Nutrition World, Chattanooga, TN
From a humble 1,000-square-foot beginning to an ambitious “wellness center” plan offering holistic services, Nutrition World has cemented its position as a leader in natural products retailing by adhering to the highest quality products and services. Here, storeowner Edward Jones is happy to share with other retailers his advice for success.
In December 1979, Edward Jones opened Nutrition World. The original store carried mostly supplements and was only about 1,000 square feet, but it was the first in its area—Chattanooga, TN—to carry athletic products, such as Weider and Hoffmans, which helped set the store apart and mark it as a destination.
The most recent incarnation of Nutrition World has 26 employees in the store, which is located in a 11,000-square-foot building that Jones owns, half of which houses the retail store. There are 14 partners in “The Wellness Corner” that accompanies the store, which offers acupuncture, counseling, midwifery, personal training, Circle of Life Medicine, thermography screenings and chiropractic care.
According to the founder, “The evolution of Nutrition World happened slowly through many stages to what we are now becoming, which is a wellness complex that encompasses holistic options, education, treatments and products associated with health. I see the future as exceedingly bright as to others following in our model of the future of health care.
We offer the chance for those struggling with health to embrace a full spectrum of information.”
On a Health Journey
For retailers, a mission statement defines their brand, creates a personality, empowers employees, prioritizes values, guides decisions and establishes parameters for a unique customer experience. For Nutrition World, the mission statement is: “Since 1979, Nutrition World has been at the forefront of holistic health. Our primary goal is to create a healthier Chattanooga by offering only the highest quality product and services that meet our critical standards. We are your partners on your wellness journey.”
“These sentences are more than just words to us; they breathe life into the core of our business,” said Cady Kuhlman, wellness director, co-owner and Jones’ daughter.
“Our employees are trained by this philosophy from the moment they are hired as a part of our team, and we continue to demonstrate this through every facet of our business,” she said. “This includes educational classes to the public, encouraging employees to walk customers through their health journey and partnering with other like-minded businesses in our city.”
Knowing Their Identity
Chase Ballard, the store’s general manager, explained that since 2014, Nutrition World has been in a steady ascension and every year has outpaced the previous. “Our plans for growth are just getting started, though,” he said. “We plan and hope that the launch of our e-commerce, revamping of pricing, constant improvement of services, educational resources, and commitment to staying at the forefront will spur us on to unimaginable results.”
On a typical day, Nutrition World will have anywhere from 220 to 300 transactions—depending on the season. Ballard said inventory will turn close to eight to 12 times a year and most of the profits come from supplements, services, and HBA. Overall, the store’s operating margin is 40 to 44 percent each year, he added.
Close Focus
If companies are to stay relevant then they must adapt to change, but the first step is recognizing the change.
“We are a big believer in adapting to what our community needs and focusing on what we do well,” said Ballard. “We are always the supplement gurus in town, but if we see a need we will try to carry that until another community member takes that torch from us.”
For example, Ballard recalled that in 2010, the store was the premier location for gluten-free foods. “In 2014, we saw that big box retailers had started to fulfill gluten-free needs along with many other food needs. In turn, we decided to decrease our food by 60 percent and focus more on functional snacks, fermented foods and keto.”
Being a smaller retailer allowed Nutrition World to stay nimble. “Often, we will use our advantage over big box to bring in emerging and new brands and move them at high volume for a few quarters until competitors begin to price us out, and at that time, we happily concede to them and free up room for another emerging brand,” Ballard said. “It isn’t always easy throwing in the towel like that, but we know our identity. Our focus is supplements because no one else can compete and it is our passion. Cool food brands are a dime a dozen and we have become a boutique for foodies to come to us to find the new trendy foods before they hit mass, and it has actually helped business.”
As for how the store’s departments are divided up, here is the percentage breakdown (volume):
Supplements: 50 percent (80 percent)
Grocery: 15 percent (5 percent)
Functional Snacks/Drinks: 15 percent (7 percent)
HBA: 10 percent (5 percent)
Sports Nutrition: 5 percent (2 percent)
Bulk: 5 percent (1 percent)
A Wise Path
According to Jones, the internet, big box stores and pricing are not necessarily at the core of the biggest hurdles to overcome regarding competition; the main hurdle is educating the customer so they can make well-informed decisions on what they’re purchasing and from whom they purchase it. “The competition we have, in my opinion, is primarily lack of knowledge from the public. This means to me that teaching the public by aggressive education is a far wiser path than trying to beat a big box store or the internet on price. Competition will always be present in any business, but when Nutrition World turned its focus away from directly trying to beat another store and put the effort into quality and knowledge, customers come,” he explained. A look at the store’s busy online event page helps confirm this strategy. “This certainly does not mean we are not aggressive with promotions because offering value is vital to attracting the public.”
Keeping up with the store appearance is another plan of action, Jones said. Customers walking into Nutrition World find a well laid out, beautifully designed space. “Keeping the store remodeled every seven years and maintaining an impeccable, clean presence is also crucial to our success,” he added.
As the owner noted, though aggressive education is a focus at the store, so is pricing. And Nutrition World is tackling that issue with a hands-on approach. “The way we turned lemons into lemonade is by taking the Amazon Wild West pricing of supplements and resetting the store with only manufacturers who support MAP pricing,” he said. [A MAP price is a minimum amount that resellers agree not to advertise below.]
“This is no longer an option for any store that dreams of staying competitive and in business over the next decades,” Jones stressed. In fact, the retailer has established at its own expense the website www.nutritionproductstinsider.com. The site monitors all major brands as to how they are in regard to enforcing MAP. According to Jones, since the initiation of the site several manufacturers have become more strict on MAP.
Relaxed Professionals
The store’s atmosphere is set up to give the image of a relaxed yet professional interior. “We remodeled two years ago and spent about $200,000 to update both the outside and inside,” Jones said. “Customers love the feel and atmosphere and they seem to shop longer than before the remodel. We also have a seating area that is constantly used for customers to read or rest or consult with a staff member.
“Our focus on business culture is to create an environment where staff are treated like family,” Jones continued. “We truly care about every member on our team. Not only that but with us being a holistic care center, we want all of our staff’s dreams to become reality and for those to come under our umbrella of services that we offer to the community. Every person on our staff is unique and desires to lead others to better health in some way, and it is our job as their employer to foster and make that dream a potential reality.”
Wellness advisors at Nutrition World not only have a wide range of experience within the health and supplemental industry, they also have a very strong grasp in particular areas of knowledge and education, from training and certifications in holistic nutrition, herbalism, personal training and sports nutrition, to degrees in dietetics and holistic medicine. “As a group we offer the most comprehensive skill set I’ve seen at one store in this industry,” said Seth Gustafson, the retailer’s director of education.
“Many who are working at Nutrition World have managed and even owned nutrition stores of their own,” Gustafson continued. “We not only encourage but provide the means for staff to persist in their educational journey. We have multiple staff trainings a month and sometimes even multiple trainings per week! It is not uncommon that we send particular staff members to trainings throughout the nation in keeping with their particular areas of interest. Soon we hope to implement a graduated staffing structure, investing in our floor staff to obtain specific health and nutrition certifications funded by Nutrition World. This should result in higher pay as well as morale for staff, credentialed and specialized services for the store, and therefore a more dynamic support experience for customers.”
Gustafson also emphasized that educating the store’s community is not only fundamental to the business; it is also the staff’s passion. “Unfortunately, the rate at which we dispense education to our customer base remains in their hands,” he noted. “We can only offer education as a service if a demand exists for that education. We are blessed to be located within a city that is interested in a proactive approach to health and wellness.
“Nevertheless, optimizing resources into consumer interest and consumption is a delicate process,” he said. “We may have a few people show up for a class one week and over one hundred the next. Part of our job is creating awareness and therefore interest in categories of health that the community may not be familiar with.”
Health care is by no means a new industry, however, recent breakthroughs in understanding areas, such as the human genome, microbiome, and endocannabinoid system to name a few are not only opening up whole disciplines and fields of scientific endeavor but also proving to change how we think about approaching basic health and well-being, Gustafson noted. “We pride ourselves in remaining open minded and educated to follow the ever growing evidence where it leads us, all the while holding fast to our values as a company concerning health and education. Our commitment to every person who walks in the door is to be the ‘gatekeepers’ for what constitutes health but also how optimal health out to be pursued, maintaining education as our primary service, which is supported by the secondary service of selling product.”
Community Focus
As for the store’s dedication to environmental issues, for the last dozen years the store has recycled all of its paper products, plastics and glass bottles. “Since we will always be selling products that pose an increased risk of waste within our environment, we want to play a large role in minimizing our footprint as best as possible,” Kuhlman said. “As a locally owned and operated business within Chattanooga for the last four decades, we hope and feel that we have a good deal of outreach events in our community,” she added. “The people within our community are the life of our business. They are our primary reasons for staffing 27 employees who are educated and desire to better the health of the lives of those who cross their path. We aspire to meet everyone on their health journey at whatever point that may be.”
The store’s philanthropic efforts have been ongoing. “Over the years, we’ve partnered with other manufacturers to help support their charitable ventures,” said Kuhlman. “We are currently running a drive with a Fair Trade company by collecting old sunglasses and eyeglasses. All of the proceeds will go to fund eye doctor visits for families in Africa. We’ve raised donations to the Save the Bees fund through the manufacturer, Host Defense. We have also sponsored the Prison Prevention Ministries bike ride here in Chattanooga, as well as donated to other local charities.”
Customer Concerns
According to the Sycamore Institute, Tennessee trails most other states on a wide range of key health indicators and outcomes, including chronic disease, among other issues. This fact has not been lost on the staff of Nutrition World.
“The health issues facing our customers are the epidemic of diabetes, inflammation, depression, anxiety, low energy, libido, prevention of cancer and heart disease, menopause, physical fitness and, of course, losing weight,” said Jones.
“Our customers have learned that Nutrition World is an encyclopedia of knowledge and experience as to nutrition,” he added. “We have easily a combined experience of over a hundred years among our employees. Our customers know we have assembled a large group of health practitioners that can address a plethora of health issues. We have on staff acupuncture, licensed counselors, private gym, medical clinic, massage, midwife, thermography, PEMF machine, salsa dancing lessons, weight loss clinic, and always adding new ones.”
In regard to weight loss, Nutrition World has assembled a team of employees who spend a good deal of their time researching the latest science. “At the time we stumbled upon The Ideal Protein Diet, the idea of putting your body into a state of fat burning, known as ketosis, was not popular nor extremely well respected within our industry,” Jones noted. “However, the science from nearly 60 years ago and the newly emerging research was showing a much more positive picture. So, once we came in touch with a diet program that had all of the science in an easily understood form for consumers, we began to implement it within our store. We now have three coaches, a state-of-the-art body fat machine known as Seca and more than 75 different food items specific for this weight-loss protocol. This protocol has helped more than 1,000 people in the Chattanooga area and truly has changed their lives forever.”
Of course, supplements are a priority at Nutrition World: the store carries a multitude of brands and the staff is always scouring every corner to find new emerging brands that have something unique to offer to the industry, Ballard noted. “Some of our current top brands are NutriGold, Terry Naturally, Vibrant Health, Dr. Mercola and Natural Factors,” he said. “Along with these brands we have also been partnering with a number of practitioner lines, such as Thorne and Metagenics, which help offer some even more therapeutic grade remedies that people are desperately searching for. Key factors that make these brands successful are correct dosing, quality ingredients, and a commitment to the natural products industry.”
When it comes to selecting brand partners, Nutrition World is not easy on companies. “We view ourselves as the ‘gatekeeper’ to our community and, to some extent, the industry,” Ballard said. “For example, we have a ranking system that we put most every company through to evaluate if they would be a good partner. This system takes into consideration the following: quality, purity, efficacy, margin, MAP, demo support and selection. Furthermore, when it comes to MAP, we have our own MAP policy that states that we will not partner with brands whose MAP doesn’t enforce a 30 percent or better policy. More information on this could be found at our sister company, nutritionproductsinsider.com.”
Nutrition World does carry a private label line and currently partners with Vitamer, Vitality Works, and Vitalabs to accomplish this. “The benefits to a private label is the exclusivity and the flexibility to pick items that represent your brand,” Ballard said.
However, the retailer is making a change to the line. “Private labels are great, but we feel that a move toward control brands is the best for industry members and ourselves,” he explained. “We are and will continue to make strides in changing our private labels to a control brand. For example, we just rebranded our herbs from Nutrition World to Mae’s Medicinals. The control brand strategy provides all the exclusivity of private label without the drawback of looking like you are trying to push sales toward your own brand.”
Social Media
Nutrition World’s social media strategy plays a vital role in educating its customers, promoting events, introducing new products and conveying company culture, said Brian Strickland, the store’s marketing coordinator.
“Our mission is to partner with our customers and create a healthier community,” Strickland added. “A major part of that commitment is engaging our audience through social media platforms. This allows us to not only increase our brand awareness, but on a practical level it allows us to build relationships with our customers without them being present in the store. It’s not uncommon for us to receive messages concerning specific products or just general advice concerning health matters on a daily basis. I recently had a conversation with a gentleman who said that he never buys anything within the natural products category without asking our opinion first. It’s extremely encouraging to hear things like that from our customers.”
Strickland said the store primarily focuses on Facebook and Instagram. “Because our audience and customer base is so broad, we’ve found that these are currently the two best options for us,” he explained. “There are more than two billion Facebook users and 800 million Instagram users, an astonishing number when considering the potential number of customers that can be reached. Both of these platforms allow you to post written word, pictures and videos. You can take quick polls, create events, link to specific products or other resources. They are powerful communication platforms that allow us to instantly engage with our audience on a personal level.”
The store has also started focusing more on video creation this year, which included purchasing a camera capable of producing high-quality images. “Video consumption online is continually increasing and it’s a fantastic way to communicate important information while still offering a personal touch,” Strickland explained. “We value educating, helping and preserving our relationships with our customers above all else. Social media is just an extension of what we are already trying to accomplish within our physical location.”
Adapting to the Digital Age
According to Jones, the store recently purchased a new POS system. The reasoning behind the significant investment, according to Ballard, is that retailers must realize that what they use to run their system is becoming more vital to survival. “You must have a partner that is progressive and trying to maximize customer integration into your brand,” he pointed out. “We had to just change one of our longtime partners because we outpaced their growth. It was not easy, as they were very close with us, but they were beginning to hold our progress back. The new company we have partnered with offers full resource planning and optimization. It will allow full inventory control, auto ordering, email marketing, and, most importantly, a robust e-commerce platform. This company is not cheap and we strongly advise that when choosing the right partner, do not skimp on functionality to save a few thousand dollars a year. We live in a digital age and customers are rapidly desiring seamless integration into their lives. Find someone that can help you get there at the pace in which you plan.”
Moving Forward
As for the future for Nutrition World, Jones said the store would focus on continuing the change that it embraced in years that follow. “Also, elevating our social media presence and website is a primary goal. Secondly, is allowing my daughter Cady to take over the store when the time is right. She is passionate about nutrition and health, and has a great handle on business. It will be in good hands.” VR
