Anna Hamilton ’19 is part of a rising movement that emphasizes health-conscious eating. “When I’m at home in Montpelier, Vt., I probably go to organic health food stores about five-seven times a week,” she says. As the popularity of this kind of lifestyle increases, so does the demand for health-food stores, especially in small towns like Canton, N.Y.
The town of Canton is home to one main organic health food store, Nature’s Storehouse, which has been open since 1972. The manager of the store, Lisa Lazenby, says there is definitely a need for an alternative health food store in Canton. “There’s hardly any other place to go for certain products like supplements and local products,” says Lazenby. “We sell a lot of fresh vegetables direct from farmers, along with local cheese, yogurt, meat and other things you can’t get anywhere else.”
Hamilton is a frequent patron of Nature’s Storehouse, and agrees that there are a lot of things you can buy there that you cannot get at conventional grocery stores. “It’s helpful for finding snacks and other foods, like protein bars, dessert, trail mix, almond butter, peanut butter and tahini,” she says. “You can find all the basics that you need at conventional grocery stores, and then get all of the fun, specialty stuff at organic stores.”
Lazenby says that most of her own customers come in for supplementary shopping, rather than for their entire grocery list. While the current health trend is popular among young people like students, she says that her customer base has not been swayed by the universities. “It’s definitely a mix,” she said, “there are some students and faculty, but some of the same people have been shopping here since we opened in the 1970s.”
Saratoga Springs, N.Y., another small college town, has its own health food store. Four Seasons Natural Foods is both an all-vegan café, and separate health food store, located in two separate buildings down the road from each other. Demand from local customers created the separation a few years ago; prior, the store and café were combined into one building.
Dana Denison, the manager of Four Seasons, agrees with Lazenby that most customers come in looking for specialty items, rather than all of their groceries. “I’ve noticed increased interest in certain trending health products that other area stores don’t carry. Things like collagen, bone broth and turmeric supplements have been popular lately,” says Denison.
Many people might say that small-towns like Canton and Saratoga do not really have a reason for alternative health food stores. But both Nature’s Storehouse and Four Seasons Natural Foods prove otherwise. “I think that the store appeals to a lot of people in Saratoga, because even if they aren’t necessarily shopping there daily for food, they know that they can come here for some of the more uncommon products that they can’t find anywhere else in town,” says Denison.
Though it might seem difficult to be health-conscious in a small-town, Hamilton says it is not that bad. “It’s actually less expensive, because again, I’m getting my main food sources like rice and beans for really cheap at Price Chopper or Walmart, and specialty stuff like granola at other stores,” she says. “Oh, and Japanese sweet potatoes.”