Venus Rising

ProfileIssue: Taurus 08

Katy Lesser Grew her Natural Foods Market from a Tiny Sprout

Twenty-two years ago, Katy Lesser was about to go back to graduate school, but she felt that it would be more responsible to work and make money to support her family. She had grown up in a Jewish family where food was a big part of daily life. As a member of the local food coop, she never went to any other natural foods stores, but one day she couldn't find an ingredient there and heard about a tiny store called Healthy Living. She found out that it was for sale, and she bought it. Now a 30,000 square-foot, grocery-store-size market with 150 employees, Healthy Living is literally feeding the Burlington, Vermont area community.

"When I first discovered Healthy Living, it was the strangest little place," says Katy, "natural foods, cuckoo clocks, Chinese bicycles, esoteric European cookware....an odd mix of products but kind of fascinating. I had no experience in business. It was a really crazy move!" 

For the first three years Katy's then-husband, Peter Goldsmith, ran the store with her. "Peter had a business degree and really got things off the ground. I had no clue."  Katy had heard that after three years a business that's going to "make it" will know. "But after three years, things were very iffy. Peter was ready to do something different and I realized I would have grow up, learn the business, and do the hard stuff if we were to survive. It was a turning point for me."  Katy will be the first to tell you that it wasn't until after more than ten years that she finally knew Healthy Living was viable.  "I really had some hard times on every front with my business. It was not an easy road, but I'm tenacious, and you absolutely have to be that way to make it."

Now a mix of health and gourmet foods, local products, and a large selection of beer and wine, natural body care, and vitamins, the new Healthy Living is perhaps the most eclectic food store in the area. "We moved from 7000 square feet to 30,000. We moved from 600 square feet of office space to 5000.

Healthy Living had grown in tandem with the natural/gourmet foods industry and by the end of 2006, Katy was completely out of space. "Customers could barely get their carts around. We didn't have half the products available to us. Our staff was working without the most basic of tools and space. It was time!"