TAMPA — Nutrishop in South Tampa is known as the place to go to get healthy vitamins and supplements. But, owner Cody Durakovic wants his store to be your one-stop-shop for all your health needs.
A certified trainer and sports nutritionist, Durakovic said he opened Nutrishop to give customers free health and wellness advice. Amid the pandemic, he says he can't get his message out fast enough.
"We want you to have sustained results for life to feel good always," Durakovic said. "Going into the new year, we all can create new goals have new incentives, and get excited about something again."
Durakovic played football at USF until an injury put him on the sidelines. Some of his darkest moments in life revolved around his injury and not feeling well. A low moment he turned into a positive through diet and exercise.
"Whenever you start to feel better, your health becomes better; you become more well you start to feel better look better your whole life starts to be uplifted," Durakovic said.
When you walk into the store, you can do a free body mass index test. It doesn't just measure your BMI, but your muscle mass, water weight, total fat, and how much one of your legs or limbs weigh.
"A lot of people see that number on the scale they get terrified, and they don't really understand what that number could mean," Durakovic said. "When you come in, and you see us, we are going to sit down and talk to you about everything that's going on in your life, how you've dealt with this situation this past year, what you are looking forward to in the next year so we can make sure we put a perfect plan in place so you can accomplish the goal."
Durakovic purchased a large banner to hang in front of the store, letting people know they are open. He said they had to make a lot of changes to try and rebound out of the pandemic. At one point during lockdowns, only one or two customers would come into the store all day.
"The best thing that we did was we got uncomfortable," Durakovic said. "We said, 'OK, well, what we've done over the years is no longer working.' We got creative with social media. I got creative in creating appointments and doing things we hadn't done in the past to reach out to customers."
Delivery and curbside pickup are still options for customers concerned about recent spikes in COVID-19 positivity rates.
We've worked with over 12,000 people to date. I've worked with thousands of people all over the world," Durakovic said. There's been plenty of customers that come in for a couple of years, they reach their goal, and we don't see them ever again. And we love that. Yeah, of course, we are a business; we want to keep our lights on and pay our bills. But, at the end of the day, we do what we do, but I started this to be a service we want to give people value, and we want to change their lives."
