Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Los Gatos High School ninth-graders (from left) Kim Ditrick, Andrea Lawryk and Jill Devine sign farewell card at Richard's Natural Foods.

The Joneses couldn't keep up

By Clarence Cromwell

For 16 years Los Gatans went to Richard's Natural Foods at 111 E. Main St. for their vitamins, fruits and nuts, cereals, juices, protein powders, salads, soups, sandwiches and bagels.

Richard Jones, who locked up his family shop for good Sept. 30, calls the closure a case of the big guys driving a small businessman into the ground.

In 1980, Jones sold United Auto Parts, a company that included a warehouse and stores in San Jose and Cupertino, and he opened Richard's Natural Foods in 1981.

"My lifestyle was eating that way, and I decided that's what I wanted to do," Jones said.

Four of Jones' five kids--Jennifer, Richard, Corey and Phillip--worked in the shop, and the youngest, 12 1/2-year-old Tiffany, cried when the shop closed because she expected to work there, too.

Jones said the store put Jennifer and Richard all the way through college; Corey and Phillip are still in college.

Jones also made his store into a part of the community and gave generously to anyone who asked. Numerous sacks of food went to Los Gatos High School food drives and to Eastfield Ming Quong, Jones said.

The store was nearly ruined in the 1989 earthquake--the entire inventory and all the store's equipment had to be replaced. Jones had to sell 126 acres of family land in Michigan to save the business, he said. Still, some Los Gatos families received free food and vitamins from Richard's after the quake.

Jones has also let a local homeless woman eat three meals a day at the store for the past five years, he says. "I have a big heart," he explained, shrugging it off.

Former patrons hung a big banner on the front of the shop this month, and scores of Los Gatans have penned messages to Jones and his family. A few teens scribbled thank-yous to Jones for giving them their first jobs.

Jones fought for three years to keep the store open. When Whole Foods entered the scene in 1994, Jones said, his business dropped off about 40 percent. He saw his shop slip behind on its bills 30 days, then 60 days and then 90 days.

"The more I tried to catch up, the worse it got," Jones said. "You can only go without a salary so long."

Mayor Joanne Benjamin said chain stores are "a concern."

"One thing that makes Los Gatos unique is that we have a lot of small businesses," she added. "If they close, we're going to end up having them replaced with chain stores and that makes us like any shopping mall.

"There's got to be a conscious choice to support your local merchants," Benjamin continued, "or they're not going to survive."

Benjamin added, however, that there's little the Town Council can do to keep large chain stores from competing with downtown shops.

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