New Natural Foods Market Showcases Organics

ROSEANNE HARPER

Crispy Swiss chard, a long expanse of brightly colored apples, black mission figs — all organic — set the stage at A Matter of Health.

Owners Heddy and Nawal Tabet have two smaller locations in Manhattan. The new store features a wide selection of organics.

The family-owned natural foods store opened earlier this month in Nanuet, N.Y., just a fraction of a mile from high-traffic Stop & Shop and Pathmark stores.

The new market's colorful displays may stand out, but its retail prices don't. Indeed, most of the prices look to be in line — or nearly so — with those in the organic section at nearby supermarkets.

Owners Heddy and Nawal Tabet told SN that's the plan.

“We're striving to give our customers the best and freshest organic produce in the industry, and the best service they can get, all at a good price,” Heddy Tabet said as he stood overlooking the produce department.

Apples, all varieties, were priced at $1.59 a pound, and a huge bunch of red leaf Swiss chard, $1.79.

“All our produce is organic,” Tabet said. “And we're proud of its freshness. If a customer asks in the evening why we're out of something [usually a leafy, green vegetable], we tell them we get delivery every morning and such products stay on the shelf only one day.”

If there are such perishable products left at closing time, they become ingredients in a variety of prepared foods, made fresh every day from scratch in the store's kitchen.

Tabet's wife, Nawal, oversees the production of a selection of healthful items, including a signature chicken-spinach-feta meatloaf and brick oven pizza, again all-organic, served up from a hot table section at the back of the store.

The produce department, which spans more than 2,000 square feet of the store's 14,000 square-foot sales floor, is a dream come true for the Tabets.

“We have the space here, something we don't have in the city,” Heddy Tabet said.

The family already owns and operates two stores in Manhattan, but the larger of the two is only 3,000 square feet, and the space for fresh produce is limited.

“Here we have 10 times more room for produce. We have at least 20 more varieties. Also, being able to make the department the focal point of the store gives the whole place a feeling of freshness,” Tabet said.

Store designer, David Yehuda, president, DY Design, Kings Point, N.Y., made sure of that.

As customers enter A Matter of Health, they come right into the produce department where they're surrounded by colorful displays. SN noticed on a recent visit that one must pass by a couple of colorful displays before it's possible to veer left into the rest of the store.

Meanwhile a series of skylights brings natural light in, and it mixes with high-up light fixtures, some that look like old-fashioned oil lamps.

“The idea is to give an open, outdoor market feel to the space,” Yehuda said.

In addition to the lighting, and the colorful displays that face customers, graphics high up on the walls depict harvesting scenes — wide-open fields with workers bundling wheat and hauling vegetables.

“We consider produce our flagship department. We carry not only all-organic, but we also keep as much of it local and regional as we can,” Tabet said.

He said he works with four distributors to source the variety of organic produce he needs.

“I've built a relationship with these distributors over the last 20 years. They're the same ones we work with to supply our stores in Manhattan. Our long-time relationship with them helps us get a good price on organic produce,” Tabet said, explaining how he can keep his retail prices relatively low as an independent.

That's one thing that makes it possible to compete in a market where supermarkets have developed successful organic produce sections.

Tabet pointed out that, while the bulk of his produce comes in via the distributors he's familiar with, he also is constantly looking for additional supply sources.

“In season, I'll certainly buy some produce direct from local farmers. I just met with somebody yesterday to talk about buying direct from him.”

He added that he'd like for fresh produce to eventually make up 30% to 40% of store sales. In Manhattan, produce barely makes up 20% of store sales just because of the limited space that can be devoted to it.

Part of his success in highly competitive New York City has resulted from his close supervision and attention to detail, Tabet said. This, his first venture outside of New York City, is getting a lot of his personal attention. He's in the store seven days a week, and right now, as he's getting things sorted out and interviewing prospective associates, he spends most of the hours of the day there.

“I oversee the delivery of produce before six in the morning, and then help with the displays,” Tabet said.

“Produce has to look pretty, like jewelry.”

The store's designers created a loft-perimeter effect above the sales floor where the company's offices are located. Bridges of wrought iron at that level make it easy for the Tabets and department managers to get a full view of what's going happening on the sales floor.

The layout of the sales floor, too, makes the traffic pattern flow easily from one department to another. From the produce department, customers enter slanted, short aisles of packaged items.

To their right, stands a department with floor-to-ceiling displays of supplements and all-natural and organic beauty aids.

“We have one of the largest selections of supplements in the industry. [In that], we can compare ourselves to Whole Foods,” Tabet said.

After checking out the supplement section, SN noticed that aromas from the brick oven pizza station and the hot prepared, foods counter were drawing customers toward the back of the store.

A friendly, chef-garbed associate asked customers if they would like to taste any of the entrees and sides displayed. The signature meatloaf got a lot of takers. That's the best seller, at $8.99 a pound. The next most popular item is organic pizza at $2.99 a slice, or $20 for a 16-inch pie. Third on the best-seller list, Tabet said, is rotisserie chicken. Free-range, hefty birds, at $7.99 each.

Nawal Tabet, who oversees the from-scratch kitchen production, tests each recipe with the chef, and then keeps a close eye on preparation every day, she said.

“We have an oven dedicated to gluten-free products,” she told SN.

“We pride ourselves on offering a good selection of vegetarian and vegan menu items, and also gluten-free items. We're careful, too, to identify them as what they are. Also, sugar-free items.”

Coming up soon will be a selection of store-made soups. They'll be available from a self-service island right in front of the service hot foods counter. Sandwiches, too, and fresh-squeezed vegetable and fruit juices are available in that area, as well.

Heddy Tabet, educated in France as a medical doctor, came to the United States in the ‘80s, and shortly afterward went into business with his father-in-law, owner of the first A Matter of Health store in Manhattan.

“That store in the Chelsea area of the city is tiny, hardly more than 500 square feet. We later opened a 3,000 square foot store on 77th Street,” Tabet said.

Now, for the first time, the Tabets have the store they've always wanted, they said. A store in the right location that's large enough to accommodate the variety and volume of organic produce they want to offer, and to give them adequate space for other departments, including a from-scratch kitchen.