An interview with the CEO of Save On Supplements. What is your background? I have been in the industry for about 12 years now. I started personal training and opened my first discount nutrition store in 1994. The idea then was to beat GNC prices and focus on sport supplements rather than just health foods. How has the industry changed? It has changed quite a bit. Ten years ago the goal was to beat one chain of nutrition stores, there really were no discount nutrition stores like you see so many of today. In 1999, we began on the Internet and that is when the industry really changed for us. The Internet gave smaller chains the ability to acquire a lot of customers in a short period of time. We were able to buy more products than the distributors we were buying from. In 2000, we went direct with several manufactures and now we buy direct from every manufacturer we sell. How does this effect prices? We are able to sell direct to the public with no distributor. The prices we are selling at on the website today are actually wholesale prices. If you see a lower price on another website, it is because they are inflating their shipping charges to make up for the difference. The fact is, it is impossible to sell products for less than we do. That’s a bold statement, can you back it up? Sure. I’ve had these discussions with most of the manufacturers. We have found that when we have found cheaper products on the web, they were either close to expiration, damaged goods or returns. It amazes me what some companies will sell or do to make money. It’s really a shame because it hurts everyone. If someone has a bad experience on the Internet, they probably won’t order products on the Internet again. It really hurts the companies that are doing it right. So Save On Supplements is the only company doing it right? No, there are several companies that are are pretty good. Unfortunately, there are so many out there that are terrible. We have ordered from other sites to test service and inspect products, what we found was absolutely scary. We found expired products, heat damage, boxes with holes, mold and more. We also found transit times ranged from 5-14 days on average and some orders never came at all. On 1 out of 3 orders, something was on backorder. It was so bad, it really made me sick. These are food items that need to be stored correctly and these companies did not care. They did not even answer e-mails or telephone calls when we called to complain. On several occasions, we have called various competitors to see if they even answer the phone, only about 10% even answer their phones, they all have answering machines; that is no way to treat customers. We were the first company with 2 delivery locations, this cut transit times in half. Most people don’t want to wait 10-12 days to get an order and that is the standard time for most. We are also the only company to have an in-stock guarantee. Our real-time inventory system takes out of stock products off the site automatically. The problem is most companies are retail stores first and Internet companies second. We have retail stores but they are completely separate from the Internet operations except they answer the phones because I want trainers answering the phones to answer people’s questions. We have 2 warehouses that are strictly Internet. I met Al Acevedo, the current Mr. Colorado in one of the retail stores, how did you get him to work for you? Al has been with us for 3 years, he’s great but he is not the only competitor we have on staff. Every person I have currently working in the stores is a certified personal trainer; it is a requirement to work here. A lot of my employees do personal training on the side and some are currently competing in local and national level shows, so they not only look good; they know what they are talking about. I see it this way. Would you hire an out of shape personal trainer? No way. So shouldn’t the people who have nutritional knowledge and are using the products be the people selling the products? Where do you see the industry going? I think we are just going to get bigger and bigger. I think a lot of people may get tricked into ordering from other companies, have a bad experience and then try us. I actually want people to try other companies because it makes us look so much better when we can deliver in 3 days or less. What’s the future for Save On Supplements, am I going to see one on every corner soon? Not a chance. We can service the entire country in 3 days or less; why build retail stores? It so much easier for people to order online and then have it delivered to their home or office. You don’t have to drive, no taxes, no headaches. Ordering on the Internet should be easy; I like to think we make people’s lives easier. |