About Natural Grocers:
Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage was established in 1955 by Margaret and Philip Isely, parents of the current leadership. They started the business by going door-to-door in Golden, Colorado, selling whole-grain bread and sharing nutrition information with people they met.
The Iselys found that the more health and nutrition knowledge their neighbors possessed, the healthier the food they wanted. Their door-to-door business was successful enough that within a short time they were able to open their first retail location – a modest storefront that looked like a cottage. And, yes, that's where the original name Vitamin Cottage comes from.
More than 50 years after the company was founded, the commitment to service our customers has never changed:
Exceptional customer service
Free nutrition and health information
Highest quality products at affordable prices
Good jobs that support a balanced life
Minimal impact on the earth ecosystem
Natural and Organic. We sell only foods and supplements with natural and organic ingredients. While this can make some products slightly more expensive, we know it's worth it for a number of reasons.
Safer food. Food grown without added artificial chemical herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, fertilizers, and preservatives arrives at your table with less contamination. These substances may have been approved individually as safe in small amounts, but there is growing evidence that long term exposure to all of these chemicals accumulates to dangerous levels over time. This is especially true for fetuses, babies, and children, whose developing bodies are extremely susceptible to chemical disruption.
Nutritious Food. Naturally and organically grown foods tend to have broader nutrient profiles than pampered, chemically assisted varieties. Just because a tomato can be grown to look red and plump and have a month-long shelf life does not make it a nutritious food on the inside. This principle is true of many vegetables, fruits, and factory raised meats.
External Costs. The true costs to public health and the environment are not included in the price of cheap food. Tens of thousands square miles of the Gulf waters outside the Mississippi River Delta are now dead to all creatures because of massive chemical run off from industrial farming throughout the midwest. This is just on example of the long term cost of non-sustainable agriculture practices.
Family Farms. Natural and organic producers tend on the whole to be smaller producers. In fact, the profit on an organic farm has been shown to be adequate to support a family, which is bringing Americans back to the family farm.
Sustainable Earth. We have now reached a point where Man's affect on the earth's environment is overwhelming nature's ability to compensate. We believe it is imperative to use methods that are sustainable over time, and that return a balance to the Earth's ecosystem that can be enjoyed by all future generations.
