I should fess up at the very beginning of this review and say that I used to work in the health food industry. I never worked for H+B though, and I'm not one of their biggest fans.
Good Points:
H+B is *cheap*. 99p vitamins cheap. They have a wide selection of products, and more recently they have improved their Sports Nutrition range - i.e products for bodybuilders and athletes. Larger stores also sell bodycare products as well as the supplements and food.
The staff I have encountered have been largely friendly and polite. The stores are well-laid out and labelled.
Bad Points:
You have to wonder how they can sell vitamins for 99p when they are 3 times as expensive elsewhere. Part of it is that they are a big chain that manufactures its own products. But be careful! H+B are sneaky little things. They write things like "high potency" on the label, but they don't tell you exactly what is in every product. Similar products in Boots and GNC are always well labelled, with the amount of active ingredients listed in mg/iu rather than this vague title. Rather like the supermarket claim of "85% fat free" its a bit misleading.
Tinctures - these are the bottles herbal forumlas in liquid form. To best preserve the active ingredients of the herb, tinctures commonly use alcohol. It doesn't taste great, but it works. H+B tinctures (at least some of) don't do this, yes it tastes better, but the quality is not as good.
Staff Knowledge - sometimes my wicked streak comes out and I ask H+B staff challenging questions. Just to see what they say (I should get a job as an undercover reporter on Watchdog). It can be difficult working in a health shop, people ask medical questions. I was always taught that the standard legal response had to be "I can recommend *xyz* but you should check with your GP before using this". Similarly, prescribing is not allowed - so no "if you take *abc* it will help with illnessX" - and giving advice to pregnant women/people with pre-existing medical conditions is discouraged and should be done with caution.
Because, after all, you're a sales assistant and not a doctor or a pharmacist.
I asked a H+B assistant if it was okay to take gingko biloba if I was suffering from high blood pressure. The answer is "no, or only on the instructions of a medical professional" (because gingko can help improve circulation and may infact increase high bp). The answer I got? "I dunno, don't see why not."
I know that all H+B sales assistants undertake on the job training, and I think it does help. I also don't expect them to know every answer. What I do expect is for them to be able to say "I don't know the answer, I can't help you" and to be able to direct me somewhere that can.
All in all you get what you pay for in H+B. If you know what you're looking for, then great, get some cheap supplements. Just be careful when asking advice. How much would you trust someone at the checkout in Tesco's to advise you on your varicose veins/magnesium deficiency/wheat allergy? Its not much different here.
More details
City / Branch address
various london stores
Frequency of visit
Monthly
Price
Very low
Availability
Goods are nearly always in stock
In store customer service
Satisfactory
After-sales service
Satisfactory
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