NNFA Northwest Region

Marlene Beadle is 2000 Pioneer Award Recipient

"Marlene Beadle is an awesome lady. She stands by what she believes in." This, according to employee Kim Love, is what has made Marlene Beadle an excellent retailer and one who is worthy of the Region's 2000 Pioneer Award. Marlene is absolutely committed to the natural products mission and she brings that commitment to everything she does.

Marlene's Market & Deli was voted both "Store of the Year" in the mid-size category and one of the "top ten health food stores in the country" by Health Food Business magazine in 1993 and 1998, respectively. Marlene's Federal Way store has also received a number of awards from the local community. Her employees say that what sets Marlene's stores apart is her high standards for both customer service and product selection. Love says that Marlene has set the bar very high for quality. Marlene insists that everything she offers her customers should be as natural as possible; no sugar or white flour for Marlene. Marlene's espresso bar sells only organic coffee, according to Love and the produce section, from burdock to beets, is exclusively organic. Each item is carefully selected, and local, whenever possible.

Employee Lori Lively says that what sets Marlene apart as a business owner is her way of bringing together all her years of business savvy and mixing them with a healthy dose of intuition. Lively claims that Marlene has an incredible sense of timing and rightness. "She doesn’t jump into something just because it’s the hot new trend," said Lively. "A number of times I’ve heard Marlene say, ‘just because everybody’s doing it doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.’"

Lively says that another of Marlene’s secrets of success is that she keeps her life in balance. "Marlene has a life outside the store," Lively said. "She’s intimately connected with her kids and her grandchildren. She even constructed a mini office for her grandchildren, upstairs by her office and she just ran five miles in the Seafair race last week. Now that’s balance," she added.

Ida Clark, who has been Marlene's grocery buyer for 12 years, says, "Marlene is pretty hard-nosed about what she believes in." Clark describes Marlene as the toughest of gatekeepers, who tries her best to exclude every possible harmful ingredient from her product selection. She even makes a strong effort to select products that are GMO free, which is no small task.

With all the success Marlene has realized, she could very well be an absentee owner. Her employees say she is anything but that. She's not only actively involved in all aspects of her business, but she can't stay away from her customers. Customer service is an obsession with Marlene. She loves helping people and will put her work in the office aside for a good part of each day to be down on the floor personally giving service to her loyal customers. Clark says that Marlene is a great teacher, too. She shares her knowledge with her employees so that they will also be excellent ambassadors for Marlene's.

Marlene is generous in her staffing, according to Kim Love. She cares so much about serving her customers that she is bringing on a second part-time naturopath to consult with customers, in addition to the 50 employees at the Federal Way store.

Marlene is a pioneer because she embodies the pioneering spirit, forging new directions for excellence and innovation. She is also a pioneer by virtue of being one of the industry's longtime operators. She opened her first 1,000 square foot store in the old Federal Way Shopping Center in 1976. She moved to a 4,000 square foot space in Center Plaza in 1980. In 1986, she remodeled and changed her store name to Marlene's Market & Deli and then moved up the street to Gateway Center in 1988. She continued to expand in Federal Way, adding an espresso shop with organic coffees in 1989 and additional space (9,000 sq. ft.) for an all-organic produce section in 1990. Marlene opened a 12,000 square foot store in Tacoma in 1995.

Marlene's commitment to the natural products industry goes far beyond the bounds of her stores and her customers. She has remained active in industry affairs throughout most of her years as a retailer. She served a number of terms on the NNFA Northwest Region Board of Directors, both as secretary/treasurer and as a state representative. She was also one of the founding members of Citizens for Health. As a matter of fact, she was the one who called the formative meeting of the original Citizens at her Federal Way store. Currently she is on the board of the Campaign to label Genetically Engineered Foods.

A friend to her customers, her employees and to the natural products industry, we congratulate Marlene Beadle on her high standards, her commitment and her continued involvement in those activities that create healthy lifestyles and support a healthy planet.

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