Riding the wellness wave through lockdown blues
Linda Weech is the owner of health shop Health Works in Hyde Park Corner
The attitude to wellness has changed since you opened your store in 1994. What are some of the biggest changes you have seen, and how have they affected your business?
When I started Health Works, there were only three health shops in Joburg, so I had to travel internationally to source product.
These days, I get up to five calls a day from suppliers wanting to sell to me. There are health stores opening and closing on every street corner.
It is a much more competitive market, and our customers are very much better educated. All of this fires up my competitive nature. It caused me to keep reinventing my business, to offer excellent service and to support and mentor people into taking responsibility for their health.
My staff are no longer shop assistants, but are now doctors, health coaches and highly trained and constantly growing humans.
What could we all do every day to improve our health?
Eat vegetables. It’s the most important thing. Eating green vegetables alkalinises your body — acidity is one of the biggest health issues that affects everything.
The other thing is to take care of your mental health because that affects your whole body.
What are the most common queries you get from customers?
The most common queries relate to stress, anxiety and sleep issues. Mental challenges are quite common at this time.
Also, my customers tend to be a little older, so hormonal matters are common.
How did lockdown affect you and the way you work?
Fortunately, we were classified as an essential service straight away. During lockdown, people were looking at their health more closely, probably because they had the time to, which affected me positively.
We offer a courier service, so we shipped out plenty of products during that time and still do every day. I also make deliveries to clients in the area.
What are your biggest takeaways from lockdown?
It has been a time of monumental and fundamental change, which totally suits me as I love change.
People have to focus on their inner strength and lose the focus on looking good externally. I would say this is the biggest change of our times.
You know the biggest change before that was war, and this is the biggest change since World War 2. And it is a fundamental change — after the war people were far more community minded. They were looking at how they could support each other and how they could grow their communities.
And this change now is fundamental to our human species. It is huge.
Personally, it’s been fantastic to help people in strengthening their immune systems. What did you want to be when you were a child?
I was born knowing that the only thing that interested me is being of service. That’s my bottom line.