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New store owners say Bakersfield embracing 'green' products
| Tuesday, Aug 19 2008 5:22 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Aug 20 2008 7:15 AM
Fresh & Green, a new boutique in Northwest Bakersfield, carries an eclectic mix of everything from toys to clothes to cleaning products and body oil.
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Fresh & Green’s grand opening celebration, 7737 Meany Ave. just east of Coffee Road, will feature giveaways, sales and educational events.
Sept. 2-3: 10 percent of proceeds will be donated to local programs benefitting the homeless.
Sept. 4-5: 10 percent of proceeds will go to the American Cancer Center.
Sept. 6: Organic cooking classes by Organic Harvest, Worm Casting Company will discuss organic growing and composting, Cone’s Health Foods will give away organic treats for children and pets, and PG&E will distribute free energy efficient lightbulbs.
Contact: 661-587-6477.
Photos:
Sasha Windes straightens up bedding made from bamboo at her and her partner's new store, Fresh & Green.
Sasha Windes behind the counter at Fresh and Green.
One of the many green items offered at the Fresh & Green store are these backpacks made from recycled plastic bottles.
Jennifer Jordan of Fresh and Green.
Sasha Windes of Fresh & Green.
The only unifying theme in its diverse product offerings is the merchandise must be eco-friendly and contain as few toxic chemicals as possible.
Fresh & Green is an unlikely store in a city not exactly on the cutting edge of the environmental movement. The poor air quality here is infamous.
Plus, green products cost more because they’re expensive to manufacture, which makes them a hard sell in a city heavily comprised of moderate-income families.
Yet business partners Sasha Windes, 33, and Jennifer Jordan,, 31 were undeterred when they started up first a Web site: www.FreshandGreen.com, and then a store on the northwest side. The Web site launched in January and the boutique just east of Coffee Road opened in June.
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised at the response,” Windes said. “But I think with the air in Bakersfield, people are really starting to get the fact that they need to make a change.”
Jordan joked that some would-be shoppers may be wary of going into a green store due to political or cultural biases, but need not be afraid.
“We’re not hippies,” she said. “And we’re not perfect. We’re not going to judge you.”
The entrepreneurs met through work. Windes owns a mortgage company. Jordan owns a real estate company.
They quickly bonded over their mutual interest in green products, lamenting how difficult they were to find locally.
That led to the Web site, which generated enough traffic to give the women confidence to open an 800-square-foot storefront.
It’s hard to find in Chloe’s Plaza, a small strip mall tucked behind industrial buildings east of Coffee Road. They have a three-year lease.
“We deliberately chose a kind of tucked away location to keep our (rent) down, because we know our merchandise costs a little more,” Windes said.
But customers are still driving in from as far away as Los Angeles to shop there, many saying they can’t find some of the more obscure products in traditional stores.
The boutique’s interior design demonstrates the owners’ values. The floor is stained with soy, and the interior paint is organic. An upholstered seating area has furniture from Ikea, which is subject to Europe’s more strict environmental regulation of furniture manufacturing.
The store’s products include clothing, pillows, towels and and sheets made from organic cotton, hemp or bamboo; oils and lotions made of natural ingredients and not tested on animals; energy efficient light bulbs and sustainable building materials such as bamboo flooring.
There is even a nut you can throw in the laundry instead of detergent, and textured, colored paper made from cleaned and processed elephant dung.
“Cool, huh?” Wildes bragged, waving some red speckled “Ellie Pooh Paper” in the air.
Carrie Russo, 29, of Tehachapi, is one of the store’s regulars. She buys cleaning products and cloth diapers there, and recently picked up a toy tea set made from recycled milk jugs.
“We’ve needed something like this for a long time to make it more accessible to people,” Russo said. “And I really need it for health reasons. My son has asthma and eczema and used to get really bad rashes when I used disposable diapers.”
The green movement has been gaining momentum as mainstream retailers such as Wal-Mart devote more shelf space to environmentally friendly products.
“I think it’s here to stay,” said Nancy Kurland, assistant professor of management at California State University, Northridge.
The question is whether a market like Bakersfield can sustain a store that offers such products exclusively.
“I guess it comes down to how much environmental consciousness there is and whether you have the financial demographics, since it costs more.”
For now, at least, that doesn’t appear to be an issue.
Brenda David, 40, who lives in the southwest, visits Fresh & Green at least once a week to shop for her family and buy gifts for friends.
She says she doesn’t mind the higher prices.
“I’d rather pay a little more to keep toxins out of my home and have the safety factor,” David said. “If you can get the same results using natural instead of chemicals, why not?”