The Early Days of Health Food Stores and Co-ops

The modern natural foods industry traces its roots to a patchwork of small, often idealistic ventures that began appearing in mid-20th-century America. Long before “organic” was a supermarket buzzword, health food stores were mom-and-pop operations, many founded by individuals who had personally discovered the benefits of whole foods, vitamins, and herbs. These shops not only sold goods, but also served as hubs for people seeking alternatives to mainstream food culture.

Pioneers of the 1950s and 1960s

One of the earliest documented independent health food ventures in the U.S. was Vitamin Cottage, founded in 1955 in Denver, Colorado by Philip and Margaret Isely. Starting with door-to-door sales of bread and supplements, the Iseleys soon opened a small store that emphasized natural, whole foods and vitamins. Over decades, this business grew into Natural Grocers by Vitamin Cottage, one of the largest chains of natural food markets in the country.

Around the same time, Hanna Kroeger opened her herbal and natural foods store in Boulder, Colorado (1957). She combined her background in herbal medicine with a strong belief in spiritual healing, making her shop a destination for people seeking both remedies and community.

In California, the counterculture’s influence began reshaping how natural foods were sold. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, Berkeley and San Francisco were bubbling with small collectives. One of these was Ma Revolution Natural Foods, founded in 1971 in Berkeley. With its shoestring storefront on Telegraph Avenue, it embodied the spirit of the era: egalitarian, experimental, and committed to organic ideals.

The Rise of the Co-op Movement

As the hippie generation embraced vegetarianism, macrobiotics, and natural eating, many areas without formal health food stores relied on buying clubs. Groups of friends and neighbors pooled money to purchase large sacks of brown rice, beans, or soy sauce, then split them into smaller portions. Out of this model grew the food co-ops that became permanent fixtures in many communities.

One of the earliest successes was the Puget Consumers Co-op (PCC) in Seattle, which began in 1953 as a 15-family buying club and by 1967 had opened a storefront. In New York, the Park Slope Food Co-op, launched in 1973, became famous for its participatory model, requiring members to work in the store in exchange for low prices and access to natural foods. These co-ops weren’t just places to shop—they were experiments in alternative economies and community building.

San Francisco’s Rainbow Grocery Cooperative grew out of a spiritual community’s bulk buying program in the early 1970s and opened a storefront in 1975. Operated entirely by volunteers and later transitioning into a worker-owned co-op, Rainbow became an institution in the Mission District and remains a landmark of cooperative food culture.

Boulder’s Natural Foods Revolution

Boulder, Colorado, became one of the nation’s hotspots for natural foods retailing. In 1978, Hassan Hass Hassan helped start Pearl Street Market, which soon evolved into Alfalfa’s Market by 1983. Unlike the cramped, eccentric health food stores of the past, Alfalfa’s introduced a supermarket-style model for natural foods, offering abundant fresh produce, bulk bins, and prepared foods.

The Boulder energy also gave rise to Wild Oats Markets, founded in 1987 by Libby Cook and Mike Gilliland. Within a few years, Wild Oats expanded into a regional and then national chain. In 1996, Wild Oats acquired Alfalfa’s, folding Boulder’s flagship natural foods store into its growing empire.

Mrs. Gooch’s and the California Market

Meanwhile in Los Angeles, Sandy Gooch opened Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Foods Markets in 1977. Sparked by her own struggles with food allergies, Gooch insisted on purity and transparency in her store’s offerings. By the 1980s, Mrs. Gooch’s had become a household name in Southern California natural foods culture, offering organic produce and specialty health products when few other retailers did.

Consolidation under Whole Foods

The 1990s saw a dramatic shift. Whole Foods Market, founded in 1978 in Austin, Texas, expanded aggressively by acquiring many of the pioneering chains that had grown regionally. Whole Foods absorbed Mrs. Gooch’s, Bread & Circus (New England), Fresh Fields (Mid-Atlantic), and others, transforming the scattered natural foods landscape into a national powerhouse. In 2007, Whole Foods attempted to acquire Wild Oats, but the FTC intervened over antitrust concerns. Ultimately, Whole Foods divested Wild Oats in 2009.

Interestingly, Boulder came full circle when local entrepreneurs re-opened Alfalfa’s under its original name in 2011, reclaiming some of the grassroots ethos that had launched the movement in the first place.

Timeline of Early Health Food Stores & Co-ops

• 1953 – Puget Consumers Co-op (Seattle) formed as a buying club; store opens in 1967.
• 1955 – Philip & Margaret Isely found Vitamin Cottage in Denver, Colorado.
• 1957 – Hanna Kroeger opens herbal and health food store in Boulder, Colorado.
• 1966 – Erewhon (Boston) imports macrobiotic foods, helping popularize natural foods on the East Coast.
• 1971 – Ma Revolution Natural Foods opens in Berkeley, California.
• 1973 – Park Slope Food Co-op founded in Brooklyn, NY

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