Work Begins at Grassroots Natural Market

You’ve got to continue to grow or else you’re just like last night’s cornbread—stale and dry.

If that motto is good enough for country music legend Loretta Lynn, it's good enough for Paul Kralyevich, owner of Denville's Grassroots Natural Market. That's why he has it pinned up in his office.

That thinking helped make the decision to lease the space at the former Health Shoppe in Morristown that much easier. It has been quiet there since that 40-year business shut down last summer.

"I have such a good staff at Denville, so I'm bored," said Kralyevich, who opened his Denville location in 2005 after operating a similar store—called Lifethyme—in Manhattan for 10 years. 

It wasn't just the challenge of opening a new store in a location in need of extensive renovations, it was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.

"It sort of fell in my lap," Kralyevich said Tuesday, as general contractors and electricians surveyed the space. "I heard this was closing and thought it was a great location. I mean, this was my competitor."

At over double the capacity of his Denville location—7,000 square feet versus the other location's 3,200—it's also an opportunity to bring in more stock and more brands, the Astoria native now living in Boonton said.

While a new business with a new owner, Kralyevich's store, like its former competitor, fills a certain similar niche. As such, he noted a number of former Health Shoppe employees were already set to operate Grassroots Morristown when it opens sometime in winter 2013.

But before familiar faces get back to work there, there's a lot of work to be done. "New phones to new floors," Kralyevich said. "We have to hit the 'reboot' button hard."