Local stores step up to fill demand left by Healthy Life Market closings

Owners at both stores have had new and old customers come in, asking about products they once bought at Healthy Life Market.

“We never specialized or focused a whole lot on food because they had the market and they were already serving our community in that regard, and they did a great job at it,� said Jamie LaFear, owner of Wholi Moli. “If it’s not broke, why interfere with it?�

Wholi Moli

LaFear said since Drug Emporium’s announcement in early May, she’s had customers asking almost daily if she can stock certain products. She bought three commercial freezers and two commercial refrigerators to accommodate the additional products, and she is incorporating 30 to 40 more square feet of storage space.

“We’re just doing a better job of utilizing the space, so everything’s shifting,� she said.

This means that they will continue to stock everything they currently sell, in addition to new products.

LaFear also hired six more employees to accommodate the demand at Wholi Moli.

“In our freezer right now, we have local, free-range, grass-fed, organically raised chicken and beef. So we’ll continue to stock that, some of our meat may broaden. So we may have venison in here, we may have buffalo,� she said.

She anticipates an increase in sales of chicken and turkey because of Alpha-gal syndrome, a disease that comes from tick bites and causes a red meat allergy. It’s on the rise in the lower eastern half of the Midwest.

“We’re making a significant investment to do the best we can to serve everybody. So we are just going to really work hard to spread the word that we’re here, and that we want to help,� she said. “No request is too small or too big, we’ll try our best to service everybody and anybody.�

Valley Naturals

Similarly, Valley Naturals in Hurricane is bringing in more shelving and cold storage. Owner Kim Douglas said she’s had at least 10 people come in asking if they could purchase items they used to get at Healthy Life Market at her store.

“We just never carried the amount that they have had,� Douglas said. “Our stores are very similar. They were just a lot bigger than me.�

She also said that because Healthy Life had been around for such a long time and had such a wide variety, it had a loyal customer base.

She is taking customer requests. People have called her with a list of things they’d like and one customer even brought in the used packaging of products she likes for Douglas to reference. Douglas says she is currently working on ordering and sourcing those items.

One customer told her that she’d stocked up on food from the Healthy Life Market, but asked Douglas to order products before she runs out.

“We welcome all Healthy Life market customers to our store and we’re here to help in any way we can,� Douglas said.

Tulsi at The Market

Tulsi at The Market, co-owned by Travis Lemon and Erin Dalton, is also stepping up but in a different way.

“We’ve already been talking to some customers about things like, ‘What are you looking for? What do you want?’ I have some friends that shopped at both (Tulsi and Healthy Life) that were like, ‘Hey, there’s this particular popcorn that we like, can you start getting that?’ and we already got that in,� Dalton explained.

She said Tulsi’s business model was inspired by Healthy Life when it first opened in 2018, but it’s changed over time. They chose to cut back on carrying food during the COVID-19 pandemic because food has a limited shelf life.

Tulsi has expanded again with more food since the pandemic, however, and its customer base has also grown. While the owners are talking to customers about what they need, they said they are uninterested in taking on a business model of carrying a little bit of everything.

“We’re very particular about quality, we really like to work with other small businesses. There are a lot of companies out there that don’t sell to big box stores and just cater to small business and so we definitely look to work with those,� she said.

Dalton gave an example, saying that instead of carrying 10 varieties of coconut water, Tulsi only stocks the best one because its business model prioritizes quality above all else.

“So there aren’t a lot of options, but you come in knowing that we have done the legwork to get the best quality, the best taste,� she said.

Dalton said she is sad to see the Healthy Life Market close.

“My business partner and co-owner (Travis Lemon), he worked there for years. I worked there for a while,� she said. “I don’t think we would be able to do what we are doing if they hadn’t introduced that into the community and it’s much more like losing a peer, losing a partnership than losing a competitor for us.�