Grocery Life May 12, 2014

Tyson doing laundry for Mom for Mother's Day
Tyson doing laundry for Mom for Mother’s Day

Grocery Life May 12, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good Monday afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market,

I hope everyone had a great Mother’s Day Weekend, especially all of you moms! We celebrated at our house yesterday. We had a total of four moms whose ages ranged from 40 to 79 and six children ages ranging from 5 to 49. It was fun to have everyone over, but I must admit I was tempted to sneak off and go fishing. I thought better of it considering I was in charge of preparing lunch. All kidding aside, my brother and I share the good fortune of having a great mom, and I have come to appreciate this more and more as the years go by.

We started our new two week ad at the store yesterday. Those of you that live near the store and take the Knoxville News Sentinel should have received it in DSC_0067your newspaper yesterday. If you do not subscribe, you can view it on our website or pick up a copy in the store.  Ray, our store manager, is in charge of putting together the ad. It is a very time consuming process for him. When you are an independent operator like we are, you do not have the luxury of a large advertising department like a chain store would.  We are in a group with independent store owners but more than 90% of them are in rural areas scattered across nine states so the items they chose to promote rarely fit the buying needs of our customers. Ray can usually use a few of these items, but everything else is customized to the things we think are important to you. Once he decides what these items are he will spend the better part of a week calling manufacturers and distributors to see if he can work out a deal with them. Most of the time they are accommodating but some have decided if you are not Wal-Mart, they are not interested. Once Ray has secured these items he meets with the department managers in the store and together they determine the meat, produce, and deli/bakery items. These items are decided based on what is in season, what holiday or occasion might be coming up, or maybe new products they want to promote. Ray then compiles all of this and we have a fresh new four page ad with 70 to 80 items. Ray really works hard at finding items that meet your wants and needs and I sure appreciate him doing it.

Some of my favorite items in the ad this week would be the Scottish salmon fillets, baby back ribs, and Nancy’s red velvet cake. My favorite way to prepare salmon is to put it skin down on a piece of foil, brush the top with olive oil, and season it with “Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Salmon Seasoning.” I then lay it on the grill for about 20 minutes at 300 degrees.  I never have to turn it and when it is done I take a spatula, slide it between skin and meat to remove and I am ready to eat.

 

 

I was grilling the baby back ribs about once a week, but since Ashley started smoking them in the store, I just take them home already cooked. Nancy’s red velvet cake is by far her most popular. If you have not tried it yet you should. It was sure a hit this past weekend for Mother’s Day. I hope everyone has a great day!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

 

Tom Butler

 

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