With only one more day of trading left in its Terania Street location, Rainbow Wholefoods’ staff are packing up the stock and have marked down lots of products – with 50% off many of the fresh vegetables, pulses and dry goods.

The burning question on many devoted customers' lips are: will I still be able to buy in future all of the herbs, seeds, flours, powders and strangely named concoctions that I get there now?

The answer from Rainbow’s manager Pat Greene is that most of it will still be available – but how we order and get it will change.

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What’s gone?

There won’t be any fresh vegetables and fruit any more, or refrigerated perishables like cheeses, sauerkraut or tempeh – but the bulk goods currently in the fridge, like hemp products, will still be available.

It’s still a work in progress, but when the shop closes at the end of tomorrow, Friday January 8, the shelves full of the 561 herbs and other products like vitamins and minerals, will be relocated to a large shed at shop owners Tony and Nghi’s property at Goolmangar.

They intend to downsize the cool room and freezer space needed to accommodate the necessities and keep the shop humming along in a new format.

Read more about the shop: Rainbow Wholefoods to close and go on-line

How to order

Pat said if you want to order any products, the simple way is to give them a ring (the phone number is not changing) and put your order in. Or you can visit the website and email them and order your goods.

At the moment, the website is being updated with all the products and their prices. Pat said because some of the products have multiple names - including botanical, common, Indian or Chinese names - the website will list all of the names so you can find them. Eventually, there will be a spreadsheet that you can fill in with what you want.

To order, visit the website https://rainbowwholefoods.com/ or phone 02 6621 8007.

Keep it green

To make sure the environment is considered, staff recommend that if possible, you could supply your own containers to be filled up, rather than rely on plastic bags for the products you order.

Special blends

If you are looking for a particular herb or product, you can ring and ask Tony -who is a naturopath and herbalist– and he can research and find what it is that you are looking for.

“We can also ring up our suppliers who have chemists working in their factories and we can have a specific blend made up for,” Pat said.

Delivery

Pat said goods can be delivered to you in Lismore at a prearranged meeting place - or can be couriered to you. The shop staff already send things to people all around Australia – so they are used to online ordering.

Future café development

In the future, Toy wants to put a café in at Goolmangar. He intends to put a Development Application in soon and get the process underway so they can sell products there.

“We always try to source local and organic grown products, and if any local growers want to talk to us about supplying products, give us a ring,” Pat said.

Why close?

The business’s owner Tony is renting the building and Lismore City Council has mandated that to stay open, an upgrade to the building is needed to bring it up to modern fireproofing specifications- at a cost of approximately $350,000.

“The building is worn out,” Pat said. “The landlord didn’t want to pay to upgrade it and Tony didn’t want to spend the money because he doesn’t own it. We were also told to build a carpark so we would have had to rent the block next door too to do so – and we can’t afford that either.”

Read the history: Rainbow Wholefoods' future still uncertain - but there is a light of hope