The Health Store

The Health Store is one of those Irish brands doing a decent job swimming upstream against larger UK competitors like Holland & Barrett (or its Irish partner, Nature’s Way). Stepping in, the store lacks the charm of slightly better developed brands like Nourish, or the ernest seriousness of the more local single serving shops like Down to Earth in town.
Thankfully, its well stocked shelves make up for the missing pomp and circumstance; this tiny shop on the lower level of The Square is bursting with vitamins, foods and alternative treatments for mind, body and wallet. Er, spirit.
I was pleased to find the brand of natural peanut butter I usually buy in town is here along with an expanded line of the brand’s other butters (almond, hazel… lug) –but priced the same as I’d get in the City Centre. The woman behind the counter on my visit was amiable, happy to help and ready with a few pieces of somber advice on the vitamins I was browsing. Its genuine advice, since The Health Store put its employees through a training program recognised by the British National Association of Health Food Stores (NAHS) and the Irish Association of Health Food Stores (IAHS) –something I didn’t know before going in, and appreciate as a customer.