Natural Selection Shifting Consumer Tastes Fuel Organic Foods Trend

Thick, moist carrot cake. Honey barbecue potato chips. Chocolate coffee sorbet.

Would this list of tantalizing treats sound as scrumptious if the label all-natural or organic was added?

Increasing numbers of Spokane residents are saying, “Yes.” Enthusiastically.

“When this place opened I was in Heaven,” said Greg Posehn, as he filled his basket at Bountiful Fresh Foods in downtown Spokane.

Consumer demand for organic and natural foods has propelled Spokane onto a fast-moving wave sweeping the country.

Last summer, Bountiful opened a 4,200-square-foot all-natural and organic grocery in downtown Spokane.

In December, Spokane supermarket giant Rosauers poured $1.6 million into Huckleberry’s Fresh Market, opening in a 17,000-square-foot South Hill store.

This spring, Rosauers plans to open a second Huckleberry’s, twice as big as the first, in the Spokane Valley.

It’s tough to pinpoint reasons for this natural foods craze. Experts say it’s a coming-together of several factors, including the media’s coverage of chemicals in food, the aging of health-conscious baby boomers, and increasing interest in alternative health remedies.

“There’s more publicity that chemicals are coming into our environment from every avenue,” said Lauren Clardy, president of All Natural Marketing in Kenwood, Calif., a consulting firm specializing in the natural products industry. “The media has done a tremendous job of bringing that to everybody’s attention.”

Whatever the reason, it’s hit Spokane hard.

Rosauers’ new 35,000-square-foot market in the Valley will dwarf the average-sized natural foods supermarket, which is about 10,000 square feet, according to the Natural Foods Merchandiser, an industry trade magazine.

“If you have a limited selection, I’m not sure you can be in the organic business,” said Larry Geller, Rosauers’ president. “You have to make a statement or leave it alone.”

Though Rosauers hasn’t planned other stores, the company has identified 12 locations within their market area - Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon - that would be suitable for a Huckleberry’s market.

Before the natural foods explosion, Spokane had only a few small health food stores and several stores specializing in vitamin and mineral supplements. With no full-sized grocery, the market was untapped.

“The overall comment we get from everybody is, ‘It’s about time,”’ said Alan Shepherd, store coordinator for Huckleberry’s.

Nationwide, natural food products are becoming one of the fastest growing segments of the supermarket industry. Growth has been high since the mid-1980s, but in 1994 and 1995, sales grew by more than 20 percent over the prior year. The supermarket industry’s own growth was about 4 percent.

In 1995, the natural products industry was worth $9.17 billion nationwide.

Shepherd said Rosauers’ decision to open Huckleberry’s was driven by customer demand. Increasing numbers of people were asking for more natural products and produce.

“If somebody asked for something, there was probably 100 more people out there who wanted it,” Shepherd said. “There was this community of people out there who were always talking about going over to Seattle” to shop.

Though Huckleberry’s has been enormously popular, Spokane’s other major supermarket chains say they’re not about to join the nationwide natural food craze. Most have had small natural food sections for years. Though popular at first, those sections have declined to slow or steady growth.

“We have tested the products and have not found a significant customer demand” in Spokane, said Jenny Enochson, media relations coordinator for Albertson’s.

“Every time we’ve carried it in the past,” said Denny York, a spokesman for Yoke’s Pac ‘N Save, “we’ve thrown it away. The demand for it just isn’t there yet.”

But, York said, the rest of the supermarket industry is watching the Huckleberry’s experiment to see how it works.

Rosauers’ Geller counters other supermarkets’ pessimism merely by pointing to Huckleberry’s success. “I wish we had a bigger parking lot,” he said.

The other supermarkets may have slow sales, Geller said, because natural foods can’t be sold in just one aisle. It has to be a complete selection, and it needs to be all under one roof.

Geller said customers have told him they’ve visited up to nine different stores to get what they needed. “I think that’s really the value of (Huckleberry’s), putting it all in one place,” he said.

Still, Rosauers has no intention of discontinuing its traditional supermarkets. “Our core business is still Rosauers,” Geller said.

Huckleberry’s is a perfect example of the change that has occurred in the natural foods industry, said Ken Mergentime, who reports on the organic food industry for the Natural Foods Merchandiser.

Today’s natural foods supermarket is worlds away from the corner health food store of years past. The markets are full-sized, brightly lit, decorated and mimicking traditional supermarkets as closely as possible, Mergentime said.

“Conventional shoppers who had been going to Safeway for years don’t feel as threatened,” Mergentime said. “The products don’t seem as unfamiliar.”

Most products found in regular supermarkets have all-natural or organic alternatives, said Tamy Roloff, owner of Total Health Center Natural Grocery and Cafe at Thor and Fifth.

“If you’re really into Krafts Macaroni and Cheese, there’s an organic alternative for that,” she said.

But, said Mergentime, the new supermarket health food stores have become so popular that they’ve replaced the mom-and-pop stores that started the natural foods trend.

“It’s a shake-down of the existing competition,” he said.

That’s happening in Spokane as well. Sales have taken a nosedive at Bountiful since Huckleberry’s opened, and five employees, out of 19, have been laid off.

“One quarter of our staff had to go and the rest had to lose a day,” said Linda Fossi, co-owner of Bountiful.

Rosauers, a company with 18 stores in four states, has been able to do things big.

One of the complaints about natural foods has always been price. By buying items in bulk, natural food supermarkets are able to make prices more comparable to traditional supermarkets.

In the early 1990s, Geller said, supermarkets were paying twice as much for organic foods. Today, he said, prices are coming down and products have improved.

Natural foods merchants say the biggest challenge to winning customers is education. With consumers beginning to experiment with unfamiliar food, the merchant must be knowledgeable.

Throughout Huckleberry’s, hand-painted signs define various health food terms. A library in the back of the store offers literature on healthy eating. Weekly free classes help people become more health-conscious consumers.

“There’s so many people that don’t know why pesticides on their vegetables are harmful,” said Becky Rebmann, co-owner of Bountiful Fresh Foods.

“The people that are here, are here because of the knowledge they get,” Fossi chimed in.

Natural food merchants say there’s no “average customer.” The only thing the consumers have in common is a desire to eat more healthy foods.

Some are elderly people concerned about their health and seeking natural solutions. Others are vegetarians. But most are health-conscious consumers waiting for the opportunity to live more healthy lives.

“I think it’s good if more people can get into it, said North Spokane resident Susan Hamilton, as she perused the bulk food section at Huckleberry’s. “It makes a difference in how you feel.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: ORGANIC VOCABULARY Natural foods - Any foods free of artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and other chemicals. Organic foods - Grown without synthetic fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides. A product can be labeled “organic” if 95 percent of the ingredients are certified organic. Products labeled “made with organic ingredients,” means at least 50 percent of the ingredients are certified organic. Transitional produce - Grown under the same conditions as organic produce, but not yet certified as organic by a third party agency. Hormone free - Foods and animals grown without hormones used to promote growth.