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Converted from paper version of the Broad Ripple Gazette (v07n20)
The Good Earth & Bob Landman - by Ruth Holladay
posted: Oct. 01, 2010
Which came first, the Good Earth Natural Food Company or the ducks that sometimes congregate on the grounds?
"The ducks are here because of us, and we are partly here because of the ducks," explains Rudy Nehrling, 30, president of the Good Earth Natural Food Company at 6350 N. Guilford.
The venerable store, located in a two-story, onetime house, is to the north - and right on - the canal.
On Sunday Sept. 26, 2010, Good Earth employees and customers celebrated the store's longevity-39 years of service-oriented business for one of the oldest health-food and organic establishments in Indiana.
Presumably, any ducks in attendance received a handful of organic corn. Free.
Although the Good Earth is a successful enterprise, the word "business" may be a bit too structured for how the store was run over much of its lifetime by the late Bob Landman. That is a compliment.
The Good Earth opened in 1971 with several partners. Landman became the sole owner in 1975. In 2008, he died of a heart attack. His unexpected death was a shock and a terrible loss for his family and many friends.
Now his son-in-law Rudy Nehrling is president of the family store, and Bob's widow Jody Landman is owner. All four of Bob and Jody's four adult kids work at the store in some capacity - building websites and software, painting and projects, ordering and clerking.
At first glance, Landman might have seemed an unlikely entrepreneur, especially in a fledgling business with a decided counter-cultural hippie bent.
He was a graduate of University of Dayton, with a degree in engineering. He was a competitive athlete - he was a runner and he enjoyed playing basketball - and he was an Army veteran, having served his tour in Germany.
But he and the Good Earth were a natural fit from the start.
He first visited the store in the early 1970s, in the capacity of his job as a health inspector for the city of Indianapolis. He quickly became a customer.
"He came to the Good Earth looking for something healthier than white bread, and he found whole-grain wheat bread, whole grains, and one of his favorites, Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Soap," explains Nehrling.
The store both survived and thrived under Landman.
As his friend Tim Harmon observed about his friend's death in a column in NUVO, the alternative weekly newspaper: "He worked seven days a week for . . . 34 years, building the business year after year, adding rooms onto the house as the business grew. He was constantly introducing new products to the city such as lines of shoes, sandals, clothing, vitamins, herbs, fresh fruits, vegetables and hundreds of other new products."
Nehrling adds that Landman "literally brought organic produce to Indiana. He would drive out to the airport where he had it flown in from other parts of the U.S. He had a great relationship with other health food store owners and with (the late) Sid (Maurer) of Atlas Market."
His also was the first store in Indiana to carry Birkenstock and Earth Shoes, says Nehrling.
For years, Landman pretty much had the health-food market to himself on the Northside and beyond. But when the ideas he embraced went mainstream, and chains started selling organic, he was not threatened.
His philosophy, he told the Indianapolis Business Journal in 1999, was simply to offer the best prices possible.
There was that, and there is service. Landman set the tone with his easy-going nature. His nickname, Sugarbob, was given him by his wife Jody, because "he would wake up with a smile and be happy and sweet all day long under any circumstances," says Nehrling.
That attitude trickled down and attracted like-minded personalities. The store is as well known for its helpful, dedicated clerks as for what is sold. Many of the Good Earth folk have worked there for decades, says Nehrling - Bob Bennington, longtime manager, has been with the store 33 years; Craig Folker, 33 years; Marybeth Colefax, 20 plus years; health-food author Deb McClure-Smith, 20 plus years.
Today, the store has added new wooden fences next to the canal and a picnic table made from reclaimed wood.
But Landman remains at the heart and center of the business.
"Bob created a sense of community through his generosity both to employees and customers," says Nehrling.
And he was a character.
"He would add up a person's order in his head, tax and all, and sing the numbers to a tune, and if he was wrong, then (he charged) half off," says Nehrling.
He did not use a computer. He kept everything in his head, or on paper.
Although the store's operations are now fully computerized, it retains its soul-based identity.
Customers continue to validate what the Good Earth is all about.
"Colts players and race car drivers are among our customers," says Nehrling, who grew up in Rocky Ripple, graduated from New York University with a degree in acting and is married to the Landmans' daughter Molly.
Singer Brad Paisley became a fan during a musical gig in Indy. Paisley was ailing, and some of his people came to the Good Earth to get vitamins and herbs to build up his immunity.
In some ways, the Good Earth has changed: it has grown larger, and yet it retains its loyal customer base. The burlap sacks on the walls inside are distinctive, along with the gold-tinted windows (better for preserving the healthy products inside).
The ducks, waddling along nearby, also remain a constant.
Rudy recalls that many times, Bob Landman would be outside, "wrangling ducks."
Now that job has fallen to his son-in-law and everyone else associated with running and loving the Good Earth.
On the rainbow bridge with some of the Good Earth crew: Marybeth Colefax, Jaci Pennywell, Kim LeFevre, Rudy Nehrling, Mike Landman and Lani Williams holding her son Izzy.
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