By Bob Arnold
Loyal customers, friends and relatives and members of the Wesson Chamber of Commerce officially cheered on Ana Mason in her efforts to rebuild her Copiah Nutrition Club business in a new location at a celebratory ribbon-cutting ceremony last month.
After eight years serving health-conscious locals at 3035 Highway 51 across from Steel Outdoors, Mason relocated Copiah Nutrition Club next to the Wesson branch of the Copiah County Clinic on Beech Street, where the State Department of Health once served the public.
Various building problems at the Highway 51 location had, increasingly, frustrated Mason’s operations and she decided to close up shop and start anew in fall 2023. In December, she opened the doors at the new location and started to rebuild her operation there.
The Nutrition Club is actually one part of Mason’s business as an independent distributor for Herbalife, with a product line that addresses needs of people related to a healthy weight, specialized nutrition, energy and fitness and skin and hair care.
As a Herbalife distributor, Mason also has a website -- www.goherbalife.com/TeamMason, which she calls “the store front” of her business. “That’s where you can register as a member to purchase products at deep discounts as a customer or as an independent distributor to sell products as part of my team, which now includes about ten persons” Mason explains. “Copiah Nutrition Club is the day-to-day personal operations side of the web site that introduces Herbalife to drop-in customers who are technically members of a venue that is neither a restaurant nor retail outlet.”
At the nutrition club, member-customers can purchase health meal replacement shakes, energy and beauty teas, sports drinks and some of the other products available on the website, but not the full line of products.
Before COVID-19 curtailed its operations, almost 120 persons daily visited the nutrition club on Highway 51, and its traffic had rebounded to almost 100 persons per day before Mason shut down and moved to the Beech Street location. Today, at its new location, daily visitors are at around 40.
When business was at its peak in the old location, Mason had five employees. Today, at the outset of her rebuilding tasks, she is staffing Copiah Nuturition Club alone.
“In the coming weeks, we will be promoting raffles with product give-aways at the club on our Facebook page to stimulate new traffic,” she promises.
The 21-day Transformation Challenge, which starts online the first Monday of each month, also stimulates product sales while educating competitors on nutrition and fitness. Some 1,500 persons from throughout the world participate in the weight-loss, health-building program through web sites of Mason and her team members. For a $100 registration fee, they follow a plan, weigh in regularly, get support and advice for meals and keeping in shape on weekly one-to-two hour Zoom conference calls and document their progress on achieving their healthy living goals with before and after photos. Five Challenge competitors every month are rewarded $1,000 each for their transformations.
Copiah Nutrition Club’s hours are 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday, and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.