Photography by Jessica Turner
Steve Long and Robyn Sanford have been married for three years, but the business they run together goes back further than that.
His mother opened Northlake Heath Foods in 1974. Since Robyn started working at the store eight years ago, Northlake Health Foods has added a lineup of health-conscious skin care, hair, cleaning and cosmetic products to its offering of nutritional supplements. One of the more notable additions came with the addition of organic coffee products, which may differ from standard roasts.
“Most of the time, you hear coffee being bad for you.” Sanford says. “It wreaks havoc on your gut. But when you use the right kind, it’s actually really good for you.”
Sanford says the additions have helped bring younger customers through the door.
After three years of marriage and close to a decade working together, Long says they make the ideal team.
“We just play off each other, and it brings out the best of each other. She’s got ideas. When I first met her, I’m older, the store had been around for a while,” Long says. “I wanted a young person with new ideas, fresh ideas, energy, vitality, pretty, you know. And she’s all that.”
