MANAYUNK

Blog post by Manayunk Development Corporation Summer Intern, Ben Chapman

One of the newest faces in the Manayunk area is Joseph, owner of Wellness & Company. His new storefront is located right off Main Street on Cotton Street and can easily be spotted thanks to its bright orange awning. Joseph, the owner and founder of Wellness & Company, started this company with the simple tagline of “Healthy Happens Here”. While this tagline is simple, it is clearly evident in the everyday operations of  Wellness & Co. Joseph carefully takes the time to ‘weed and seed’ through all of the health and nutritional products out there so that only the best possible products are presented to his customers. In the long term, Joseph hopes that Wellness & Co. becomes the “Starbucks of supplements” by offering the best of the best basic essentials for daily healthy living.

Joseph first began his career in natural, healthy living six years ago when he started working a naturopathic doctor. After this doctor passed away, Joseph and another coworker decided to open their own naturopathic goods store near University City to keep his legacy alive. Once that business started to do well, Joseph created Wellness and Co. and chose Manayunk as its home. Prior to opening Wellness and Co. here, he was already familiar with the area since he shopped and came here often. He believes that Manayunk has an amazing pulse to it that he equates to what Old City felt like 20 years ago. Another reason Joseph chose Manayunk as the home for his business is because of its health conscious residents. Since he just opened the doors of his shop a mere three weeks ago, Joseph keeping it all in the family in terms of employees. As of right now, only Joseph and his sister Nicole are working in the shop. This was very intentional on his part though, as he wants to make sure that they are truly able to understand the community and get to know them before bringing any outsiders in. He also wants to make sure that the community is able to trust him and his decisions about the products he has and is advocating for. While Joseph is offering the best possible products out there right now, he fully welcomes any feedback from his customers.

Joseph currently offers a wide variety of products to his customers that really cover a large range of needs. He says his most popular product is called “The Cleaner”, which has a male and female version. He described it as a “total body detox”, that is the perfect way to start a new, healthy lifestyle. “The Cleaner” is the simple starter for the other products in the store, as it clears out all the unnecessary toxins and chemicals in your body. After this, they can try out any of the many supplements that he stocks in his store. Joseph also stocks a large assortment of teas and other natural household products, such as honey and apple cider vinegar. The staff of Wellness and Co. will take the time to hear each customer’s story to see what products will fit best in their lives and what will help them the most. Both Joseph and Nicole hope to be a support system for their customers as they both have personal and detailed experience with naturopathic health products.

As of right now, Joseph has a lot on the horizon for Wellness and Co. Once his Manayunk shop is fully settled within the community, Joseph is looking to transition his University City store into another Wellness and Co. location. He is also hoping to start having events for his customers once he fully knows their needs and is able to plan an event that they would like to have. Joseph is very willing and open to attaching to other events in the community, especially with other health oriented places in the Manayunk community. In the longer term, Joseph would like to open more Wellness and Co. locations in smaller, community based neighborhoods that are forward thinking and very similar to Manayunk.