Now that GreenAcres has sold, what’s going to change?

Christopher Santi said he’s not trying to be funny, but he’d truly prefer his company’s entrance into the Wichita market to be as boring as possible.

“We don’t want to come in with a big splash,” the president and COO of Healthier Choices Management said.

That’s because the company purchased Wichita’s 30-year-old GreenAcres Market chain and likes things mostly just as they are.

Santi said the the chain of five stores — three in Wichita and two in Oklahoma — is well managed and well liked already.

“It’s our goal to remain constant.”

Healthier Choices is a public company based in Hollywood, Fla., that has businesses focused on wellness.

Its largest category is natural and organic grocery stores. It has 19, three of which have restaurants.

When it purchases brands, it keeps those brands intact, so it won’t be changing the GreenAcres name, but that’s also why it won’t be opening any others either.

With those other brands, Santi said there can be efficiencies and economies of scale.

“We’re able to quietly improve margin a little bit.”

Healthier Choices mostly operates on the East Coast, but now that it’s in the Midwest with the GreenAcres purchase, Santi said it will be seeking other opportunities as well. That could be new sites for things such as IV therapy, weight-loss management and Botox injections within existing businesses.

“We are entertaining other things.”

‘A plain piece of land’

When Barb and John Hoffmann started GreenAcres in 1994, there weren’t nearly the number of natural grocery stores nationally and in Wichita as there are now.

Nor were there many stores on the north end of Bradley Fair where the first GreenAcres still is.

“When we opened there, it was a plain piece of land,” Barb Hoffmann said.

“In fact, most of our customers were horses,” she said, joking about the animals who still roamed nearby Wilson Estates before there were houses there.

Hoffmann had some health challenges that prompted her to investigate healthier eating and natural foods, and that led to her first GreenAcres.

In an interview with The Eagle at the business’ 15-year mark, Hoffmann discussed starting the store and how she never doubted it still would be in business a decade and a half later.

“An entrepreneur always pictures still being there. It was a challenge in the beginning because we were kind of before our time. . . . We were optimistic.”

At the time, the interviewer also asked her what product everyone, including people who aren’t natural grocery shoppers, should try.

“Either probiotics or fish oil. And I think it would probably be fish oil, because everybody needs omega-3s.”

Education was a big part of GreenAcres, especially in the early years when natural and organic foods were new to a lot of people.

“We were so far ahead of our time, it took a huge amount of education, and that was probably the hardest part but also a fun part,” Hoffmann said.

One class the store held off site had 1,600 people attend.

“That’s not going to happen today, but back then we could do that,” Hoffmann said.

She and her husband were involved in the industry nationally, too, including having a national radio show at one point and starting a national ordering company.

John Hoffmann retired four years ago. Barb Hoffmann remained working, but their daughter, Shannon, took over running the company the past couple of years.

“We loved every minute of it,” Barb Hoffmann said. “We loved making a difference. We loved helping people.”

She said that’s why her family selected Healthier Choices to take over the stores.

“We vetted them a lot, and they vetted us, and we became close,” she said. “They really cared about the natural industry.”

Hoffmann said Healthier Choices is keeping all the GreenAcres employees at the chain’s five stores. That was important to the family. She said employees and customers have meant so much through the years.

“We appreciate all the loyalty. You would not believe the loyalty.”

It makes selling bittersweet, of course.

“After 30 years, it’s a part of you, but it feels good. It feels good.”