When I was deciding to open my own store it was after looking at a chain called Mrs. Gooch’s Ranch Markets and I thought, Oh I want to work for Mrs. Gooch’s!
But of course, I was fairly new to California and really didn’t know whether she was going to come up to the Lancaster area. And I got an appointment to meet with the queen of natural foods, Sandy Gooch.
Now if you understand anything about the natural products industry, this woman and the stores that she had reached the pinnacle of success in our time they had standards that nobody had.
They fought for foods that were clean of preservatives and colors. Her background was teaching and she educated consumers and raised the entire consciousness of how Americans look at the food on their plate.
She taught about eating your colors.
She talked about getting preservatives out.
So of course, I wanted to work for her but she wasn’t coming to Lancaster. So I picked her brain and I opened my own store and that’s how I ended up with The Whole Wheatery.
But to this day I’m still a friend of this woman and her husband Harry Letterman, who also worked in this industry. They are still consulting people and it’s such an amazing thing to see how people of this industry continue to give back.
Continue to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit of this industry.
And continue to raise the consciousness of the American consumer with respect to food.