Healthy products for healthy living
LeeAnn Schreiner, left, Jean Jannasch and Pam Uhrina are co-owners of Nature’s Remedies in Valparaiso. The business opened Sept. 15, six weeks after the closing of the former health food store in the same location. (Photograph by John L. Hendricks/The Times.)
Organic foods, herbal supplements and natural vitamins are among the products stocking the shelves of store whose name explains its function. Nature’s Remedies opened Sept. 15, six weeks after the closing of the former health food store in the same location. The new shop is owned and operated by Pam Uhrina, Jean Jannasch and Leeann Schreiner.
“We took over the location, but not the business,” Uhrina said. “It’s a brand new everything.” The three Valparaiso residents worked in the closed health food store and now help staff Nature‘s Remedies.
“We share the stress, and that’s the good thing,” Uhrina said.
The store also employs three women who worked at the previous shop. Together, the six have more than nine decades of experience in the health food business. The three owners say they all are well-versed in the value of nutrition and nutritional foods, and they are able to offer customers advise on healthy diet and healthy living, not just products to promote them.
“The three of us love doing this,” said Uhrina, who is enrolled in college classes on nutrition. “We love the alternative healing thing. We study it and have been studying it and going to seminars for years.”
Jannasch is a massage therapist while Schreiner, who is a former science and physical education teacher, is a nutrition consultant with certification with the American Association of Nutritional Consultants.
Nature’s Remedies
When opened: Sept 15
Location: 2812 Calumet Ave, Valparaiso
Phone: 219.477.5566
Owners: Pam Uhrina, Jean Jannasch and Leeann Schreiner.
The three pooled savings to open and stock the store, which is located in the same shopping center as Blythe’s Sports Shop. They hope to recoup their investment in about a year, Uhrina said.
“We’re getting small salary, but not getting fully paid,” she said. “We’re putting the money back into inventory.”
Putting the business together was hard because they had to start from scratch, but now they’re having a blast, Uhrina said.
“It was very stressful,” she said. “Now that people really like it and the way it looks, it’s becoming fun because we’re doing what we like to do and helping people.”
