Organic, healthy and local have become watchwords as more and more people seek alternatives to the products of big agriculture and big pharmaceutical. The Natural Food Shop (3048 S. 13th St.) was years ahead of all the trends when it opened in 1960. The shop sells packaged goods, meat and poultry, cheese and eggs, spices, dried fruit and organic fair trade chocolate while devoting much of its shelf space to vitamins and supplements. The clean scent of Thieves Oil is often in the air. Off the Cuff stopped by the modest storefront, marked by a windmill marquee, to chat with co-owner Jack Green.
Are you the store’s second owner?
The third actually. The original owner was Eldora Marshall who opened the shop 56 years ago. Ten years later Wally Rice came on board as a partner with his wife, Geneva. Wally died eight years ago and Geneva continued until her health declined. I bought it in 2011.
Is Geneva still around?
She’s over 90 years old and comes in once or twice a month as a customer.
The shop’s original owners were way ahead of the curve! Who were their customers in the early 1960s?
They certainly were pioneers back then. Athletes shopped here. People who were health conscious. Diabetics.
Did you start coming here as a customer?
My wife started coming here and she brought me along. I was getting ready to retire—I was a sales rep for a trucking parts company—and I was already interested in health and supplements. It was a good fit.
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I’ve been coming here for years. It doesn’t look as if you’ve made any drastic changes to the shop.
They’ve been gradual changes. We introduced new inventory controls, ordering only enough for our immediate needs. We also reintroduced some product lines that had been dropped after customers came in and asked for them.
Nowadays people can order supplements online. What’s the benefit of shopping for them locally?
We’ll do the research for customers. By talking to people and finding out their needs, we can nudge them in the right direction. A lot of stuff sold on the Internet is not what it seems. We could stock our shelves with cheap products but we carry quality.
Are your food items organic?
We try to sell organic whenever possible, as cost allows—and local too. Our pork comes from Golden Bear Farm near Kiel, our meat is from Ney’s, our cheese is from Vern’s.
Have you considered moving to a more affluent part of town?
We could probably make more money in Mequon, but we feel we’re doing a public service here. We’re happy with our location.
To learn more about the Natural Food Shop, visit thenaturalfoodshop.com.
