Guest guest Posted September 13, 2003 Report Share Posted September 13, 2003 " P. Dines " <PDines Fri Sep 12, 2003 3:46:16 PM US/Pacific Patricia Dines <73652.1202 Big news/Real Food stores/San Francisco PDines Hi - There's drama going on at the Real Foods stores in San Francisco! You may know that this venerable health food store " chain " was sold in March of 2002. Real Foods was one of the early pioneers of health food stores, started in 1969, even before Rainbow Grocery or a definition of organic! (1) 3 of the 5 stores (Stanyan, 24th St/Noe, and Sausalito) were sold to Fresh Organics, which is part of Nutraceutical Corp. in Utah - www.nutraceutical.com. Their press release on the purchase is at: http://www.nutraceutical.com/press/ view_pressrelease.cfm?pressrelease_index =26 & print_version=yes This supplement company is now branching into health food stores; these are not its only purchases. It bought Thom's Natural Foods in San Francisco, as well as the Arizona Health Foods chain of 11 health food stores. More about the latter is at: http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/sigdev.asp?Symbol=NUTR I called Stanyan yesterday and they answered " Real Foods/Fresh Organics, " and the woman said yes, they are transitioning to calling themselves Fresh Organics. I don't know if the other stores are going to do this yet. In talking to all these stores, I can feel the upheaval and uncertainty and tension going on there. (Note: The Polk and Fillmore Real Foods stores were bought by a southern California concern. More about that as we get more info.) (2) The Noe store has suddenly closed for appx 4-6 months for remodeling. Fresh Organics/Nutraceutical gave no notice to staff or customers. The story is in this 9/3/03 SF Chronicle column by David Lazarus: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/ 09/0 3/BU102934.DTL You can also see another story about this in this 9/10/03 SF Bay Guardian article by Paul Reidinger: http://www.sfbg.com/37/50/x_reservations.html Recent talk is that it might have been related to employees' talk about unionizing at the store. More about this is in this 9/10/03 update column by David Lazarus: (Thanks to him for giving us all info!) http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/ 09/1 0/BU38644.DTL (3) So how to respond? * Some folks are responding to this Noe Valley store situation by talking about abandoning all these stores for Whole Foods and/or Rainbow. Certainly one option. But I'd like to also suggest communicating to Fresh Organics/Nutraceutical about your values and what you care about, what you hope they'll do instead. This is a birth time for this nascent chain, and I think it's a tremendous time to have input on their direction, to give them a chance to " get it " . And I hope they do get it, and thus we can keep this valuable SF resource. And, if they don't get it, at least when you do abandon them, they have a chance to know why. (You can get their contact info on their website, http://www.nutraceutical.com.) * And I want to encourage everyone to think about WHERE you shop as much as WHAT you buy. Big corporations have been buying up the small health food stores for a few years now, and putting incredible pressure on those that are left. If you like that small or medium locally-owned health food store - be sure to shop there, if you want them to stay the way they are! (Ditto of course for supporting small local organic farmers, farmer's markets, producers, etc!) * I also want to say that I've appreciated Real Foods and the role that they've played, and I feel sad about this transition, even though I know life is full of transitions and change.... (4) Some notes: * The above information and any updates I get will be on our website at <http://www.healthyworld.org/UpdRF.html>. * If you forward this email to others, please keep our contact information below as the researchers/authors of this compilation. * If you have any further news about this situation, please feel free to share it with me (including other articles or your own experience). * If you'd like me to write an article for your publication about these or related topics, I'd be glad to talk with you further about your interests. * And if you write a story about this because of this alert, may we modestly mention that acknowledgement is always appreciated. :-) Thanks and best wishes to all! Patricia Dines Community Action Publications The Organic Guides www.healthyworld.org PDines ======================================================================== === ===== Community Action Publications -------------------------------- Our community group provides information on toxics and alternatives, to help create a healthier, less-toxic world for everyone. We produce two books on local organics (both over 100 pages) to make it easy to support and be nurtured by local organic farms and food - and to join with others in creating positive options to toxic agriculture. These books are rich with interesting, empowering, fun, and well-organized information. Look in your local store or order from us directly for: * The Organic Guide to San Francisco * The Organic Guide to Sonoma, Napa, and Mendocino Counties More information is on our website http://www.healthyworld.org. Proceeds from book sales support our public education efforts. Our website also has lots of wonderful information on toxics and alternatives, including links to all sorts of wonderful resources and groups. Thank you to everyone who supports our work and makes it possible! ======================================================================== === ===== --^------------------------------- This email was sent to: curious EASY UNSUBSCRIBE http://topica.com/u/?a84Bxy.bdvTaE.Y3VyaW91 Or send an email to: organicguidenews- TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^------------------------------- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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