A continued dedication to quality products and willingness to go above and beyond for each and every customer has allowed Nature’s Paradise Health Food Store to establish its legacy of “Keeping Emporia healthier than ever before” since 1994.
One of the city’s only dedicated health food and supply shops, Nature’s Paradise has been locally owned and operated by the Spencer family since its inception. The store was started by Steve and Carol Spencer in Sept. 1994 in a 300-square foot space across from the Kress Building at 5 East 7th St.
“My dad was actually a traveling salesman, and he was working for a Kansas corporation at the time,” said son and current Nature’s Paradise Owner Will Spencer. “He was one of their top sales marketing people until he suffered a heart attack. Following that, he was out and about learning to eat more healthy, so he could take care of himself. He’d often have to travel for the things he needed and got pretty fed up with that. He eventually said, ‘I don’t understand why Emporia doesn’t have its own health food store.’ One night, he called my mom and told her, ‘I know what we’re gonna do.’”
The Spencers soon outgrew their original location and moved just three months later to a new space on the corner of 10th and Commercial streets in an old gas station. Nature’s Paradise continued growing in popularity as members of the Emporia community welcomed the new location with open arms. Eventually, the store grew larger than the building could accommodate yet again, and the Spencers were faced with a decision to either build on their current location or look for a new home.
Fortunately, that home was quickly found at 1511 W. 6th Ave. in a former Country Kitchen. After a remodeling period, Nature’s Paradise was established in the location it currently occupies today.
“We’ve made it our job to follow the trends and keep up with the industry ever since that point,” Spencer said. “In 2009, my dad was unfortunately diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, so they both came to me and said, ‘Hey, Will. We know you just got back from your time with the Air Force, but we wanted to know if you would be willing to take your dad’s position. I said ‘Yes’ with no questions asked, and jumped right in … It’s really been a great thing so far. We continued to pride ourselves in helping people, first and foremost. Every business, of course, has to make money to keep afloat, and this is something that takes care of our entire family. But at the same time, we really consider everyone in the local community as part of our family, too.”
To this day, Will continues his mother and father’s tradition of meeting face-to-face with all clients and otherwise curious visitors to his store, helping them make educated decisions on purchases ranging from supplements and dietary aids, to natural medicines, healthy meal options and even CBD-based items.
“One of my main goals is to always carry the highest quality of products,” Spencer said. “All of the companies that we deal with are dealt with on a personal level. We make sure that they have the insurance backing and we make sure that they have the good and proper manufacturing processes to produce quality products. We know that if somebody comes here to buy something and it doesn’t work, they’re probably not going to stop back anytime soon.”
Spencer’s willingness to speak with customers in order to address more individualized health needs has not only served to build him a steady clientele of return customers and friends of the store, but also allowed him to become more invested in personal success stories. Over the years, Spencer has seen quite a few transformations, many involving much more than simple weight loss.
“We had a family that came in one time saying that they had been going to numerous doctors, but nobody could figure out why their child was having strokes,” Spencer said. “They just didn’t know what to do, so I told them to bring in their lab reports so we could review them together. We wanted to really sit there and pick it apart, because often times, I’ve found that nasty symptoms can be caused by even the smallest, minute thing.
“What we ended up finding out was that the child had deficiencies in B vitamins and folic acid. They were low, low numbers, so I said, ‘Let’s start loading him up with some high doses.’ The strokes stopped. Apparently when the mother and father got together to have the baby, it caused a rare genetic defect that caused those symptoms. When they had a second child, they immediately started doing the same treatments, and there were never any strokes.”
Currently, Spencer said he has no plans of switching professions anytime soon, as the rewarding quality of his daily interactions has become “too much to pass up.” Moving forward, he hopes to inspire community members to take a personal interest in their health by researching their needs, collaborating with their doctors and, of course, coming to him with any questions and comments. Spencer encourages those looking for health resources to reach out during store hours — Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. — or message him through the store’s Facebook page.
“For me, providing services to the Emporia community has been great because I’ve been able to make so many new connections and friends while really helping touch people’s lives, in a way,” Spencer said. “That’s what makes Emporia great. It’s one of those communities that has so much history and so much else going on that people might not even be aware of. We have celebrities here that people might not even know about. So really, what we do here is all about taking the time to listen. That’s why we’ve lasted as long as we have.”