Dave and Gina Krieger, owners of Seven Grains Natural Market in Tallmadge, Ohio are celebrating 25 years in the natural/organic food business. Seven Grains Market opened in 1998 at 92 West Avenue in Tallmadge, Ohio. Their focus was and still is on offering high-quality and unique foods as well as providing customers with the knowledge of all things natural and organic.
Big box stores have flourished and yet Gina and David Krieger, owners of the independent Seven Grains, have maintained the ability to build relationships with customers and manufacturers to continually provide new varieties of price-conscious, natural, and organic foods.
“At the time, organic just kinda had this stigma of naturally being expensive and out of touch and not available to the average person,” said Gina Krieger, 59.
“I think we’ve cut through that stigma,” said David Krieger, 56. “You come on in here, it’s got an earthy feel to it, it’s got a hometown feel, it’s even got a farm market feel, it’s even got an upscale feel.”
“That’s the biggest thing: We’re trying to educate people,” Gina Krieger said.
The Kriegers taught that their aggressive pricing allows them to compete directly with mass market retailers, including online providers. Among their recent deals, a 23-ounce Muir Glen organic pasta sauce, which features a premium tomato imported from Italy, was priced at 2 for $4.
Seven Grains was recently recognized by a national distributor as one of two natural grocers in Ohio named in the top 250 natural independent grocers east of the Mississippi, in terms of sales volume.
Seven Grains’ continuous quest for unique products
As a number of specialty organic or natural brands have gone mainstream over the years, Seven Grains continues to find smaller family companies in the store’s quest to continually offer unique products.
“When I see a company get bought out [by a large corporation], I really start to watch the ingredients,” said Gina Krieger, who vets all the products that Seven Grains sells. Finding unique and specialty items is one thing that keeps Seven Grains customers coming back!
Gina Krieger grew up on a farm outside Buffalo, New York. David Krieger, originally from old North Hampton (now Cuyahoga Falls), grew up in his family’s business, Krieger’s Health Foods Market in Cuyahoga Falls.
Gina has a background in marketing. David has a produce background, having formerly driven a truck to the Northern Ohio Food Terminal with his father to buy wholesale produce for Krieger’s.
At age 23, David Krieger opened his own Krieger’s Fresh Market in Brimfield Township before opening the 10,000-square-foot Seven Grains in Tallmadge and the rest is, as they say, history!
Tallmadge, Ohio residents are benefiting from having this amazing Natural/Organic store in their backyard. And yet, Gina says that they have customers who come from all over Ohio, Pennsylvania, and surrounding areas.
Congratulations Seven Grains Natural Market on 25 successful years!
(847) 277-9500