• In Clark's History
• Posted April 01, 1978

Clark's Begins to Grow

Jim’s son Ray was a Manager at the Colton Smart & Final. Although he had great success as the youngest manager in the company, Ray was ready for a change. One of his S & F customers was Mac Senter, the owner of Mac’s Nutritional Center on “E” Street in San Bernardino, wanted to sell his business to Ray and his wife Carol. The Clark’s were ready! So, in March of 1978 Clark’s Nutritional Center in the city of San Bernardino opened.

April 1st was Ray’s first day in the store, but something was very wrong. Almost $100,000 in inventory had been added without Rays’ permission. Ray vividly recalls, “I must have had 4000 bottles of Cactus capsules!”

The new store was a real challenge. It wasn’t generating enough profit. Without their income stream from Smart & Final, Ray and Carol felt the struggle for the first few years. Often they didn’t think they could make payroll, and then some how it would appear. Carol would remind Ray, “Oh, Ye of little faith! The Lord didn’t bring us this far to let us fall. It is going to work out!”

Finally, the store started to grow!

The San Bernardino store soon began doing twice the volume as the Riverside 10th Street store.