Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
The crew behind Healthaway (clockwise from bottom) owner Susan Custer, Carolyn Gutierrez, Debra Anderson and Merry Pond-Goodyear.
Shop still healthy after 40 years of operation
Healthway keeps on track by providing good nutrition
By Gretchen Knaup
Healthway Natural Foods is still thriving after 40 years in business. Not only does it serve Sunnyvale residents as a resource for good health and natural living; it serves as a home away from home for its many regular customers.
Although the store is full of unique products from supplements to organic granola, the real draw seems to be in its community-like atmosphere.
"Honestly I think people come here because we treat them like family," said Merry Pond, who works at the store five days a week. "We genuinely care, and that's a hard quality to come by these days.
Customer service among health alternatives is their specialty at the store, according to current owner, Susan Custer.
"The difference in this store is that it's personal," Custer said. "Everybody knows everybody, and if you don't know everybody, it's a great place to start. Families have been coming here for generations."
"Back in the '70s when my mom used to work in Sunnyvale, she would go there," said Courtney Ramey, who has been a customer for four years. "Now that I work in Sunnyvale, she takes me there."
Ramey said she gets the tuna salad sandwich every time. "I won't eat tuna fish anywhere else, but it's so good there. Also I know it's fresh because I can see them make it right in front of me."
"Now I go there and bring my co-workers back good healthy sandwiches," said Ramey. The previous owner, Colleen Kader, said the tuna sandwich was her first creation.
Custer said customers get the individual attention they deserve on any questions they might have.
"Everything here I have tried, so I will refer people to the more natural stuff," Pond said. "I have learned so much about health just by listening and by our reference books."
According to Custer, 70 percent of her business comes from people buying supplements. "People use this place as a convenience because we have little odds and ends," she said. "We are into balance here."
"People come in here for all different reasons, but everyone who walks through that door is coming in for a positive reason," Custer said. "They know they will get the information they need here."
Three years ago, Custer drove by the store and saw the "for lease" sign on the window. "I called the owner, Colleen Kader, and she said she was burned-out from running it for 23 years," said Custer.
"I was volunteering at my church at the time and trying to do too much," Kader explained.
Custer added, "I just asked her flat out without even thinking about it. So what if I just take over? And that was three years ago this August."
"It made me so happy to turn it over to somebody with such enthusiasm, because I didn't want to close the store down," Kader said.
Before Kader bought Healthway in 1975, it was owned by Rick Barsha. According to Kader, she and her husband moved into their house in Sunnyvale just one week after they bought the store.
"The store was on McKinley at the time, and it had been there since 1968," she said. "I think business went up so fast because I started asking the customers what they wanted."
Kader moved the store to the location it is in now, on Washington Avenue, in 1978. "I feel I was lucky to get a location in Sunnyvale," she said. "My main thrust was to get the customers' opinions on what they wanted."
Healthway still features products such as herbs, grains, organic foods, aloe vera products, vitamins, nutrition books, crystals, and also has a sandwich and smoothie bar where customers can dine in the store at the counter or get food to go. The menu features 40-year-old recipes created by the original owner, such as spicy black bean burgers and tuna salad sandwiches with special spices.
"Everything is the same, I just added some additions, like more smoothies," Custer said.
Custer said she and other Healthway employees take pride in the nutritional information they provide.
"I would like to see people take care of their bodies," Custer said. "If people would just do that, everything else would fall into place. I guess that's what we are all about."
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
