A host of the latest new-age alternative healthcare products will be on offer at the store

Medicated nail polish to beat the biting habit or organic soap cleaner to wash away harmful chemicals in vegetables; dietary supplements and herbal remedies or personal magnetic pads for pain relief?

Come August and Calcuttans will be empowered with tools and techniques to ?live better?, as Health Shoppe, ?the country?s first? one-stop self-help alternative-care store ? a combination of Boots and Holland & Barrett ? opens its doors on Rowland Road.

?We will provide customers the means to improve their quality of life with critical inputs in the alternative matrix,? explains Amit Mohta, CEO, Nantra Retailing and Distribution Limited, which owns the Health Shoppe brand.

Not just vitamins and nutrients, the composite solutions at the store will include options in electronic massaging and magnetic blankets, special socks and shoes for diabetics, anti-dust pillowcases for asthmatics and even disguised cross-link bracelets with therapeutic functions.

?We will be everything but a drug store or an alternative to the doctor?s clinic. However, there will be resident wellness consultants to offer advice on alternative courses, besides specialists walking in from time to time,? says director Deepak Saraf, from the Saraf Group, with interests in bulk liquid storage and distribution, hotels, information technology and health insurance.

The first Health Shoppe outlet will have over 2,500 stock-keeping units, to be seeded in by 200-plus suppliers.

Once the pilot project is nurtured through its first few months, the group plans to chart an aggressive expansion course, with 100 outlets pan-India in the next three years, including six in Calcutta.

The aim: to be present in ?every neighbourhood?, with both high-street locations and retail malls on the roadmap.

While a lot of traditional herbal products on the racks will be sourced from places like Tibet, China and Kerala, the multi-brand outlet will have a substantial chunk of its range of latest new-age alternative healthcare products and services imported from the West.

?For instance, a lint-lifter brush can gently remove dust and the musty smell from a woollen jacket, the visco-elastic foam in the special pillow can adapt to body contours and a special insole can massage your foot as you walk,? says Saraf.

The ?soothing interiors? and customer-driven design elements will ensure a reassuring experience, the management promises.

?An entire bouquet of wellness products under one roof will be our USP and we will have a strong IT backbone on Microsoft Business Solutions for backend logistics and tracking customer preferences, complete with an e-commerce catalogue,? says Mohta.

Once the store establishes definitive trends in the preference pattern of the customers, they will be invited over to specialised seminars addressing different issues and conditions like back and joints, diabetes or common flu. A separate books and media section will offer an in-house knowledge bank.

With urban stress and pollutants taking such a toll every day, this new addition to the city?s retail racks on the lines of the GNC and Vitamin World chains abroad could fill a growing need gap.