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Vitamin World used to be one of America's largest retailers of health and wellness products but they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on September 11 as part of their recapitalization strategy. They will now be liquidating the inventory of 122 stores nationwide but will continue to operate over 150 of their stores. It is expected to be a very short sale, as opening discounts range from 30-50% off. 

"Vitamin World offers an unmatched selection of premium nutritional products," stated Rick Edwards, Co-President, Retail at Gordon Brothers. "This sale offers Vitamin World's loyal customers the opportunity to stock up on their favorite products at significantly lower prices. Due to these substantial reductions, we encourage consumers to shop early to take advantage of the best selection of products available while supplies last." 

GNC, Vitamin Shoppe and Vitamin World were always “the big 3” when it came to sports nutrition. Get your product into all three stores and you would be making milllions in sales. But these days Vitamin World is not really considered to be a "serious sports nutrition" destination by most people in the supplement industry. They carry a few brands that advertise in Muscle Insider like Optimum Nutrition, BSN, BPI, Cellucor, and Isopure but product selection isn’t nearly as diverse as other stores. Hardcore sports nutrition just isn’t their focus. Pricing is average and many staff don’t seem to know or care much about sports nutrition. Once again, it’s just not their focus. But every time I walk into a Vitamin World I always feel like the store is about to close for the day and the furnishing looks stuck in the 80s when herbals first started getting popular. And with that said, many of the clerks (in the stores I’ve been to at least) look like they’ve been working in that exact location since the 80s!

Many Vitamin World locations are in low foot traffic malls with high rent costs making profitability very difficult to obtain. Putting a product on the shelf in these locations and doing a demo to help get customers to try it doesn’t have the same impact it had many years ago when U.S. malls were busy. Unfortunately, many U.S. consumers are also now buying supplements from Amazon and mass market retailers like Walmart which has clobbered smaller retailers nationwide. Will Vitamin World be able to turn their business around and reach the success they once had? I personally don’t think so as there are too many factors working against them. In the meantime, it’s a great time to take advantage of the store closing sales at Vitamin World and stock up while you can!

SOURCE: PR Newswire