I am a big proponent of buying local whenever it is economically feasible. I belong to a csa buy beef farm direct and generally patronize all the little shops, roadside stands and farmer’s markets I can.
I may list sales for Pathmark, A&P and Tops, but the places I seem to find the best deals are my locally owned grocery stores. I just got back from a local grocer that is celebrating their anniversary with a sale. I picked up cherries for $1.86#, peaches 86¢#, plums 86¢# and Edwards singles for 86¢ and used a $1/2 coupon (since they only double 4 alike it wasn’t worth using my 75 centers on this deal) and 36¢ each after coupon was pretty darned good.
I shop at a local P&C store on Sunday, although it is my husband’s job to write up the Quality ad in our house. We went this past Sunday and got a ton of marked down meat with additional savings via on-pack store coupons. I’m sending for a nbpr offer with that CRT to stretch my savings even further.
There is another local store that also has great sales. I stop when I go into the city and the REALLY nice thing about this store is they will hand you the following week’s ad … as early as Sunday, the start of the current sale cycle. So I can go in on Sunday morning and get this week’s ad AND next week’s ad. That certainly makes planning easier. I wish all grocers would do this but we know thet won’t. An informed consumer is not where they make their money.
Or are they?
These small store chains are growing. In an area of a little more than a million people we have an awful lot of grocery stores. We have some big-boys too in Tops, Wegmans, and Wal-Mart. So how do these little guys not only survive, but expand?
My personal opinion is they are successful because they remember a fundamental that seems to have gone by the wayside: The customer is why we exist.
Those local stores offer carry outs directly to your car (one place has valet parking! I kid you not!), they offer loss leaders something that seems forgotten by the big-boys and they offer sales, something that is not in Wegmans vocabulary. And somehow, these little markets seem to stock everything! I think they do it by forgoing the six aisles of Rubbermaid, books and seasonal merchandise. I can’t imagine how much the stores are being paid by the manufacturers of that stuff that it is worth up to 30% of their floor space. *cough*Wegmans*cough* The produce selection varies with the little market, but one store has better quality (and cheaper) than Wegman’s and Wegman’s claim to fame IS their produce department. Also, it is not unusual to see the owner in the store. The Owner! At the big-boys sometimes you can’t find a real manager yet the at the smaller stores not only is the manager available to help, so is the person that owns the joint. Amazing!
I love locally owned stores, how about you?
What a beautiful post! I live in a small city now, and have the same issues here. I am a complete fan of locally grown, but our locally grown here is 2-3X the cost or the big boys – which is different compared to what we had at the bigger city. We had a CSA that was affordable, that I volunteered at – to know you are eating the fruit of your own labor is comforting to the soul.
Glad to hear that locally grown is making a come-back! Seems these days the big boys are shoving the corner store into extinction.
In my neighborhood we just lost our (last) corner drugstore to CVS and Walgreens [~sigh~], progress. Now that we have a new Jiffy Lube, I imagine our local grease monkeys will have to apply for a job or pass into oblivion as well.
As for local grown food? I’ve been doing that b-yard gardening thing. Now THAT is tasty stuff! And rewarding too. To plant a seed and some months later prepare it for supper-ah now THAT is a sense of accomplishment!