Fruitive: A Virginia Beaches Gem

Fruitive is a vegan restaurant/health and wellness bar located in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Not only is it Virginia Beach’s first 100% certified organic restaurant but it is also a first in the state of Virginia. Fruitive is located on a highly visible and popular street in a shopping center called Hilltop.  As stated in the chapter “Local Shops, Global Streets,” local streets create a sense of place. This is exactly what Fruitive does for the local Virginia Beach community.  At Hilltop there is a mixture of a handful of national chain stores integrated with primarily locally owned shops.  Hilltop is located close to the oceanfront of Virginia Beach, which is home to a primarily white population. Greg, who owns Fruitive with his brother, has been health conscious all of his life. The brothers wanted to make their lifestyle of eating healthfully a possibility for everyone. They spent a lot of time and money to research and create Fruitive in the most unique way possible. Greg was debating whether to locate the store in Norfolk or Virginia Beach, VA. He ultimately chose the shopping street in Virginia Beach as the area had a more high-end clientele as well as much more traffic. Fruitive’s location close to the beach is considerably more expensive to rent therefore the prices in the store are relatively high. A smoothie is close to $8.00 but you are getting the finest and best organic ingredients available. In just three years Fruitive has become wildly popular and successful so much so that the brothers have just opened a second location in Washington D.C. This reminds me of the case study in Tianzifang, Shanghai. Café Dan is a local coffee shop that made “quality home brewed coffee” (p. 74). This café caters to high-income local consumers who can pay over $4 for a cup of coffee. The owner explains “our costs are higher because we use really good imported coffee beans and quality ingredients for our Japanese dishes” (p. 74). With the high rent that Café Dan faces they have to increase their prices. In many cases this is ok because as the rent goes up prices goes up around the world too.

I have been going to Fruitive since it first opened. I have observed that while there are always new customers at Fruitive, there are many regulars. I notice while I am waiting for my smoothie that the staff know many of their client’s names and makes conversation with them. The friendliness of the staff as well as the quality of the food makes people want to come back again and again. Most clients are dressed in their workout clothes, which makes it appear as if they are coming from working out or going to workout. The clientele is very health conscious.

Alyson Diamonstein ’18