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John Odahara is regional produce and bulk and transportation manager at Lassens Natural Foods and Vitamins, a health food grocer with 11 locations in Southern California. Before joining Lassens, Odahara worked for Ralphs, Irvine Ranch Farmers Market, Greentree Grocers, Lazy Acres, and New Frontiers Natural Marketplace. He was part of the original team that opened Lazy Acres in Santa Barbara in 1991, and he helped introduce organic produce into Bristol Farms’ stores after the company acquired Lazy Acres 14 years later. OPN caught up with Odahara to talk about his background in produce, some of the growers he sources from, how the COVID-19 situation has affected business, and more.
How did you get started working in the produce industry?
I come from a whole family of growers. My uncles grew tomatoes, cucumbers, a lot of mixed veg in San Diego County, so I grew up basically riding around the farm a lot of the time. I started working in a grocery store when I was still in high school. My family lived in Ventura County at that time, and I worked at the first Ralphs market outside of LA County.
John Odahara, regional produce and bulk and transportation manager, Lassens Natural Foods and Vitamins
How did you end up at Lassens? And how long have you worked there?
I was actually working for a company called New Frontiers Natural Marketplace from 2007 to 2014. They were an organic retailer in California and Arizona, and they owned Nojoqui Creek Farms in Buellton, so we did a lot of growing, distribution, and retail there—it was like the whole package altogether. And then Whole Foods bought them. (The New Frontiers owners kept the farm and one store in Solvang.) I started looking around for another opportunity and did a little bit of work with wholesalers at that time, and then I landed with Lassens. It’s been about six years now.
What percentage of Lassens’ produce is certified organic?
All produce in Lassens is certified organic. There’s no conventional product at all, and I don’t think there will be any going forward. There was a time when you had to mix in conventional because there just was no product, but now we’re at the point where just about every commodity can be obtained certified organic without very many gaps at all.
Lassens organic produce
How price sensitive would you say shoppers are when it comes to organic produce?
I think price sensitivity used to not be as high as it is now because you used to have a dedicated natural foods shopper, and paying more was just part of doing business on their end because the product wasn’t so plentiful or easily available. Now, we’ll get price compared with the large retailers because they’re carrying organic product too.
Since I started with Lassens, I’ve brought a lot more growers to the company so that we can actually price better. We do buy through distributors, but whenever we possibly can, we go grower direct, and that allows us to do much more competitive pricing with other organic retailers—and even conventional retailers. Take, for example, an organic navel versus a conventional navel. A lot of times we get very close to the conventional retailer’s price, and that’s something that the customer appreciates. In general, organic produce is becoming more mainstream, which has brought prices down, so the sensitivity to pricing is buffered by conventional and organic pricing being much closer.
Are there any organic produce items that you’ve noticed that are particularly popular with your customers?
You always have your main staple commodities that are very popular—your bananas, apples, grapes, and berries. But what I’ve noticed is I’m starting to see more specialty items that are organic, so some of your tropical fruits. You’ll see cherimoya, passion fruit, gooseberries—a lot of things like that that are adding to the supply of organic offerings, which is nice.
Lassens organic produce display
Can you tell us about some of your grower relationships? How many farms do you work with directly?
Right now, I would say it’s at least a dozen growers that we’re dealing directly with. We buy a lot of avocados through Las Palmalitas in Carpinteria. And then when California’s off, we sell a lot of avos through Eco Farms—he does a nice assortment of products. He does a lot of different citrus. He will actually have some dragon fruit, too. That’s something else that does really well in our stores—organic dragon fruit.
Lassens often has Cuyama Orchards apples. Do you source from them directly or through a distributor?
I’ve dealt with Byron Albano at Cuyama for years—we buy direct from them. I also pull direct from Hood River, one of the only biodynamic apple growers in Oregon. It’s a nice little something new for the customer, something they look forward to. He does the old heirloom-variety apples that you don’t see anymore. He sells probably 20 varieties. The first ones to come out are Red Jonagolds in October. He also has the Mountain Rose—the red meat apple. Those are really popular—expensive, but they’re popular.
Lassens organic blueberry display
Are there any other specific farms that you work with directly that you want to mention?
I know I’m leaving out a bunch of growers, but one that I really do need to give a shout out to is Cal-Organic. They’re a very large organic farm—they’re part of Grimmway Farms now. We do a lot of volume through them. The quality of what they grow is so far superior to a lot of growers. And I’m not slighting anybody—everyone does a good job. But with Cal-Organic, the stores actually say, “I want their brand,” because at the retail end of it, the quality is so good. They’re not having to doctor it up—I mean some of their product is almost shelf ready when it comes to the store in a box.
How has the COVID-19 situation been affecting Lassens’ produce department?
That first day when the national emergency was declared, I was having stores calling me, saying, “We have nothing on our stands.” Sales were out of control. But within 1-2 days, we were back up and running. And that had a lot to do with the support of our distributors— Heath & Lejeune, Albert’s Fresh Produce, and Charlie’s Produce. They really stepped up to keep our stores full of produce—they did a great job! They supported us in any way they could.
Lassens offering curbside ordering in response to COVID-19
Do sales continue to be crazy even though it’s been well over three months since COVID-19 was declared a national emergency?
They’ve slowed down. It’s leveled out more. But even at this point, where we are now, produce sales are still up considerably—on average 30-plus percent—from where they were before this all started, so maybe people got used to buying more fresh stuff and cooking at home. I don’t know if it’s going to start trending down or not, but we’ll see.
