I learned one other critical business lesson from the success of MaxEPA. In the summer of 1985, NOW sales were mostly natural grains and flours, condiments, teas and bulk products. One memorable product was the 100 lb. size of ‘medium’ bran flakes that cost us as low as six cents per pound by the truckload. Since mainstream food processors started removing the bran from wheat to make white wheat flour – without regard to the loss of nutrients and fiber – there was an excess of wheat bran available practically free. In fact, we had several promotions where NOW gave away these huge 100 lb bags of bran free to stores with $250 orders. For a cost of only $6, it seemed like a bargain promotion that cornered the local market for bran and led to increased bulk sales. I was working in the warehouse at the time and would receive these shipments and put the stock away as space allowed. Because of the size of the bags, nearly half had to be lifted up since they always seemed to fall off the pallets. It was heavy labor largely because of the big size and it seemed like at least one bag each shipment would rip on the pallet and need to be taped. Also, since we had no walk-in cooler on site, every summer inevitably led to moth problems and bran had to be thrown away. The cheap bran was bulky, leaky, buggy and an inventory hazard that was difficult to handle. Conversely, MaxEPA was a quick, easy, clean, profitable, simple sale that pointed NOW in the direction of becoming NOW Vitamins, not NOW Foods. As an order picker, it just seemed so easy to pick and pack a case of MaxEPA, compared to all the hassles of massive bags of bran for the same amount of sales. Learning this lesson helped lead NOW to a whole new field providing vitamins, minerals, amino acids and herbal capsules in addition to still supplying our variety of natural foods. Hence the name “NOW Foods” stuck, even though food sales became a very small part of our business. Foods remained part of our genes, in our corporate blood. CHANGING TIMES As sales at NOW took off, it’s interesting to view how best sellers changed and how natural food product cycles evolve. By 1985, NOW was basically seen as a food distributor that supplied a wide variety of unique products. Inventory was filled with unique products such as Puffed Amaranth, Carob Filberts, Carob Walnuts, Corn Germ, Yogurt Stars, Whole Dulse Leaves, Barley Bran, Kelp Flakes, Honey Powder, Eggshell Powder, Black Currant Powder, Blue Cheese Powder and Black Turtle Beans! Additionally, we sold fairly large quantities of Linseed oil softgels, which was later upgraded to organic Flax Seed Oil. Other oddities included Hunza organic dried fruits and Ceramic People Feeders, a plastic container that made you wonder what it was really for! Listed below were NOW’s best sellers for this period: 1985 BEST SELLERS #1 “Juice Packed” Bulk, dried Papaya Spears #2 Fructose Granules, derived from beets #3 Lecithin Granules 1986 BEST SELLERS #1 MaxEPA (by a landslide) #2 Vitamin E-400 d-alpha capsules (as softgels were called) #3 Vitamin E-400 mixed tocopherols 52 BEATING THE ODDS
