By Kathy Schrenk
For nearly 50 years, a store called Bumble Bee has been a fixture at the corner of Latham Street and Escuela Avenue in Mountain View.
First a pharmacy, and for the past 34 years a natural products and supplement store, Bumble Bee Health Foods soon will be another entrant in the classic David-and-Goliath scenario that replays so often in American retail; a Whole Foods is going up just a mile away in Los Altos.
But the shop’s owners are confident that loyal customers will keep coming to Bumble Bee, supporting the small business in the face of a gargantuan competitor.
The Bumble Bee counter where Karen Farrell has rung up purchases since she was 12 years old looks out on a corner occupied by other small shops, many with more Spanish words on the windows than English. When her father, Clifford Barnes, opened his pharmacy here in 1957, it was with an eye towards helping the neighborhood folks. Farrell still holds to that ideal today.
She and her husband, John, run the small shop, its shelves crammed with a menagerie of items, from recycled aluminum foil to yoga DVDs, from organic toothpaste to valerian tincture, an herbal relaxant. They give advice to customers on how to cure a sour stomach and chat about the many ways that Mountain View has changed over the decades — Karen in both English and Spanish.
And of course, they talk politics. In separate conversations with a visitor, for example, they both described how they were moved by the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. book “Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy.”
The couple, married since 1982, clearly are on the same page and exude a genuine belief in their products. They met, in fact, because of that shared belief. When John moved to California in 1978 from New York, he started looking right away for a natural foods store to help maintain his vegetarian lifestyle. He found Bumble Bee — and Karen, his future wife.
Most of the customers coming in on a busy Saturday afternoon seem to know Karen or John, or both. Many are picking up a specific item that the Farrells have set aside or special-ordered just for them.
Roberta York of Mountain View is one such customer. She’s been a Bumble Bee shopper for “at least 10 years,” because feels better when she uses the natural products she finds there, she said.
She also comes for the advice on how to eat well and cure what ails her, York said. Once, she was suffering from muscle soreness. Instead of taking Advil, she used a supplement Farrell recommended, and it worked.
“There are all sorts of reasons to go natural,” York said.
Even after the 55,000-square-foot Whole Foods opens up later this year, York will continue to shop at Bumble Bee, she says, because she likes the personal service and believes in supporting small local businesses.
“These two, they really know their product. They’re not out to sell, sell, sell.”
That’s the lesson Farrell learned from her father. Barnes was a UCSF-trained pharmacist, who moved the family to Mountain View after World War II. He worked at the store at least part-time until he was 90 years old. To the end, he got a warm feeling from helping customers, Karen Farrell said. “I know that’s what makes me feel good.”
Barnes passed away three years ago.
The proximity of the new competitor on El Camino Real does mean the Farrells may have to adjust their inventory slightly.
“Food is a small part of our business. It may drop off,” John said. “If we take over more of the store for supplements, that’s fine.”
INFORMATION:
Bumble Bee Health Foods is located at 601 Escuela Ave. in Mountain View. The store can be reached at (650) 968-3131.
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