After holding court for nearly 39 years in the Orchards Mall, General Nutrition Center — or simply GNC — has relocated to the front lot of the Fairplain Plaza. It was a move that General Manager Joshua Shumate had been working to engineer for the past two years, and is his dream come true.
Shumate and his colleague Laura Hess were hard at work today strategically placing products on the new store’s shelves in between greeting customers and selling healthy products at their new site alongside Batteries Plus Lightbulbs along M-139 in the strip center next to Burger King.
Shumate had telegraphed the company’s decision to move from the mall more than a year ago in an overwhelming desire to gain better visibility and easier access for the firm’s myriad customers. Paperwork and other hurdles along the way kept the move from taking place until over the weekend and the new store opened yesterday at 2061 M-139 in a space that has almost an identical retail floor footprint, but considerably larger product storage quarters at the back of the house.
Shumate has been with General Nutrition Centers for eight years now, first in Kalamazoo and over the past three years in the Orchards Mall. GNC itself had been a staple at the Orchards Mall dating back to 1979.
When negotiations were completed last August, Shumate was already “super excited” over the impending move, but even he couldn’t have predicted how long the final stages of the process would take. Shumate admits that he “lobbied hard for two full years to exit the mall for higher visibility” because sales had been plunging as more and more storefronts there were being vacated.
He says it was not uncommon at all to meet people in the community who had no idea there was even a health food and vitamin store in the mall, and that drove his desire to relocate. That is all history now, though as the bright new vitamin and health care product center springs to life.
GNC focuses on everything from keto dieting and regular dieting to muscle growth, energy products, women’s health and beauty products, women’s medical health and more to testosterone support and beyond. Shumate said it goes well beyond to sleep support, stress support, and “almost any direction across the board.”
GNC’s Grand Opening on M-139 has begun and will run the rest of the week through Saturday with product giveaways, free samples, relationship building with new clientele and “great excitement over the new space.” Shumate encourages the entire community to check out a store that they might never have checked out before. He called it, “Definitely a store that this area needs,” and adds he’s hopeful he can “regain a lot of the business we lost to South Bend, Kalamazoo, and people that stopped going to the mall for whatever reason or just didn’t even know that we were there.”
Thanks to the expansive new storage area at the back of the store, the new GNC will be carrying a lot of new products never showcased before and new brands as well. The new store will be open from 10am until 9pm Monday through Saturday and 11am until 6pm on Sundays. Shumate has a team of five full and part time associates and expects to grow that to six within the next six months and projects that within a year he will be hiring a full-time assistant manager.
Shumate strongly believes, “The community needs this store. We need a health store in the area,” and adds, “That’s the biggest message I could send: support this store.” He promises get face to face interaction and true help for people dealing with health issues. He notes, “Not only do we work here…we use the products ourselves, so we know what works.”
The new GNC is pledging to price match competitors, especially places like Amazon.com and BodyBuilding.com, promising to “do the best we can to guarantee that you will get the best deal here, so there’s really no benefit to going online unless you just don’t like social interaction.”
While Joshua is not a doctor, he does have a Masters Degree in Health Care Administration and a Bachelors in Health Services. He is also a Certified Trainer. Laura Hess teaches fitness classes at Lake Michigan College. Also on the team are Trainer Jordan Oakley, Nick Thomas who is becoming a Certified Trainer, and Justin Bundy.
The GNC team can handle the creation of special diets, diet recommendations, and even general tips for those who want just a quick jot-it-down diet.
Shumate recognizes that brick and mortar retailing is taking a hit due to online ordering, but he strongly feels that people in need of health care products like GNC offers “need people that know what they’re talking about when it comes to these specialty products, need social interaction, need to build relationships for the safety of their well-being, and beyond.” That’s why he strongly encourages visiting GNC because if the retail portion dies, “you’ll have no choice but to go online, and then you won’t be able to get the critical advice you need, the tips and professional expertise, and other benefits” his team brings to the table.
He’s very much looking forward to rekindling old relationships, launching new ones, and helping the community to thrive in a healthy regimen and environment starting right at his shop on M-139. Check it out.
