06/13/02 in The Hook

Unlimited thrift marked the spot

Enjoyed the news item on the demise of Unlimited Vitality. [June 6: "'Peculiar' health food store is no more."]

Guess there was a limit after all! The owners often made me wonder if they were not in fact from some other galaxy, here doing cosmic anthropological fieldwork on the behavior of earthlings. Some undergrad study had already been done obviously, enough to partially assimilate on this planet.

I thought they were great. I shopped there often and found them always friendly, in their own way.

Their shop was permanently under-illuminated, doubtless to keep overhead down. Prices were unfailingly lower than anywhere in this area, sometimes as much as a third less than their healthy competitors.

Such a miniscule profit margin may partly explain their near paranoia regarding shoplifting. Many stores simply factor shoplifting into their prices.

I, for one, mourn the store's closing and will miss its colorful proprietors. I wish them well on their next planetary survey.

Steve Burger

Charlottesville

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06/13/02 in the Hook

Unlimited suspicion

Ron Chandler argues that the arrival of such competition as Whole Foods "definitely made a difference" in the fortunes of his health food store ["Peculiar' health food store is no more," June 6, 2002].

I would counter that denial is a vitality-sapping disease. It is unfortunate that Chandler's store did not carry any products designed to fight it, else it might be clear to him that other forces contributed to demise of his establishment.

Some seven or eight years ago, I happily patronized Unlimited Vitality and shared the news of its selection and affordability with anyone and everyone. That is, until the day I turned around in one of the store's narrow aisles to see Chandler standing in a menacing pose inches from me. From our brief conversation I gathered that he was sure I was shoplifting, and my initial protest was met with a surly command to leave.

I immediately left, and I never returned.

What's more, to all those people who heard my praise of Unlimited Vitality, I recanted, and I suggested that what happened to me could easily happen to them, if they dared to enter the store.

It is often debated what evils may be visited upon a town when a mega-store opens its doors. However real those evils may be, Charlottesville is still a small town, and word gets around.

I wish Ron and Uldine Chandler every success in the larger realm of e-tailing. They will benefit from indirect customer contact. As for me, I must politely decline to patronize their website because I am sure that I, like many others, will be accused of trying to hack it.

Jeff Greer

Fry's Spring

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