Episode 147. Summer Auerbach – Second Generation Owner, Rainbow Blossom Natural Foods
Summer Auerbach is committed to local independent businesses and leads Rainbow Blossom Natural Foods.
In 1977, Summer’s parents started the first Rainbow Blossom Food Market in Louisville. After growing up in the business, she decided to go away to school and travel extensively.
Summer graduated from Bentley University in Massachusetts with a degree in international studies. She had plans to serve in AmeriCorps and help in disaster relief. However, when her father became critically ill, Summer came back to Louisville to help with the store. She ended up staying for ten years, bringing the business back from the brink of bankruptcy, at a time when two national natural food chains opened stores a mile from her flagship store. She overcame these hurdles, expanding the business to five stores, eventually taking ownership of the business.
Committed to the local community, Summer was on the ground floor building the Louisville Independent Alliance, focused on buying local first, which now has over 700 members.
Summer has earned recognition for her work, including a 2013 Member of Bingham Fellows, 2011 Today’s Woman magazine’s Most Admired Woman in the Food and Entertainment category, and one of Business First’s “Forty Under 40” in 2010. She also serves on several boards in the area and co-hosts a local food podcast called “Mighty Fine Farm & Food.”