News

Kiosk offers vitamin info to shoppers

April 6, 2005

NorthJersey.com: Tom Tolworthy says the muscle his company needs to build will ultimately come from the information it provides to customers. As chief executive officer of The Vitamin Shoppe, he wants to help everyone from the body builder to the casual dieter make sure they're not overwhelmed by the selection of more than 400 brands of vitamin supplements. So he puts a premium on staff training. And he makes sure each of the company's 245 stand-alone stores has a kiosk where customers can access and print independent information on the supplements, which are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration The information is provided by a company called Health Notes and includes potential prescription drug interactions and other research on the supplements. "It's clinically based information, and it's not always positive," Tolworthy said. "But we want to be able to offer the best credible information that exists in the marketplace because there can be conflicting information from time to time in the media. The philosophy of the company really is in education and information." Click here to read the full story.