Reopened Store Enjoys Healthy Traffic

Nearly eight weeks after reopening the Fountain of Vitality health food store in Warren's Pheasant Run Shopping Center, new owner Farooq Chaudary watches as a stream of customers comes into the store.

One stops, looks around at the store front and Chaudary, then smiles. "Thank goodness you're open again," he says.

"You see?" Chaudary said, moments after saying he had encountered a customer so grateful for the reopened store, she stood crying in an aisle. "I get that a lot."

The Fountain of Vitality store had opened in Warren nearly 30 years ago, one of four family-owned stores in the area. Business in Warren was brisk, but other locations didn't fare as well, eventually forcing the company to close all of its stores.

Chaudary, an engineer with a background in IT consulting and business management before opening a health food store in East Orange with a partner, jumped at the chance to purchase and reopen the Warren store as the sole proprietor.

"This was a good running store, so I bought it," he said.

One of the reasons customers at the New Fountain of Vitality, or the original Fountain of Vitality store for that matter, are so loyal is the store's complete selection of organic, homeopathic and gluten-free foods.

The store also carries healthy snacks, vitamins and diet supplements.

But for many customers, the store's most helpful product is advice—recommendations for supplements, dietary changes, or organic produce to try. A bookcase near the front door displays books and magazines related to health issues and dieting, along with a stand holding store copies of the Physician's Desk Reference and other sources of information for "the free exchange of ideas," as Chaudary noted.

"Although we're not doctors, we can certainly advise them of their options," Chaudary said. "I've never had a customer come back to me and say, 'Oh, you suggested such-and-such and it didn't work.'"

While the store seems to have just about everything, Chaudary said items not stocked can be specially ordered.

The store will be marking its grand re-opening April 23, with vendor demonstrations, samples and presentations, and Chaudary said a customer loyalty program will be launched within a week or so.

And while he's only run the store in Warren for a short time, he's already enjoying some very loyal customers.