There are two small, inexpensive restaurants, a fruit stand selling ice cold coconuts and a surf shop a five-minute stroll from the beach.

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The company began as a fruit and vegetable stand in 1933 and has since expanded to a dozen locations in the region, including in Connecticut and New Jersey.

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Yet it is home to a roadside stand serving organic fruit and vegetables, a health-food shop packed with nutritious grains and a superstore that University of Washington researchers found attracts flocks of shoppers from well outside the desert.

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He declined to stand, but accepted a local fruit company's offer to sponsor his daily bananas.

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