The Natural, Inc. has been serving the public since 1990. Originally located in Hamburg, NJ, we moved down the road to Franklin, NJ in 1996. We stayed at our location at 100 Route 23 in Franklin, NJ until January, 2007, when we were given notice to vacate.

Although the notice to vacate was legal and fully within the landlord's rights, the timing couldn't have been worse. With one of the owners 9 months pregnant and Christmas around the corner, we frantically tried to find a new retail space nearby. Needless to say, it proved to be no trivial task, given the bun-in-the-oven situation. Also, most of the potential spaces didn't immediately serve our needs nor were any of the landlords willing to offer short term leases to test the market. Besides, a few of the spaces were owned by the same family that had just forced us out of our existing space (and we weren't about to sign with them again!).

Many thoughts ran through our heads and, to be honest, closing up shop for good was definitely one of them. However, the more we talked with longtime customers and friends, we realized that we've been helping people for too long to call it quits. Sure, there are much better ways to make money in business, but we do like what we do and there really aren't a whole lot of businesses where one is in the position of actually helping people. So, we packed up a few hundred boxes and moved everything into a warehouse and decided to open up an online store.

Since we have many years computer experience (on the side we've been designing web sites for several years), it seemed natural (no pun intended) to set up shop online. Without the overhead of a retail store, we could offer better deals to our customers and be a little more creative with promotions than we could ever do at our store. Besides, it's fun getting things in the mail.

Many of our customers have asked whether or not we'll re-open a retail store. As of this writing, we have NOT ruled out any options. The only thing certain is that we will not be signing any rental contracts with our former landlord, their company or their family's companies. Once bitten, twice shy.

We sincerely apologize to all who loved coming into our store and miss us; we loved having you as our guests and customers. We do hope we can continue to provide excellent service and value on our web site and feel free to drop us a line and let us know how you're doing. Also, if you'd like to drop a line to any of our former employees, feel free to call or email us and we'll be more than happy to forward your comments.

Thanks for your past patronage and we hope to see you on our web site!!

All the Best and Gesundheit!!
-Paula and Michael
(and the two little ones!!)