ORGANICS:DART COMMUTERS PASSING through the south Co Dublin suburb of Blackrock last week may have spotted a shiny black car emblazoned with the words "The Organic Supermarket" in a front-row position in the station car park. To secure this effective, and inexpensive, advertising for his new business, just opened on Main Street, Darren Grant had to be up extra early, but that hasn't been a problem.
"I've been starting at 6am and leaving at 10pm, and I haven't had a day off for 32 days," Grant says, though he's hardly complaining, as the first few days of his new venture have been a huge success.
"I've gambled my life on this and I've put every penny I have into it," says Grant, a former global programming manager with Dell Computers. His faith seems to be well placed, if the constant stream of customers through the handsome, retro-style shop with its dark wood cabinets and tiled floor, is anything to go by.
There are currently 1,500 organic products on the shelves of the 1,000sq ft shop, from an extensive range of food and wine, to cleaning equipment and cosmetics. Having spent more than 12 months sourcing his handpicked range, Grant is still on the lookout for more.
"Next week we'll have organic coffee from Ariosa. The smell will be wonderful. But I'm finding it hard to find a nice organic soup that's Irish, and can be delivered fresh. I hope to keep the stock Irish, as well as organic, where possible." That seems to matter to customers: "When we put up a sign beside the Noodle House pasta, saying it was Irish, it started selling a lot better."
The display of fruit and vegetables, supplied by Marc Michel and Duncan Healy, is impressive, and bursting with freshness, unlike some of the big name chains' organic offering, which often stays on the shelves because it's just too expensive in comparison with non-organic. "I have competitively priced everything. Organic food doesn't have to be elitist - if I can get the volume of sales," Grant says with conviction.
Bananas notwithstanding, as little as possible of the fresh produce Grant buys is imported. "Marc Michel calls me the day before he delivers, says 'what do you need?' and goes and picks it."
Other products selling well are the pies from Morrin O'Rourke farm foods in Co Kildare; Thai Gold Asian products; Mossfield Farm cheese; Ballinree beef from Tipperary. "And nettle tea," Grant adds. "We have 47 varieties of tea, but people really seem to like the nettle. There's a lot of demand for low-salt products, too. We ran out of the vegetable stock cubes after two days."
However, despite the wide variety of products on offer, the bestseller so far has been potatoes . . . specifically the dirt-encrusted, fresh-from-the-field Queens variety, from Tom Daffney's farm in Limerick.
The Organic Supermarket, 2c Main Street, Blackrock, Co Dublin, is open seven days a week. See www.organicsupermarket.ie,
tel: 01-2781111