Grocery Life December 2, 2014

Grocery Life December 2, 2014tyson thumbprint cookie 1

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. Well Black Thursday and Friday as well as cyber Monday are over with. I managed to escape all of these days unscathed. I think the only thing I bought this weekend was an icee for Tyson on the way home from the skateboard park Saturday.

I guess a lot of people kick off the Christmas season by shopping on these days, I never have. I will end up paying full price for everything but I don’t have a lot of gifts to buy so I will survive.

My family kicked off the Christmas season by going to the hanging of the greenery service at our church Sunday night. This is when our church decorates the sanctuary, the children and adult choirs perform Christmas music and stories about Christmas traditions are read. This puts me more in the mood for Christmas than fighting the crowds at the mall.

This year we are adding the Rocky Hill Christmas parade to our list of Christmas traditions. It is this Saturday so I hope you will join us in making it one of your traditions.

We now have parade Christmas ornaments for sale in the store and we should have parade t shirts and sweat shirts for sale in the next day or two.

lindsay parade ornament

lindsay parade tee shirtlindsey parade hoodie

Another tradition I have is buying a Christmas tree from a customer of ours who has a tree lot just down the road. He knows exactly what kind and size of tree I want so when I pull up, he walks me over to the “perfect” tree for me. I bet he can pick the “perfect” tree for all his customers. The “trick of our trade” is trying to know our customers well enough so we can always provide them with the “perfect” something they are looking for. He does a great job of doing this with Christmas trees.

I would be in and out of there in less than five minutes but we always talk about sweet potatoes. I think he farms sweet potatoes in North Carolina so he knows a lot about sweet potatoes. I on the other hand do not. I have learned that North Carolina grows the best sweet potatoes and don’t let anyone tell you differently.

The guys in our meat department  remind me me of the Christmas tree man. They always have the ” perfect” cut of meat ready for our customers usually before they even ask for it.

I often get phone calls from customers that will give me their name and tell me to tell the meat department guys to get their meat order ready. All I do is relay the name to the meat department and the meat guys will know the exactly what they want. Other times people will walk up to the meat counter and say “my wife or husband sent me down here and told me you guys will know the steaks he or she wants. They always do. The guys back there have definitely learned the “trick of the trade”. There are very few butcher shops left today that can provide that kind of service. I am glad we are one of them!

meat department

We are starting to look like Christmas here in the store. We just started receiving shipments of poinsettias and other seasonal potted plants so the front of the store is really looking decorative.christmas flowers

poinsettas 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We used to decorate a live tree in the store but the Fire Marshall informed us that is a no no. Someone must have told on us? I think we will just let the parade Christmas tree be our tree this year.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Respond to:tom.butler44@gmail.com

Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Discover more from Butler & Bailey Market

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading