Nude Foods staff inside the company’s Boulder store. (Courtesy Nude Foods)
Nude Foods is suiting up for a new spot in the Berkeley neighborhood.
The small Boulder grocery store, which emphasizes zero-waste practices and locally sourced goods, expects to open its second location by the end of this year at 3538 W. 44th Ave. in Denver.
“We do all the worrying so you don’t have to,” said Verity Noble, one of the business’ co-founders. “A lot of people are now starting to become very aware of what they’re putting in their bodies, right? They’re reading labels, they’re understanding sugar content, they know that ‘XYZ’ is not good for them. So we have done all that already.”
Nude Foods co-founders, from right to left, Matt Arnold, Verity Noble and Rachel Irons stand with Jerry Baker outside the future Denver store. (Courtesy Nude Foods)
The store, which replaces a tattoo parlor, will be about 2,200 square feet. That’s a far cry from 50,000 square feet for an average grocery store, like the Safeway across the street.
While typical grocery stores have tens of thousands of unique items, Nude Foods competes by doing the opposite.
“If you go into somewhere like Whole Foods, you’ll see that there are 20 different types of jasmine rice … and there are 10 different brands of peanut butter,” Noble said. “So, we just pick the best. We choose the most sustainable, the tastiest, and we go with that because we haven’t got the packaging.”
But Nude Foods still has everything from frozen goods to produce, as well as full meals and other items made in house. Eggs will run you $9 for a dozen, and milk costs $8.50 for a half-gallon, according to the store’s website. Other popular goods include whole wheat sourdough ($11), wild monkey bars ($5) and produce, Noble said.
Nude Foods evolved from a commercial kitchen that Boulder businessman Matt Arnold operated in a motel. His kitchen manager, Rachel Irons, pitched the idea to start a bulk grocery store with it. Noble, a serial entrepreneur, and the fourth co-founder, Jimmy Uvodich, joined a short time later.
“I started to work towards this bulk store in this really crappy room — terrible, no doubt,” Noble said.
But then came COVID, and with it, the plans of opening the store.
“I can remember very clearly the meeting,” Noble said of the start of the pandemic. “We sat down and I’m like, ‘Well, should we just wait for this thing to blow over and then open the store or should we pivot and do something else?’ And we’re like, ‘Well, let’s pivot just in case.’ Thank goodness we did.”
So, Nude Foods became a grocery delivery service. Then came the Boulder brick-and-mortar store, which opened at 3233 Walnut St. That store now accounts for 80 percent of sales, with delivery providing the remaining 20. Denver-area delivery began in summer 2022 and will likely expand upon the new location’s opening.
Noble said the business is not yet profitable, but has had “its moments” of financial success. Future stores like the one in Denver will help cut costs and improve the operation’s bottom line, she said.
To assess sustainability and minimize packaging, Nude Foods visits every farm it sources from, Noble said.
“We talk in depth to our suppliers, we hold them accountable,” she said. “Most of our local suppliers are delivering here themselves. We coached them through how to become a zero waste, like we go all the way back to the supply chain.”
Nude Foods has north of 80 suppliers, including Boulder-based Susan’s Samosas and Meati, which sells the store plant-based meat items that are over or underweight and can’t be sold to mainstream retailers.
Noble said the business has saved over 300,000 pieces of packaging. Goods are often sold prepackaged in glass jars. The business charges $1.50 for each “jar rental,” then gives $1 in store credit for each jar returned. The remaining 50 cents is kept to cover cleaning and refilling the jar.
“That’s just the cost of doing the right thing,” Noble said.
The business is staffed by 20 people, and a Denver store manager has been hired and is learning the ropes in Boulder. Nude Foods originally had hoped to open along 44th by Halloween.
“The store is basically ready to go,” Noble said. “We’re just waiting on permitting. And it’s like they don’t want small businesses to succeed.”
Many of the necessary fixes are minor, such as changing the angle of parking spaces, Noble added. Once that’s done, the hurdle will just be convincing customers to embrace a new style of shopping.
“People love the concept of new foods, but getting them to change their habits and shop here is a challenge … If you want to actually make change, you have to vote with your dollars and shop here rather than Whole Foods or Safeway or King Soopers,” Noble said.
The company hopes eventually to relocate the Boulder store and add a second in Denver, as well as others between the cities and in Fort Collins.
Nude Foods staff inside the company’s Boulder store. (Courtesy Nude Foods)
Nude Foods is suiting up for a new spot in the Berkeley neighborhood.
The small Boulder grocery store, which emphasizes zero-waste practices and locally sourced goods, expects to open its second location by the end of this year at 3538 W. 44th Ave. in Denver.
“We do all the worrying so you don’t have to,” said Verity Noble, one of the business’ co-founders. “A lot of people are now starting to become very aware of what they’re putting in their bodies, right? They’re reading labels, they’re understanding sugar content, they know that ‘XYZ’ is not good for them. So we have done all that already.”
Nude Foods co-founders, from right to left, Matt Arnold, Verity Noble and Rachel Irons stand with Jerry Baker outside the future Denver store. (Courtesy Nude Foods)
The store, which replaces a tattoo parlor, will be about 2,200 square feet. That’s a far cry from 50,000 square feet for an average grocery store, like the Safeway across the street.
While typical grocery stores have tens of thousands of unique items, Nude Foods competes by doing the opposite.
“If you go into somewhere like Whole Foods, you’ll see that there are 20 different types of jasmine rice … and there are 10 different brands of peanut butter,” Noble said. “So, we just pick the best. We choose the most sustainable, the tastiest, and we go with that because we haven’t got the packaging.”
But Nude Foods still has everything from frozen goods to produce, as well as full meals and other items made in house. Eggs will run you $9 for a dozen, and milk costs $8.50 for a half-gallon, according to the store’s website. Other popular goods include whole wheat sourdough ($11), wild monkey bars ($5) and produce, Noble said.
Nude Foods evolved from a commercial kitchen that Boulder businessman Matt Arnold operated in a motel. His kitchen manager, Rachel Irons, pitched the idea to start a bulk grocery store with it. Noble, a serial entrepreneur, and the fourth co-founder, Jimmy Uvodich, joined a short time later.
“I started to work towards this bulk store in this really crappy room — terrible, no doubt,” Noble said.
But then came COVID, and with it, the plans of opening the store.
“I can remember very clearly the meeting,” Noble said of the start of the pandemic. “We sat down and I’m like, ‘Well, should we just wait for this thing to blow over and then open the store or should we pivot and do something else?’ And we’re like, ‘Well, let’s pivot just in case.’ Thank goodness we did.”
So, Nude Foods became a grocery delivery service. Then came the Boulder brick-and-mortar store, which opened at 3233 Walnut St. That store now accounts for 80 percent of sales, with delivery providing the remaining 20. Denver-area delivery began in summer 2022 and will likely expand upon the new location’s opening.
Noble said the business is not yet profitable, but has had “its moments” of financial success. Future stores like the one in Denver will help cut costs and improve the operation’s bottom line, she said.
To assess sustainability and minimize packaging, Nude Foods visits every farm it sources from, Noble said.
“We talk in depth to our suppliers, we hold them accountable,” she said. “Most of our local suppliers are delivering here themselves. We coached them through how to become a zero waste, like we go all the way back to the supply chain.”
Nude Foods has north of 80 suppliers, including Boulder-based Susan’s Samosas and Meati, which sells the store plant-based meat items that are over or underweight and can’t be sold to mainstream retailers.
Noble said the business has saved over 300,000 pieces of packaging. Goods are often sold prepackaged in glass jars. The business charges $1.50 for each “jar rental,” then gives $1 in store credit for each jar returned. The remaining 50 cents is kept to cover cleaning and refilling the jar.
“That’s just the cost of doing the right thing,” Noble said.
The business is staffed by 20 people, and a Denver store manager has been hired and is learning the ropes in Boulder. Nude Foods originally had hoped to open along 44th by Halloween.
“The store is basically ready to go,” Noble said. “We’re just waiting on permitting. And it’s like they don’t want small businesses to succeed.”
Many of the necessary fixes are minor, such as changing the angle of parking spaces, Noble added. Once that’s done, the hurdle will just be convincing customers to embrace a new style of shopping.
“People love the concept of new foods, but getting them to change their habits and shop here is a challenge … If you want to actually make change, you have to vote with your dollars and shop here rather than Whole Foods or Safeway or King Soopers,” Noble said.
The company hopes eventually to relocate the Boulder store and add a second in Denver, as well as others between the cities and in Fort Collins.
