With residents struggling to find a local doctor and sometimes lengthy waits at hospitals and clinics, a local business is playing a valuable role helping people looking for health advice.
More and more questions regarding how one can maintain a healthy body and other wellness matters are being directed at the staff of Nutters Bulk and Natural Foods in Okotoks.
The retail enterprise won Gold in the annual Best of the Foothills Readers’ Choice Awards for Best health advice. It was also the bronze selection in the category of best place to buy organic foods.
Acting Nutters store manager, Stephanie Proctor, said wellness inquiries are a regular occurrence at the store.
“People come in almost every day to seek advice from the girls here,” she said.
Proctor has been at the local Nutters for more than four and she is currently running the store in place of store manger, Leanne Taborski, who is on a maternity leave.
Proctor said it is not just one segment of their client base looking for advice. Men and women, customers young and old, have all directed questions at Nutters’ staff.
Proctor explained sometimes detective work is required to help a patron get to the root of a problem.
“With the health advice side of things we have people say, ‘I have had this, this and this issue. What can I do? What do you think the problem is?’ Then we have to try and pick their minds and figure out from what our knowledge what it could be,” she said.
Nutters Bulk and Natural Foods is a franchise headquartered in Medicine Hat and has more than 28 stores from Manitoba to B.C. and one in Nebraska.
Proctor said each stores determines its own focus and a noticeable shift has taken place over the years in what the customers want at the Okotoks store.
“There used to be a lot more bulk foods and candy,” she said. “Not all Nutters are the same. With our store specifically we have kind of changed more towards supplements and healthy foods and allergen free food and things like that. ”
The ability to give people solid tips on the right products to try to deal with their specific issues is not just a matter of instinct and experience. Proctor said there’s homework involved as well.
“The companies we deal with our really good at sending us out information,” she said. “So we always make sure we keep on top of things that way. There are catalogues and magazines that get sent out to us. We always make sure we keep on top of things by reading them so we know what’s on the up and up. ”
For more information on Nutters Bulk and Natural Foods see www.nutters.com
