In the mid-1970s, Dennis and Cheryl Rea opened Roanoke Valley Health Foods, a small specialty health food store. Now their sons Rob and Charlie run the family business, now known as Nature’s Outlet. The company has expanded to 5 regional stores, including its new location at the Graves Mill Mall in Forest, Virginia.
Solutions tailored to each client
Nature’s Outlet offers a wide range of specialty health foods and high quality nutritional supplements and offers one-on-one consultations. They are also focused on providing products that provide people with the best therapeutic benefits to meet the unique health concerns and nutritional needs of each individual. “We take what we know about these products to make the best possible recommendation for each customer,” said co-owner Charlie Rea. The aim is to offer personalized solutions based on health needs and preferences.
Pandemic challenges
The pandemic has presented many challenges, from a woman accidentally driving her car through the Martinsville storefront in the spring of 2020 to customers unwilling to physically enter the store. A few employees feared they would be exposed to COVID-19 and subsequently expose their family members to the virus.
Nature’s Outlet set out to address some of these challenges from the start. First, the company set up a sidewalk service. They also provided flexibility in scheduling, even giving employees a quarantine break.. “I am very happy that we were able to accommodate each employee’s personal preferences and that they were able to choose what was best for them. It worked on all five sites! »Said Réa.
Expertise, empathy and personalized service
The company also hired two new full-time employees in the new Forest store in 2020. One is a personal trainer who has a professional background in chemistry and offers nutrition consultations; the other is “a fitness-focused assistant in nutrition and product knowledge,” as Rea puts it, adding that “we don’t just hire people with a passion for healthy lifestyles – we focus on hiring empathetic consultants with expertise in nutritional health.
New products in store for 2021
An exciting development that emerged from the events of 2020 was the creation of a new product. In response to people’s interest and desire to improve their immune health, Nature’s Own worked with one of their suppliers to develop a comprehensive immune health supplement. Rea says Nature’s Outlet is among the first group of companies to bring this product, called Amplified Immunity, to market. “We had it on our shelves less than a month after COVID arrived,” says Rea.
The Nature’s Outlet team want people to focus on their basic nutrition as well as immune health. Rea says that from now until the end of the year they are putting the new products on sale. “When you buy two on sale, the third is free. We will even give away free samples, we believe in it so much, ”he explained. “If you have the right nutrition and the right mix of products for your individual needs, we can provide solutions to solve your problems so that you are healthier and feel better. “