Store promotes wellness

Downtown store's 'eclectic customers' enjoy everything from chocolates to cleansers

By: Charlie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter

MANITOWOC — Anita Rusch has enjoyed serving customers of Natural Market for 17 years.

"I like helping the people who are coming in here to buy something to make them feel better," said Rusch, one of four part-time employees at the downtown store with the sign declaring, "Welcome to the of Wellness."

For nearly a quarter-century, Natural Market has offered thousands of items to "a nice, eclectic group of customers," said Kristina Schram, general manager of the store owned by her mother, Hildegarde Baumann.

The mother-daughter duo, along with Rusch, Grace Sydow, Carla Gregurich and Joan Buck can offer everything from natural vitamins to nuts to Swedish cookies to "Fair Trade" coffees to sausages and hams to honey to itch-free soap to "green" household cleaning products.

"In the past five years, people are becoming more conscious of the beneficial effects of using 'green' cleaners in their household for the sake of the environment," Schram said of products including ecological lime scale remover for the bathroom and shower.

"Because we are owned by a person and are a brick- and-mortar storefront, we rely heavily on customer input giving us the ability to change our inventory," Schram said. "We will bring in what you need, even if it is only one person requesting it."

The items might come from overseas. "Because my mother is from Germany, we started having a lot of imports including chocolates, licorice, hard-to-find flours, sweeteners and leaveners … for that recipe great grandma used to make," Schram said.

Or, the product might come from Door County, including the chocolate-covered cherries favored by many Natural Market customers.

Nueske's in Wittenberg, Wis., supplies meats in the store cooler including Canadian bacon. Bruno's "Famous Sour Dough Rye Bread" comes in from Chicago. East Shore mustard arrives from Hartland, Wis.

Promotes downtown sites

Schram said Natural Market's primary customer base is Manitowoc County. "But a lot of people who own cottages in Door or Manitowoc counties will stop in on their treks back and forth from Chicago and Milwaukee," she said.

The Badger carferry will resume cross-Lake Michigan crossings a week after Natural Market celebrates its 25th anniversary May 14.

Schram said the big boat brings in customers who "may wonder over" as they stretch their legs walking downtown.

She's pleased to be offer directions to the Rahr-West Art Museum, the Farmers' Market, Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Beerntsen's Confectionary, The Flower Gallery and other downtown attractions and businesses.

"Sometimes, people come in and just want to talk and we try to listen well," Schram said. "Our biggest advertising is our customer relationships."

She believes the current recession may be working in Natural Market's favor when it comes to its Lakeshore area clientele.

"I think some people may be pulling back and not going out of town to buy their (vitamin) supplements, clothes and meals … but staying in town and shopping local," Schram said.

She expects a strong sales month in May when Natural Market prices its vitamins at 20 percent off, which the store also does in November.

Schram believes an increasing number of individuals are adopting better preventive health care.

"That is becoming more mainstream as people think, 'I'm going to take care of myself because, if I don't, nobody else is going to help me if I fall apart,'" Schram said.

Natural Market is located at 302 N. Eighth St., Manitowoc. It is open 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday to Friday, and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday.

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