CityMag is spending a week getting to know King William Road, and our first stop is The Field Wholefoods – the bulk health food store run by former advertising professional, Andrew Carracher.

After 15 years working in advertising, Andrew Carracher knows a little something about the mid-afternoon slump.

“I would notice when I was working that people would just fall into this hole midway through the day… and they’d just lose concentration and become inefficient,” Andrew says.

“People normally go to the chocolate or a coffee to get them through the day. I was that bloody annoying person that would sit at his desk with carrot sticks and celery sticks and apples just crunching away.”

It was after taking up triathlon that Andrew started paying closer attention to the way his diet was affecting his daily performance, and it stirred the desire for a sea change.

“I found that I wasn’t falling asleep thinking about advertising, I would fall asleep thinking about… the next session I was training for, the next race I was doing, and how to get the best performance for that,” Andrew says.

After qualifying for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii twice, Andrew turned his newfound passion for food into The Field Wholefoods, a corner store for the conscious eater.

Tiers of tubs line the store filled with bulk dried fruit, nuts, muesli, spices, sweeteners and other dietary alternatives.

“A lot of people are starting to be mindful of what they eat, and not only what they put in their mouth, where it actually comes from,” Andrew says.

“[And] everything we buy is in bulk, so people can bring their own containers in… or we’ve got recycled brown paper bags, which can then be put into compost… so there’s environmental reasons why people would shop this way.”

With other mindful eateries along King William Road (Nutrition Republic, Paleo Café and Pollen 185) keeping Andrew in good company, he hopes the iconic paved street will continue to develop along this healthy path.

“A lot of retailers come and say ‘this is great. It’s exactly what we need,’ and you like to hear that because it’s starting to create that destination,” Andrew says.

A healthy lifestyle starts with getting out and about.