day we will truly position ourselves in the consumers mind with neurotransmitter billboard apps.

• Did you find 2013 growth not as expected?  Was it due to less Dr. Oz motivated sales?

• Natural health products will be sold everywhere - convenience stores, vending machines, hospitals…I can dream, can’t I?

• Your database is golden…so, treat it like that.

• Will you please text me when my product comes into your store?

Overview:

   We are all in a business well-positioned for generations of careers to come…

   ‘I love what I do!’ is a statement I hear from pretty much everyone I meet in the industry.

   Sure, work has its dramas.  However, to work in a job where you help make a positive difference in people’s lives is a reward without compare.

   Happy Sales!  • 

You are a new retailer, or have simply never attended a CHFA trade show before, it's a worthwhile event to consider.  Attending a CHFA show can be a great experience and a lot of benefit to your store.

Spring is in the air and that means longer hours of sunshine in the day, more people out and about, and putting the cold winter behind us for another year. In terms of the Canadian health food industry, spring also represents something else, and that is CHFA West in beautiful Vancouver.

Thank you for making the right decision to start blogging in your Joomla! website.

When you're in the "expansion zone" there's more to think about than construction

You're in the "expansion zone" when every possible inch of sales floor space is filled, and even the ceiling has hanging baskets of product. It is amazing that you can move in your back room, let alone process orders. New products are coming out that your customers would buy if you could stock them, yet your customer count continues to climb.

"One bad apple spoils the barrel." Intuitively we know this maxim is true. Research at the University of Washington Business School affirms it.

Will Felps, Terence Mitchell and Eliza Byington defined three types of bad apples:
• Slackers who don't do their share of the work
• Perennially unhappy pessimists
• Mean-spirited bullies

The assumption has been made that you've already searched, interviewed, interviewed again, reference-checked the ideal candidate and they've accepted the position – so now what? How do you keep them, or more importantly, how do you keep them happy?

Now that the busy Christmas season has passed, no doubt many of your customers will be seeking one thing, and that's weight loss. Perhaps we should all take a cue from the trends of the season and consider slimming down ourselves. I'm not talking about physically, but rather, the breadth of our stores. Has your store gotten a little inflated lately with too many product offerings? Do you suffer from too many options and too much inventory? What about leftover Christmas merchandise?

We all know the importance of merchandising but all too often, it gets overlooked as more orders arrive and new products need a home and flyers start and so on and so on. Before you know it, you're back to square one, attempting to organize and beautify your store again!