Affordable Wholefoods Bulk Food shop is planning a move to a new location that could see Lismore’s Keen Street become a health food hub.

Affordable Wholefoods co-owners and managers, Denise and Mark Evans said they bought the old Black Sombrero building on Keen Street at auction last year, when it was on the market.

Ironically, the building is directly located next to Lismore’s other CBD health food shop - Fundies Health Foods.

“We’d prefer it not to be next to Fundies, but that’s the way it is,” Mark said.

While the change of location from Magellan Street is still in its early days, Mark said the move will definitely be happening – he’s just not sure when.

Plans

“We are going through the preliminary procedures of deciding what we want to do with the building,” he said.

"The new space looks bigger, but it is narrower and has an internal staircase.

“We could possibly have a café there too - we’re not sure yet.

“We need to see what council says and what the costs are.

“It’s a slow process to get plans through Council - and we haven’t fitted anything yet.

“As well as Council planners being understaffed and busy, so are the engineers and builders – so we are waiting on everyone.”

Flood

Mark said one of the big attractions of the new building was that it had an upstairs storage area, out of potential flooding.

“Our Magellan Street shop was completely destroyed in the last flood,” he said. “We had insurance, but it was a terrible experience and we never want to have to do that again.

Affordable health food

Mark said he and his business partner Denise opened Affordable Wholefoods in 2008.

“We couldn’t afford to shop at Fundies ourselves, so we thought we needed to open a health food shop that was actually affordable,” he said.

"We started it so people who did not have a lot of money could still afford to eat healthy, organic food.

“Unlike some shops – we pass on price savings to the clients.

"When products are in short supply and the price goes up, then drops when there’s a glut again, we make sure we drop our prices accordingly - not just out put the prices up and hold them there.

“For example, chia was $25 a kilo a few years ago, but now it’s $13 a kilo.

Building business

When we opened in 2008, it was just as the GST was coming in. We had borrowed against our land and shed we were living in to buy the shop – and we knew we had to make it work.

“So, we worked hard to build the business. It’s pretty motivating when you could lose everything you have.

"Now, we are hoping to get some concrete plans for the future move happening by July or August.

“We just need to sit and wait – it’s going to be interesting for everyone.”