Fifty-pound bags of devils-food cake mix, 35-pound buckets of peanut butter, 100-pound sacks of flaked coconut, and similarly huge quantities of sugars, flours, grains, dried beans, and peas dot A&T Specialty Foods Inc.s store here. Shelves and pallets laden with industrial-sized packages of such staples await shoppers at the bulk-foods outlet at Pines Road and 16th Avenue in the Spokane Valley.


Its like an old country store, Andi Martello says of the unpretentious look and broad offerings at the market she and her husband, Tim, own.


The bins of dried fruits, nuts, and natural candies, displays of soap- and candle-making supplies, and 55-gallon drums of molasses and olive, safflower, and canola oil bring to mind a simpler era, and A&T, located in a 10,000-square-foot former IGA outlet, also has other unusual aspects.


Handtrucks and wood-plank warehouse carts are ready for the Martellos and the stores four other employees to wheel the big sacks of food items to customers vehicles. The store has just one checkstand, and its rear wall is emblazoned with words like barley, buckwheat, millet, rye, and wheat. The market stocks granolas, cereal grains and about a gazillion varieties of rice, Martello says.


One aisle features sacks of textured vegetable proteina meat substitute that resembles crumbled ground beef or comes in larger nuggets. The brownish chunks of the stuff, which is also called TVP, come in such flavors as, beef, bacon, ham, sausage, and pepperoni.


Ever see a 25-pound box of Krusteaz pancake mix? Its here. How about monster tubes of fillings for layer cakes and pastries? Theyre here, too, in nearly a dozen flavors.


A&T opened in 1995 when the Martellos bought some of the assets of Dasco Inc., a bakery and restaurant supplier that had operated in the Spokane Valley since the late 1960s.


Over the years, Dasco had supplied food co-ops, and then, when the co-ops dwindled, had started retailing directly to former co-op members. Dascos founder, George Van Hoff, and his family sold Dascos Spokane County wholesale bakery-supply business to Spokane Bakery Supply, and the Martellos bought the retail operation and remaining wholesale assets.


Tim Martello had worked at Dasco for a dozen years, and Andi Martello, as manager of the Au Croissant Bakery downtown, had been a Dasco customer.


Today, the wholesale side of A&T supplies bakeries and restaurants in North Idaho and Western Montana and sells bulk foods to health-food stores and grocery stores, including the stores run by Tidymans LLC and Yokes Washington Foods Inc., both of Spokane, Andi Martello says. A&Ts wholesale side also supplies food co-ops in Western Washington and in Alaska.


The Spokane Valley store retails wholesale-size packages of legumes, flours, and other items at prices that are 5 percent more than the prices it charges wholesale customers, Martello says. In addition, it repackages the items in smaller quantities, which sell for slightly higher prices.


The stores typical retail customers include large families, people with allergies to processed foods, and people who want to limit processed foods, Martello says.


She claims that large families can save hundreds of dollars a month by buying food in bulk, and the meals they cook with grains, legumes, and soy products are healthier than those made from processed foods. She also asserts that commercial-grade flours and mixes for cakes, breads, and pancakes are of higher quality than similar products prepared for retail consumers.


The Y2K surge


From mid-1998 until the end of 1999, A&T got a big boost from people who were preparing for the worst from Y2K, Martello says. The second half of 1998a year before many people started preparing for a possible Y2K computer crisiswas the busiest period for the store. The end-of-the-worlders plan ahead, Martello says. After the initial barrage of Y2K shoppers, she, Tim, and the stores employees did some planning ahead of their own and fine-tuned processes to handle the rest of the rush more efficiently.


The Y2K crowd pushed annual sales at A&T to roughly $1.3 million in each of the last two years, Martello says. She expects to see sales settle back this year into the $900,000 range that the store had seen in the past.


When the store opened five years ago, only about 20 percent of its revenue came from its retail business. Today, such sales account for about 60 percent of overall revenue. She attributes the retail growth to A&Ts efforts to respond to customers needs and to make the store a friendly shopping environment rather than a warehouse that happens to be open to the public.


Bright displays of spices, specially packaged for A&T by a custom spice blender in Oregon, stand near the stores entrance, along with an assortment of teas. A homey coffee bar occupies one corner of the store next to a selection of nutrition books.


An adjacent display case is filled with handmade soaps and candles and the supplies to make them. Martello says people who make candles and soaps discovered that A&Ts baking and candy-making section sold coconut oil, which can be used in candle- and soap-making, and soon were regular customers. At their request, Martello began ordering other essential oils and supplies for them.


Everything in the business evolves, she says. Ideas lead from one to another with the customers needs as our guide.


Martello says her son, a Navy Seal, is looking into whether A&T can sell a line of nutritional supplements used by the elite military force.


An area in the store is being cleared to make way for a produce section that will feature locally grown fruits and vegetables and seasonal produce. A&T also sells milk, butter, and cheese from a Spokane Valley dairy, and eggs from local farms. Dried peas, beans, and pastas also come from local suppliers.


The store often offers Saturday demonstrations by local craftspeople on such activities as papermaking, cheesemaking, growing and using herbs, and making candles, soaps, and lotions. Attendance can range from eight to 50 people, and outbursts of laughter are common, Martello says.


The folksy warmth of the store, where service for a long-time customer might include a hug with an order of groceries, has been reflected back on the Martellos. When Tim Martello was stricken last year by a virus that damaged his liver and put him on a waiting list for a liver transplant, customers stepped in to unload trucks and to stock shelves at the store, and even to give blood in his name.


Tim Martello underwent a liver transplant in Seattle the first weekend of May.