Harnett's Health Store Opens

Yet another contender has entered the battle for personal health care dollars in Harvard Square.

Joining CVS, The Body Shop, Origins and the Coop, Harnett's, a self-billed "alternative pharmacy" on Brattle St., opened its doors Tuesday.

Harnett offers a variety of herbal medicines, all-natural body care products and environmentally conscious bath products. Employees say the store's large selection will help differentiate Harnett's from its predecessors.

Comparing his store to The Body Shop, Harnett's employee David Lannon said, "The Body Shop carries 900 products; we carry 6,000. The Body Shop is more geared toward teenagers; we're more encompassing."

The new store at 47 Brattle Street is large, airy, and redolent of the various flower-scented products for sale there. The clientele circulating there yesterday, a mix of college-age and older persons, seemed interested mainly in checking out the new store, though many were also making purchases.

Harnett's will also offer a juice bar, featuring all-natural flavors such as carrot-beet-spinach juice and wheat grass juice--touted by the store as "Green Espresso."

Lannon explained the medicinal theory behindsome of the products for sale. "If you have acold," he said, "there are lots of ways you canapproach the situation."

Homeopathic medicines, one of Harnett'sspecialities, are supposed to work according tothe theory that "like cures like." Throughingestion of a very small quantity of the toxinresponsible for a certain disease, a patient'sdefenses are stimulated, he said.

Herbal medications take advantage of thenatural medicinal properties of plants, accordingto Lannon. Chinese elixirs, another form ofnatural medicine, adjust the body's energy levelto promote healing, he said.

Harnett's also offers a variety of morewhimsical products, including bottled flower andherb extracts, called tinctures. While most ofthese products don't make specific medicinalclaims, Lannon expressed faith in their powers.

"Sometimes they work, but you don't know whythey work. It's a more emotional than physicaltype of healing," he said.

While Harnett's provides customers with tipsand information about the properties of variousproducts, the store cautions that "none of thisinformation is intended to replace the advice ofyour health-care professional."

Nevertheless, customers seemed to have faith inHarnett's products. One couple, browsing among theracks of homeopathic cures, had selected severalbottles. When one of them was asked if he believedin homeopathy, he said, "Yes--or at least it'sworth a try."

An assistant manager at The Body Shop, whorefused to be identified, declined to comment onthe new competition in the Square

Lannon explained the medicinal theory behindsome of the products for sale. "If you have acold," he said, "there are lots of ways you canapproach the situation."

Homeopathic medicines, one of Harnett'sspecialities, are supposed to work according tothe theory that "like cures like." Throughingestion of a very small quantity of the toxinresponsible for a certain disease, a patient'sdefenses are stimulated, he said.

Herbal medications take advantage of thenatural medicinal properties of plants, accordingto Lannon. Chinese elixirs, another form ofnatural medicine, adjust the body's energy levelto promote healing, he said.

Harnett's also offers a variety of morewhimsical products, including bottled flower andherb extracts, called tinctures. While most ofthese products don't make specific medicinalclaims, Lannon expressed faith in their powers.

"Sometimes they work, but you don't know whythey work. It's a more emotional than physicaltype of healing," he said.

While Harnett's provides customers with tipsand information about the properties of variousproducts, the store cautions that "none of thisinformation is intended to replace the advice ofyour health-care professional."

Nevertheless, customers seemed to have faith inHarnett's products. One couple, browsing among theracks of homeopathic cures, had selected severalbottles. When one of them was asked if he believedin homeopathy, he said, "Yes--or at least it'sworth a try."

An assistant manager at The Body Shop, whorefused to be identified, declined to comment onthe new competition in the Square