Natural food lovers rejoice; the store of your dreams’ grand opening is on Tuesday, Sept. 23 at 7 a.m. Natural Grocers will debut its new store off of the corner of Coburg across from the Oakway Center as a new kind of alternative shopping market.
Jaena Barrera, the one of the store’s managers and a CNC, claims that the store is, “working to build our community to promote better health.” As for other stores that claim to be natural, there are a different set of guidelines that Natural Grocers sticks to. “When you walk into the door you know that there are going to be no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives, we don’t allow it,” said Barrera.
The list of things that many eco and locally-minded shoppers think of goes on. The store is bag-free, including both plastic and paper, and uses this as a means to support their community. For each shopper that passes through the check-out with their own bag, the store donates five cents to their local community’s food bank. As for the ecological impact, they vow to practice “green building practices” whenever possible; this is most readily seen in their Eugene location by their use of LED light fixtures throughout the store.
As for college-student and community engagement, the store goes above and beyond. Readily to the left of the store’s entrance is a community kitchen that will be holding free cooking and health education seminars for interested customers to attend. For those experienced and interested, the store also allows for guest speakers to take the kitchen over and share their wisdom using a $100 budget of ingredients from the store.
The store’s nutrition specialist, Yaakov Levine, is a unique asset to the store as he is hired to give free nutritional advice to any shopper who is interested. Yes, this includes any community member looking to change their diet or adjust to their newly diagnosed Celiac lifestyle.
“I’ve gone through a lot of years of diet experimentation from vegetarian to vegan, but I’ve found that my digestive system calls for a more omnivorous diet,” said the experienced nutritional guide. He, alongside the other workers whom the company has vowed to pay a competitive wage, exemplifies a true passion to support a healthy lifestyle by educating the people of the community.
The catches seem limited. The prices are competitive with those of Market of Choice and Sundance and each employee in the store is educated thoroughly on each aspect of the store. An example being that a worker in the produce section is knowledgeable on the supplements on the other end of the store.
The store encourages shoppers to suggest new products and question those which are not carried. The store has even gone as far as to print out a list of supplements and other items not in the store with explicit descriptions. Megan Garland, University of Oregon senior and Board Member of the UO Student Sustainability Coalition, likes this feature combined with the on-site nationalist.
“[Natural Grocers] is giving consumers the reasons for not having certain preservatives and supplements which is also providing the consumer education. Rather than saying ‘don’t eat gluten,’ they explain why,” said Garland.
Natural Grocers will be hosting their grand opening through October 4 with prize giveaways, product sampling and nutrition classes open to the public.