Natural Grocers Opening in Woodland Park Greeted By Huge Crowds
~ by Trevor Phipps ~
After waiting for several months, crowds of locals were excited when the food chain Natural Grocers opened their doors last Wednesday to their brand new Woodland Park location.
The arrival of the grocery store chain attracted political attention last year when they got denied tax incentives to come into town by the Woodland Park Downtown Development Authority (DDA). This decision generated mixed opinions by city leaders, as many believed this verdict would kill the chances of Natural Grocers opening a store in town.
But despite the DDA snub, the chain decided to go ahead and build their store anyway in the location of the former Paradise Lodge.
On January 23, the store scheduled their grand opening event and included some perks in attempts to attract new customers. Days before the store opened, staff could be seen all around Woodland Park passing out flyers that advertised the upcoming events and giveaways.
To celebrate its grand opening, the store gave away gift certificates that came with a special perk. “We gave away six months of free groceries in increments of 10, 20, 50, and 100 dollars,” Natural Grocers Marketing Representative Patience Kanda said. “We gave away nine of those today. Those are reloaded every week with either10, 20, 50, or 100 dollars. So the hundred dollar winner gets $100 every week for the next six months, which is really exciting.”
The cold weather on Wednesday morning, following a brutal snow storm, didn’t seem to scare anyone away from the facility’s grand opening and a chance to win free groceries. People started lining up before 8 a.m. for the store’s opening at 8:30 a.m. The line of people wrapped around the building and people could be seen waiting on all four sides. Those that were waiting were offered free coffee as they filled out their entries to win the free groceries.
Once the clock struck 8:30 a.m. people started piling into the store. In the back, the staff offered samples of sweet, decadent raspberry coconut muffins to those who stuck it out in the cold and waited in line. At 9 a.m., Kanda stood up on a checkout counter and used the store’s PA system to announce the winners to a crowd that packed the new grocery store shoulder to shoulder.
Once the winners were announced people were left to roam around the store and shop. Inside the store there were other giveaways that shoppers could enter to win without being present. At 4 p.m. that same day, the store held an ice cream social where they offered free samples of dairy and non-dairy ice cream sundaes and root beer floats.
According to Kanda, Natural Grocers is a grocery store chain that is still family owned and they like to make a big deal out of their store grand openings. “This is what we do for every new store,” Kanda stated. “We like to introduce ourselves to the community and say ‘hey, we really believe in free nutrition education and to help people make healthy choice.’”
Natural Grocers specializes in offering free nutrition education and providing organic food products. The food chain was first started by one person who sold nutritional supplements door to door. The company is now owned by the same family but it is much larger and has 152 locations in 19 states west of the Mississippi.