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Wednesday 30 March 2016

Shop Review: Hendra, 9 Lemon Street, Truro

I have often walked past this shop after it has closed, and been curious. Today I got the opportunity to visit during opening hours, so I thought I would review the experience here:

Hendra Truro shop review
Hendra, Truro

The Review

First Impressions:

Set in the smart Lemon Street, Hendra has a clean and slick outward appearance. The window displays that I have been so drawn to on my previous visits to Truro are what enticed me in: creative and fresh, they exude luxury without seeming snooty. 

I had been under the impression that this was a health food store though, so I was slightly surprised to find that fully half of the shop floor is given over to beauty products and cosmetics, and that there are treatment rooms upstairs. Even now I am slightly unsure about whether the treatments on offer are health and beauty, or holistic treatments. 

Hendra Truro shop review
From the Hendra Website


Product Selection:

We noticed a broad range of healthy snacks, teas, and cooking ingredients, such as you might expect from any good health store. I noticed a good selection of Ecover products. There were also jars of local honey which impressed me. 

On the beauty side, there was certainly copious choice: from Burt's Bees and Neals Yard to other less memorable brands, with a varying degree of what I like to term 'naturalness' (I did see a few laureth sulphates despite being under the impression these were all unnecessary), most budgets were catered for.  If you have a favourite range it might be easier to find what you need, especially as sometimes things seemed to be arranged by brand, and sometimes by function. 


Service:

The service was friendly and attentive. There were plenty of employees, who greeted us positively and answered my questions. We also noticed an elderly lady with mobility difficulties being sensitively cared for and aided around the shop. 


Did I buy?

Yes. I did eventually manage to pick a shampoo from the almost overwhelming selection. Plus I was tempted by this raw cacao powder- it looks so tasty, and I have some recipes which I'd like to try out. We also located these chocolate sesame snaps, which we haven't been able to find on sale anywhere for genuinely years. A quick glance at the expiry date (next month) suggests they might have been hanging around for a while, but I doubt they will last very much longer in our house. 

I also wanted some Coconut Palm Sugar, which Hendra do stock. In fact they stock a bumper-sized pack in a rather nice tin, at about £7 if memory serves me. However, I did not wish to carry it around in my backpack all day and so I did not buy, but I might consider picking up a pack in future. 

Hendra Truro shop review
Shopping from Hendra

Overall Review:

This was a pleasant shopping experience, and I will certainly visit again, armed with a list. 

Whilst I did appreciate the clean, modern feel of Hendra, I also slightly missed the type of vibe some health stores have of being a community hub- often with a notice board stuffed full of handwritten ads for toddler groups and meditation. Is that just me... ... ...?


Edited March 31st: I have just received a helpful communication from Hannah at Hendra:
We try to cater as much as possible to our customers needs, and where possible if we don’t stock a product we will order it in especially.  We had a refit last year which involved moving quite a bit of the stock around to encompass more space for the beauty products, which are becoming our best sellers, and the eventual aim is to link our hair and beauty salons more with the store.  In fact the Beauty therapists have recently undergone the REN spa training and are hoping to offer the treatments soon.









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