Vitamin Shoppe
From LoveToKnow Vitamins
The distinct Vitamin Shoppe logo, with Ye Olde Spellingeth, is a common sight around malls and business streets in many metropolitan areas. Where did this company come from, and how does it stack up against the competition in such a fierce field as health and sports supplements?
Vitamin Shoppe Fundamentals
Vitamin Shoppe was founded 1977 by Jeffrey Horowitz, and has since grown from a single store in Manhattan to over 350 across some 30 states in America today, focusing primarily on the coastal areas of continental United States. Headquartered in New Jersey, the company was purchased by now-infamous financial behemoth Bear Stearns in 2002 for $300 million. Another finance giant, JP Morgan, had held a majority stake in the company since 1997. Bear Stearns Merchant Bank CEO John D. Howard is still a member of the board.
The number of stores and product selection is somewhat smaller than others, but Vitamin Shoppe still stands as a solid chain with oftentimes larger store square footage. They currently carry over 20,000 products from manufacturers like Twinlab, Solgar, Nature's Way, Optimum Nutrition, MuscleTech, Met-Rx, Solaray and many other known brands.
Like most other health and sports supplement chains, Vitamin Shoppe has a buyer reward program with rebates, special offers and cash back in the form of store credit for future purchases. Called the Healthy Awards Club, the program is free to join and comes with easy-to-use keychain cards.
The Vitamin Shoppe Store Brands
Vitamin Shoppe operates not one but two web storefronts. www.vitaminshoppe.com, which is the main site, and www.bodytech.com for their secondary store brand line of products called BodyTech. This line of products is aimed a little more at the sports clientele with an emphasis on muscle building and performance enhancing supplements rather than general health and wellness.
In addition to Vitamin Shoppe and BodyTech, the company also offers Vitamin Shoppe Body Care, offering primarily skin and hair care products, and Vitamin Shoppe Organics, vitamins and food products made with organic raw materials. Finally, there's the M. D. Select series with supplements from Dr. Ronald Hoffman aimed at specific ailments and areas that could use extra support, such as ocular (eye) health and mental sharpness.
All together, the five flavors of store brands have about 1,000 different products, which puts them about on par with competitor Vitamin World.
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