Grocery Life November 2, 2018

Grocery Life November 2, 2018

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market. I hope everyone is doing well. I have not written in a while, but we are getting into the busy season, so I need to get back to it. We have some important events coming up at the store and in the community that I need to let you know about.      

The first event is our annual Holiday Open House. This is our version of a customer appreciation day and since it falls right before the holidays it gives us a chance to let you sample all our favorite holiday recipes as well as those from our local vendors. I think all of our vendors from past years will be back this year and we are adding several new vendors. 

   A couple of our new vendors this year will be introducing their products in the store for the first time. One is a toffee maker from Dallas, Texas and the other is a cake and bread maker from Highlands, North Carolina. You might wonder how I discovered these folks and their products, and the answer is, I didn’t. Our customers find them and then they play matchmaker between us and the vendor. It is kind of like going on a blind date except its food. I’m not much of a blind date kind of guy. Most all of the blind dates I have been on, I felt like throwing up before they started and sometimes, I felt like throwing up when they ended. I will have the upper hand on this blind date because I am inviting hundreds of my friends to go on the date with me, so I hope you all will help me decide if their food creations are worthy of a second date for the store.   

The open house will be Saturday, November 17th, from 11 am until 2 pm. You all are invited and the best part, it’s free. This is our biggest event of the year, we are excited, our vendors are excited, so I hope you can come.     

The next event I want to tell you about is the 5th annual Rocky Hill Christmas Parade. It is December 1st and the festivities start at 3 p.m. I think the actual parade usually starts around six but let me check on that.  

This year there will be more live music, more food options, more activities for the kids and the parade itself is going to be bigger. The parade planners do a great job of organizing this every year! I think what they do best is somehow they make it bigger and better every year but still has that small community feel about it.         

Once again, the store will be one of the presenting sponsors of the parade. This community has been so kind to support us over the last twenty-eight years, I figure the least we can do is throw our support behind an event that has become so important to the community. People always ask me why we sponsor the parade but don’t do a float. Well, we get a float and then we donate it to Rocky Hill Elementary school to decorate and ride on. I figure no one wants to see me riding on a float and if they did, it would be only because they wanted to throw something at me. So, for your safety and mine, we will keep giving the float to the school. My family and I will enjoy watching the parade with the rest of the crowd. I hope you will join us!     

Getting back to blind dates, the last blind date I went on was with my wife. The way I remember it, she immediately fell madly in love with me. After our date, she bought me gifts, wrote me letters, baked me cookies and called me most every day. I remember being very cautious, somewhat skeptical and wanting to take it slowly. She was sure we were a match made in heaven and was really persistent in trying to overcome the cold shoulder that I continued to give her. Somehow her tactics finally prevailed, and we began a relationship. While I was still unsure of the potential of our relationship, I let it go on, figuring she would finally give up. Well she didn’t, and we ended up married.
Okay, okay ,okay, I just made every bit of that up. The only true part of that is the blind date and we got married. Well last month we celebrated twenty years of marriage which I am very proud of. She probably had no idea what she was in for and probably feels like throwing up every now and then but I’m glad she chose me to be her lifelong grocery man.       

I am also glad you all have chosen us to be your grocery store! I hope I keep having wedding anniversaries with her and business anniversaries with you!      

Hope to see you at the Open House and at the Parade!