Grocery Life November 19, 2019

Posted on November 19, 2019 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life November 19, 2019

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week! We are gearing up for Thanksgiving around here, and I am sure most of you all are doing the same. This year, Thanksgiving falls late, so we are preparing for Christmas at the same time.

I think this makes about my 30th holiday season here at the store and a lot of the staff have been here at least fifteen years. We learn a little each year on how to make things go smoother, so the season is not nearly as intimidating as it used to be. Really the only thing you need to know at this store to get you through the holidays is NEVER run out of BEEF TENDERLOIN! You can screw up everything else and probably get away with it but don’t screw that up!! So far, we have never screwed that up. I think we also have it under control for this year as well.

We made our initial order of beef tenderloin Monday. We usually start with an order of eight to ten thousand pounds of it and we will build from there as the weeks go by. If you think that sounds like a lot, it is. You really realize it is a lot is when you get the bill for it about ten days later. I used to want to throw-up when I would get the bill for the initial order but after thirty years it becomes much easier to stomach. I am sure if my wife knew how much money I had to bet each year on Christmas business she would be throwing-up all the way to Christmas morning. I get it, she seems to worry about things like the health and well-being of our children, keeping all of our daily lives organized, and making sure the kids stay on the right track for a successful future. All I ever have to worry about is NEVER running out of BEEF TENDERLOIN at Christmas!!

Getting back to Thanksgiving, I want to remind you about our Holiday Open House coming up this Saturday. It will be from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm. This is our biggest event of the year even though we only advertise this event in the store and through this blog. While everyone is welcome, it is designed for our customers and community as a show of appreciation for all the support you give us! We sometimes worry that we don’t advertise it enough but when we see the crowd show up on Saturday, the worry turns to panic that we didn’t prepare enough food. I have learned through the years that “word of mouth” is the best advertising… and especially potent in the Rocky Hill community!

Some of the vendors coming this year include: Vienna coffee, Tomato Head, Cruze Farm, Blackberry Farm, Fanatic Brewery, Blue Bell ice cream, Mayfield Dairy, Carnathan Honey, Mamie’s Cheese Wafers, Toffee Treats, Heavenly Chocolate, Shrimp Dock, Cooks on the Curb, Barbara Tenney, Gringo Salsa and many more. They will all be sampling their products and sharing holiday recipes and ideas with you. Our staff will also be preparing some great meats, side items, and desserts for you to try as well. My advice would be not to eat before you come so you will have room to try everything.

Finally, as some of you have probably noticed and may have already participated in, our annual Second Harvest food drive has started in the store. This is a program we started several years ago. We make available in the store, five- and ten-dollar food bags you can purchase and donate to Second Harvest. We have already sent two pallets of food to Second Harvest and we have two more pallets waiting to be picked up and the holidays are just now getting started. I would love to take credit for this but all we do is facilitate the program. It is your generosity that makes this program such a success. I really appreciate all you do for the less fortunate among us and am proud the store gets to play a small part in it. Keep up the great work!