My dad always put in extra effort to teach me the values of hard work and family. He was a good man, and over the years he taught me many more important lessons – lessons that I try to put to work every day here at Natures Emporium. His jacket still hangs on the door of my office, reminding me every day of the person he was, and reminding me of the person I'd like to be.
My name is Joe D'Addario, and I am the President of Nature's Emporium.
Over the years I've had the opportunity to take part in something truly special. From our small business in Pickering, to this great store we now have here in Newmarket, I've seen things change at such an amazing rate – both at our store, in the people who work hard here for us, and in the customers who walk through our doors every day. I've watched our family continue to grow, and it reminds me of what's really important to us here: treating people with courtesy, dignity and respect, and the health and well-being of our community.
Every day, I have the opportunity to work with an ever growing team of unique individuals who have something to teach me. They teach me something about themselves, but also something about myself. Like when I meet an employees family – that’s when it really hits me just how much responsibility we have here to keep doing what we're doing – taking care of our employees, and providing products and services that don't cut any corners. That’s when I see how much we all depend on each other.
When I see our family’s children working together with us, I'm confident that the lessons my father taught me are living on through them. I can see it in the way that they’ve learned to deal with customers, and the way that they learn to solve problems in every day work situations. It’s pretty amazing.
I always try to remind myself that we've built something special here. Early along the road to where we are now, we decided not to build our business based on competition – we all knew that such a road could never represent the values, opportunity for growth and general commitment to health and well-being that we wanted to provide for our customers and employees. Instead, we decided to build our business on the principle of creativity and creation. After all, when you decide you want to create – not destroy, or focus on the destruction of others - there is no limit to what you can accomplish. I believe that is something that we've been proving for as long as our store has been around, and it's something that we'll continue to prove for as long as our customers continue to share the same beliefs.
I've been lucky to have some incredible mentors and role-models in my life. People who cared enough to say what needed to be said, and do what needed to be do, to stand up for what they believed in. That's something that we try to do here at Nature's Emporium, and it's something that I'm real proud of – because I think it's something truly special in our community right now. I thank my wonderful family, our dedicated employees, and our incredible customers for helping to create it!