Two stores open doors to better health

Status area

by Jesse Marx
staff reporter

Running a health foods or allergen-specialty store, by most business standards, is no easy task. The owner must get to know the customer personally and match his or hers medical problem with the right product, all the while staying conscious of the latest nutritional trends and opinions.

A veteran health foods store and a one-year allergen-specialty store, however, have managed just that and taken an alternative approach to business for what they consider to be the betterment of the Palos-Orland community.

“You get individual service, you get counseling,” said Theresa Van Loon, of Pass Health Foods, 7228 W College Drive. “We are not going to sell you something you do not need.”

Van Loon, who studied food and nutrition at Western Illinois University, owns and operates Pass with her sister, Joanne Callaghan. Both have a background in retail and warehousing and spend more hours in the store per week than they can count.

The sisters staff three knowledgeable employees and stay open until 7 p.m. on Monday and Wednesdays to accommodate their customers’ work schedules.It is open until 5:30 p.m. during the rest of the week.

“You do what fits the needs of your community,” Van Loon said.

Pass — which sits on the western side of Tiffany Square Shopping Center, facing Harlem Avenue — sells supplements and herbs, and specializes in gluten-and other allergen-free foods. In 16 years the store has expanded 1,200 square feet and weathered numerous economic recessions by avoiding large markups and offering monthly sales. It also offers discounts for senior citizens, fire fighters and police officers.

Free From Market, 14482 S. La Grange Road, opened in November 2008 by Shelly and Peter DeRousse, whose daughters have multiple food and environmental allergies, asthma and Celiac disease, an autoimmune disease requiring the exclusion of gluten from one’s diet.

“There was a time when our eldest daughter was falling apart before our eyes,” Peter DeRousse said. “She was literally starving for sleep, nutrient and peace.”

After years of trips to the emergency room, the DeRousses have completely eliminated milk, eggs and gluten from their home.

“To create a safe environment, we have all gone on the same diet,” the father and business owner explained, “so like our clientele, we search for suitable substitutions for common allergens. Whether it is a life threatening allergy, an intolerance or sensitivity, I think we get it better than most, because we have seen the worst.”

Besides supplements, antibiotic-free grass-fed meats, and vegan and allergy-free food, the DeRousses sell natural household cleaners and beauty products, high tolerance air purifiers and dust-mite-repellent linens. They avoid selling products that contain genetically modified organisms, artificial sweeteners, petroleum byproducts, dyes and food labels that don the ambiguous disclaimer “may contain.”

The DeRousses host the Or-land Park chapter of the Gluten Intolerance Group every second Monday of the month and raise funds every year for the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network and the Food Allergy Initiative.

Shelly, an attorney, has helped write a state food allergy law. Starting in 2011, every school will be required to establish comprehensive food allergy staff training and protocols for their food allergic kids, Peter DeRousse said.

The couple also participates in the Palos Heart Walk and other regional autism events.

Those interested in Pass’ monthly newsletter that includes sales notices, articles and recipes can sign up at passfoods.com. Sign up for Free From Market’s email updates or view the newsletter at freefrommarket.com, where customers can browse products based on allergy types.

The FDA and USDA regulate the health food industry — an all-encompassing, generalized term. Both stores insist they never sell a product without uncovering a few basics: the medically advised problem and the medications that an individual is on.

Most people come into one of these stores already diagnosed, Peter DeRousse said.  “That’s not my place. I refer them to a MD.”

“It would be wrong for a health food store to say they could solve all your problems, and it would be wrong for a physician to say he could solve all your problems,” Van Loon said.  “But cooperatively, we can take care of a lot of your problems.”

After years of research, both storeowners can provide third-party research to verify any of their advice.

“We don’t tell you anything we can’t substantiate,” Van Loon explained. “It’s not our opinion; it is the opinion that has been expressed by health-care professionals.”

“It has to do with knowing the limits of one’s knowledge and not masquerading as a dispenser of medical advice,” Peter DeRousse said.

Pass and Free From Market, and stores like them, benefit from a less competitive and more reciprocal nature. Every store has a niche, Callaghan noted. If an owner cannot reasonably get a product for the customer, they will refer them to one who can.

“That is good citizenship, and that is also rewarded,” Peter DeRousse said.

Health food and allergen-specialty stores, in general, tend to weather recessions better than other businesses because persons with severe allergic reactions cannot go long without the supplements or food they require, Van Loon noted.

To stay atop the trends, the sisters at Pass attend health food and supplement seminars and trade shows. The DeRous-ses have trudged through FDA and USDA laws and continually research food allergies for their upcoming book.

Both stores have a middle-aged clientele — the type of folk who wake up one day and realize how suddenly tired they feel, Van Loon said. “A lot of us are too busy running around to really stop and think about our diet and what we’re doing.”

“The real point of all this is to encourage people to be proactive in their health … and to help people to build bridges with the right people,” Peter DeRousse said. He credited his one-and-a-half-year success in Orland Park with his and his wife’s knowledge and humility. “I have never met people with teachers as strict as ours — our kids.”

Van Loon credited her 16-year success in the Palos community with treating individuals as customers rather than consumers. “Sell the customer something they need, not something that you want them to need.”

This is part of the July 29, 2010 online edition of The Regional.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you. Click here.