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Betsy's In The News

From Vitamin Retailer, February 2012, p. 6.

 

Taking Health to Heart

 

   After beginning her career as a registered nurse, Betsy Billingslea turned to alternative medicine for her family when she wasn’t seeing results from conventional medicine.

 

   “It all began when a guest speaker at church discussed the helpfulness of vitamin A for night blindness,” explained Ramona Billingslea, marketing manager for Betsy’s Health Foods. “When Betsy tried it out and felt the results, she was hooked. Soon, she found herself working in a health food store and learning all she could about supplements. Before long, she was managing stores. Finally, in 1993, she decided to open her own store.”

 

   The 998-square-foot space offers customers a large variety of products. The majority of the store (90 percent) is dedicated to supplements, while the remainder is filled with HBA products (seven percent) and packaged foods, including a small section of frozen breads, buffalo dogs, etc., along with food bars and drinks (three percent). According to Billingslea, sales of vitamins and herbs are fairly equal, while other products, such as HBA, foods and books, make up a smaller percentage of sales.

 

Shoppers Delight

 

   While there is a Vitamin Shoppe just 1.6 miles away, the staff at Betsy’s differentiate themselves by being as competitive as possible on product prices, educating themselves and offering shoppers the highest quality of customer service. The store’s reputation reaches far and wide: some customers travel more than an hour and a half from Galveston and Brenham, TX to shop at Betsy’s. The store’s motto is “Always Taking Your Health to Heart,” and the staff aims to implement that principle from the moment a customer steps into the store. According to Billingslea, the Betsy’s staff feels as though customers are like guests in their home and they treat shoppers accordingly. “Besides offering supreme customer service, we are also trained to consider the whole health of our customers,” she said. “We ask a lot of questions and really listen to the answers to ensure that the products customers purchase are the ones they actually need and will benefit from. A warm smile and loving attitude are a must for the day-to-day business at Betsy’s.”

 

   The store also instituted a frequent shopper program several years ago called the “Orange Card Program.” Customers who have shopped in the store within the last four months are sent an orange postcard by mail each month that offers them an additional percentage off their supplement purchase.

 

   Recently, the Betsy’s Health Foods website was overhauled to make it more appealing to customers. The staff uses the website to not only convince potential customers that the store is worth visiting, but to also let them know what is going on at the store, new products that just came in, among other news. “Because we are information-oriented in our store, we also try to make our website as information-oriented as possible,” Billingslea explained.

 

Looking Forward

 

   This month marks Betsy’s Health Foods 19th anniversary. In addition to offering shoppers some “extra deals,” Betsy’s will be launching its own private label line, starting with approximately 100 skus. “The decision to carry a private label was twofold,” said Billingslea. “We wanted to be able to offer more particular items to our customers, and we also wanted to have the opportunity to increase customer loyalty in an everincreasing competitive market.”

 

   Dedicated to helping customers live happy, healthier lives, the staff at Betsy’s Health Foods is able to work as a team and utilize their abilities to their fullest potential. “We do our best to fulfill customers’ needs every time they come into our store. We build relationships with our customers,” said Billingslea. “We even answer the phone with a smile! ‘Always Taking Your Health To Heart’ isn’t just our motto, it’s the only way we do business.”

 

Copyright 2012.  Vitamin Retailer, February 2012.  All rights reserved.

 

by KIM COPELIN, Reporter

 

Betsy Billingslea says for eight years she couldn’t even get out of bed except to drive her children to school. But now she’s living life to the fullest.

 

Today the 53-year-old retired nurse says she feels better now than she did when she was 21 years old.

She credits the dramatic change in her life to a holistic approach to health care and the benefit of vitamins and supplements where pat medical solutions have failed.

 

Today she owns her own health food store where she helps others through the same approach. Although she doesn’t dispute the necessary role of physicians, she feels the holistic approach to health care - particularly preventive care - is being overlooked in today’s society.

 

Billingslea says her own health troubles began when she was in her early 20s and became afflicted with a multitude of allergies and infections.

 

She had difficulty raising and caring for her family. Billingslea couldn’t cook or do housework, and she barely had enough energy to drive her children to school each day. Driving at night was almost impossible because she suffered from poor night vision. “The kids raised themselves,” Billingslea says.

She went through extensive testing at a number of Houston-area hospitals and was prescribed numerous antibiotics. Billingslea says doctors couldn’t pinpoint her problem and she was told that if she moved to the suburbs and relax she would feel better. She moved to the FM 1960 area but her condition became worse.

 

She went to a doctor who found she had 62 food allergies. “I was even allergic to Houston water,” Billingslea says. Even though part of her problem was diagnosed and treated, Billingslea wasn’t cured and still felt very ill.

 

Things began to unfold for the better when a pediatrician came to speak at Billingslea’s church. Billingslea spoke to the doctor after her lecture and told her about her problems with night blindness. The doctor told her to take a vitamin supplement.

 

Billingslea, who once vowed she would never take a vitamin, reluctantly followed the doctors advice. Within a month she had no night blindness and her mind became open to the help of supplements.

“I thought ‘If that (vitamin) can work, what about other supplements?” she says.

 

Through research, Billingslea began to get to the root of her problems. The numerous antibiotics Billingslea had taken for her various illnesses caused an overgrowth of yeast, which in turn caused joint and muscular aches which left her incapacitated.

 

Neither Billingslea nor her husband or her daughter have taken an antibiotic since 1976. “Not because we’re against them, but because we haven’t needed them,” she says.

But Betsy takes about 12 supplements each day.

 

While her interest in holistic healing has grown to the point she can help other improve the quality of their lives, she says she isn’t trying to take the place of a physician. “I think there is a definite place for physicians,” she says. “Where I think we need to work together is in prevention of different types of illness,” she adds.

 

While vitamins and supplements have been the subject of debate for many years, some physicians say scientists are coming closer to a consensus that vitamins play a complex role in preventing illness and delaying the aging process.

 

Billingslea says that 15 years ago she could hardly get out of bed, yet now she walks miles and works out three times a week.

 

“I feel like there’s nothing I can’t do now,” she says. “Mentally I’ve felt stronger at this stage than I ever felt in my life.”