In 1971, Elwood and Lou helped to start the National Nutritional Foods Association’s (NNFA) Standards Committee. They reserved a large room at the convention hotel in Portland, Oregon and invited all of the exhibitors and suppliers to attend. The room was packed and there was a lively discussion of the need for industry standards. After considerable discussion and follow-up communication, the NNFA officially organized the Standards Committee and Danny Wells, a well known industry figure for decades, became the head. NNFA members were asked to complete information sheets on each of their products, and these sheets were assembled into the Standards Handbook. Unfortunately, some members did not comply and the Handbook was always incomplete. Lou was elected to the Standards Committee and served as the Chairman of the Food Division for eight years. Lou was also elected to serve as Chairman of the Manufacturing Division of NNFA. Out of these early committees has come NNFA’s TruLabel and GMP programs, both of which NOW Foods has enthusiastically participated in and supported. HEALTH HOUSE EXPANDS & CHANGES NAMES In 1968, Elwood had promised Florence Shibley her own store and this started an amazing run of retail growth. The Lombard Health House opened in 1969 and took off far quicker than expected. In 1970, a third location was added in Skokie and the fourth opened the following year in Berwyn. Listed below are retail sales totals for the stores as they grew at a frenetic pace. YEAR 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 $SALES $79,572 $229,596 $558,936 $727,534 $987,264 STORES Elmhurst Elmhurst, Lombard Elmhurst, Lombard, Skokie Elmhurst, Lombard, Skokie, Berwyn Elmhurst, Lombard, Skokie, Berwyn, Downers Grove In 1972, Health House was forced to change its name due to a bizarre series of unexpected events. The new Berwyn store opened in a former grocery store location and, at 6,000 sq. ft., was the largest natural foods store in the Midwest. It had a 1970s juice bar, an absentee owner and a host of employee problems that weren’t known until the entire business almost went bankrupt! The Berwyn store opened in late 1970 and sold a record amount from day one for a Health House store. On paper the store was profitable almost from the start, but somehow the store was consuming money in ways that weren’t fully understood. The Elmhurst store manager had been promoted to run the superstore and he virtually ended our family business due to his extensive thievery of store products. The manager had opened his own personal store in a nearby town while he was still Elwood’s trusted manager in Berwyn. Apparently he had set up a convenient situation for himself where he would steal large amounts of inventory from Health House on a regular basis and use it to supply his own start-up store. Even after the manager left Elwood’s store, he continued to regularly steal inventory from the Berwyn store with the help of the new manager. That man was later known to be a professional thief who had a partner who was a real burglar alarm expert. 30 BEATING THE ODDS
