Life's Essentials Losing Luster, Hopes for Growth

For years, it served as the Cascade community’s main health food store with a ready supply of fresh fruits and vegetables, vitamins and herbs, natural body and household products.

It was a teaching institution, offering classes on herbs, yoga and the Martial Arts; providing tutorials and movies for children, and tie & dye classes for adults.

Then it changed names and moved to a larger place, a place more than twice its size; a place that has become a haunt of its former glory, overshadowing rows of sparsely covered shelves, and lurking over frequently empty isles.

Still, the diminishing inventory and the shrunken selection of fruits and vegetables only tell one side of the story, the more obvious side – Life's Essentials was dying.

The less obvious side of the story was why.

The 9,300 square-foot store, at 2329 Cascade Rd., was losing its luster, seemingly swept aside by health food chains and mass markets as the nation pushed toward a natural and healthier lifestyle.

This push has resulted in little loyalty for the smaller community health food store, said Zola Peek, who has been a member of the store since it opened 33 years ago.

“He was thriving, but I guess over in that area, people are not putting that much interest in the store,” Peek, 62, said. “People are more interested in one-stop shopping.”

And perhaps, that’s a part of the answer.

The once-vibrant store with owners that taught many how to live healthier lifestyles had lost many supporters that once invested in its success.

It started out as a buying club with just eight to 10 members.  Kuhusu Wanzu, a graduate student majoring in early childhood education, was among them.

Wanzu found out about the killing of thousands of heads of cattle and the dumping of millions of gallons of milk to drive up prices. He protested by giving up red meat.

The buying club seemed like a natural progression for the North Carolina native. The members pooled their resources and bought food in bulk from various wholesalers.

After more than a year, the club grew to have more than 50 families and individuals. The original members decided to open a retail store – Freedom Foods Co-op.

They took a vacant, fire-damaged space in a building on Ralph David Abernathy and for four months, working mostly at nights, they cleaned, mopped, scraped and painted until the store was ready.

They opened that June with about 100 items that included natural foods and food supplements, herbs and vitamins, fruits and vegetables, nuts and grains.

They attracted critics.

“Some said being a health food store, this isn’t going to work,” said Wanzu, who spearheaded the project. “Some people said if you last a year then I’ll support you.”

They attracted supporters.

People brought home-made bread, hand trucks, sheet rocks to fix the holes in the walls. Others volunteered their time. One man fixed old refrigerators and donated them to the store.

Whatever they sold, they put back into the business. Then after six months, they were able to pay people to work part-time. They made $97,000 that first year.

Wanzu and his wife later took over ownership of the store.

“We continued to grow until we outgrew the space. If we were going to stay in business we needed to own our space.”

They attempted to buy the building, but when that failed they moved into the current location in 1995.

“When we moved here we continued to have good growth over the first six or seven years,” Wanzu said. “Up until 9-11, we were doing good.

“Then after 9-11, the economy changed.  Then a lot of other major supermarket started getting into natural foods.”

When the store first opened, there were less than half a dozen major natural food supermarkets in the United States. Now it has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry with hundreds of markets, according to the Organic Trade Association.

Still, Peek, who is the interim general manager for the popular Sevenanda’s health food store in Little Five Points intown, said the stores provide an intimacy that is missing in the markets.

 “I like the personal attention you get at health food stores. You have questions, people take the time to talk to you. It’s more one-on-one.”

And perhaps that’s why some long-time customers continue to frequent the store, performing as a major artery to Life's Essentials survival. They have come to rely on that personal attention.

Lillie Phillips knows it well.

“I had a terrible headache. I would have it during the week and not on the weekends. That was very strange,” Phillips said. “I would go home and lay on the floor, it hurt so bad.”

She turned to one doctor after the other, hoping for a solution to end the throbbing. When they couldn’t help, she turned to Wanzu.

He listened, and then suggested she stopped drinking coffee.

Phillips would drink a cup every time she got to work, but none while she was home. So she stopped and so did the headaches.

But then later another problem developed. Phillips had an uncontrollable craving for caffeine.  Again, she turned to Wanzu.

“He suggested Ginseng drinks. It works. Now I buy every flavor, but my favorite is pineapple.”

 “They have always been friendly people and full of knowledge,” Phillips, 68, said. “You ask them and they can tell you what’s good for what.”

Phillips has been shopping at the store for years and know Wanzu’s wife, Eunice, from college. She remembered what the store was like in the beginning.

“They had plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, herb and teas.  It was good.” Now, she said, “They could use some business.”

Wanzu hopes to pump more life into the store by opening a juice and smoothie bar within the next 90 days. He also plans to remodel the store and provide spaces for massage therapy, yoga and a lecture hall.

On June 11, the store’s anniversary, he also plans to have a festival complete with music, food and vendors. He hopes that will attract new customers.

Peek said she sends some of her customers to Life's Essentials, mostly for the herbs. The store has more than 300 different herbs and provides literature on their use.

Even new customers like Christina Clark gets something from Life's Essentials that she can’t find at the health food store closer to her home – black soap with lemongrass.

“They (the others) sell other black soaps," Clark said, "but not the one I like.”