Grocery Life October 13, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone had a good weekend. It was a soggy weekend weather wise but the Vols won a football game which somewhat offsets the weather. It looks like we are going to keep getting rain for the next day or two. So much for nice weather during the kid’s fall break.

Business was a little slow at the store last week. I think everyone was down about losing the Florida game. Business is always a little off after losing such a big game. Hopefully it will pick back up since we won Saturday.

We have had an eventful few days within our family. Thursday my brother, at the ripe young age of fifty, became a father for the first time. He and his wife had a little baby girl named Sophia. She’s a beautiful little girl and she has a super proud daddy!

Friday was my sixteenth wedding anniversary. Typically, Erica and I go on a trip for our anniversary but since I broke my arm we decided to stay home for this one. We did go out to eat Friday night and Saturday we took our bikes up to Townsend and rode around dodging the rain showers. Townsend has some nice bike paths and back roads to ride bikes on so if you like to ride you may want to try that area.

It is hard to believe we have been married sixteen years. It seems like yesterday I tricked her into marrying me. I knew she was the one for me and I knew I was the one for her; she just had to be convinced of this. I think she is convinced now but I continue to be on my best behavior.

Marriage seems to be a lot like running a business. If you don’t continue to try to make it better every day it will probably do nothing more than stay the same or start heading the wrong way. I don’t want that to happen to either since about one hundred percent of my time is spent at the store or with Erica and the kids.

I hope the next sixteen years are as good as the last sixteen with Erica!  I also hope the next twenty-four years at the store go as well as the last twenty-four have!

This week at the store we are starting a new two week ad. As you can probably guess, my favorite thing in the ad is the New York strip steaks. I don’t have a fancy way to cook them. I just burn them a little on both sides and leave the middle red.

Honey crisp apples are also on sale. They started the season at about four dollars a pound and now they are down below two. These are our best selling apples so I am glad to see the price dropping.

The two pound bags of argentine red shrimp are on sale. It would probably be a good time to stock up on those for the holidays. These are the shrimp Barbara Tenney uses in her cooking classes here at the store.

Our local products continue to do well. We are using Tickiwoo farm eggs at our house now. They are more expensive than our other eggs but they are worth it to us. They are better tasting and better for you. The folks that operate the farm are also some of the nicest people I have ever done business with.

Eco-rich farms leafy greens continue to sell well. They are starting to bring us some kale varieties which I know will be popular with our customers. If you haven’t tried their products you are missing out on some great local leafy greens.

Cruze farms continues to deliver their dairy products every Friday. They have been short on supply lately but have twelve new cows so hopefully that will help them keep up with demand.

Some other local products we are using at our home are Carnathan’s Honey, Benton’s Bacon and Three Bears Coffee. We also take advantage of all the prepared foods in our deli.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life October 7, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone had a good weekend. The football game did not go so well which put a damper on business Saturday evening. At least the weather was nice all weekend, which helps.

I went to the doctor before work yesterday to check the progress of my arm. They cut my cast off and now I just have a removable brace. Now I can start getting back to normal activities and should be good as new in another two to three weeks.

While I was at the doctor, Rick called to check on me. Rick works in our meat department. He had to have his shoulder rebuilt about six weeks ago and will probably be out another six weeks before he can start back to work. We talk about every day to see how the other is doing. He is going through a much longer and more painful process than I am so I hope he feels better soon. I know he is ready to be back to work. Neither of us do well being inactive.

When I did get to work yesterday, Jack was back at work. Jack works in our produce department and has been out several months recovering from bladder cancer. I am thrilled to have him back! He has been with us for about twenty years and the place just hasn’t been the same without him. Probably the biggest thing we have missed is him singing gospel songs while he works. He’s not a great singer but he’s a great produce man so he can get away with it.

We finished up our third quarter at the store last week. The numbers are finally starting to look better. The first two quarters were not that great mostly due to an inordinate amount of expenses. We really needed to have a good quarter to make up some deficit. I know the employees are happy. They got profit sharing checks this quarter. I am always their favorite boss when I hand those out….at least for a few days. Hopefully the fourth quarter will go well and we end the year on the upswing.

Speaking of the end of the year, Ashley, our meat manager, is already in discussions with suppliers about beef tenderloin at Christmas. Tenderloin as well as all the other cuts of beef have really gone up this year. Ashley told me the suppliers predict another twenty percent increase in prices for tenderloin by Christmas. This would make them fifty percent higher from Christmas of last year. Standing rib roasts are predicted to be high also. This is really discouraging to us and I am sure it is to you also. I guess the only ones happy about this are the chick-fil-a cows. Maybe something will change and prices will drop. I will keep you in the loop either way.

Last night at work I got a phone call from a customer that needed me to settle a dispute between him and his wife. He told me if I couldn’t help them world war three was going to start in their home. Apparently they were arguing over Fritos and needed me to go look on the shelf to see what kind of varieties we carried. He put me on speaker phone so they could both hear my answer, which put a lot of pressure on me. I went and checked the shelf and came back and told them what varieties we had in stock. I am not sure what started their argument or how it turned out but I think when I told them the answer it made the wife right and husband wrong because he pretty much hung-up on me when he heard the answer. I hope I don’t end up getting the blame for world war three at their house.

Settling marriage disputes is just another service we provide here at the store. We also change an occasional tire, jump off a dead battery, and have even gone to people’s homes when they need a hand with something.

When you run a neighborhood business, you learn real fast that not only are you running a business but just as importantly, you are becoming a neighbor to a whole lot of people. Fortunately, I have a degree in business but maybe more importantly, I have the lessons learned from my parents and others on how to be a good neighbor. It is all part of living the “grocery life”.

Have a great week!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Respond to:tom.butler44@gmail.com

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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life October 3, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. The weather has been beautiful but that is changing as I write. Just to let you know, the pictures on the blog will probably have nothing to do with the text in the blog. We are still trying to figure out which ones are permissible to use from the internet. So until then, you are probably going to get a heavy dose of the pictures from our cameras.

I just put the finishing touches on my apology letter to Getty Images in Seattle, Washington. Fortunately, I have not had to write many apology letters in my life. They aren’t easy to write so it took me a while. It is one thing to write when you know your audience; it is totally different when you are writing to some legal department in Seattle. I think they live and believe a little differently than we do around here.

I am lucky that we live in a world full of apologies. If you are looking for some examples of apologies to help with your own apologies all you have to do is turn on your television or open up a newspaper. They have become so commonplace, sometimes you have to change the channel on the television two or three times before you find a station without someone giving an apology.

Recently most of the apologies have come from the sports world. The athletes are getting in trouble for things they have to apologize for, and then the administrations in charge of keeping the athletes out of trouble are having to apologize for not doing their job.

I always have a tough time figuring out which ones are sincere and which ones are not with these sports figures. They are not trained in the art of apologies so it is hard to get a good read on them.

The apologies I like are the ones from politicians and televangelists. I always know when they are being sincere. NEVER! The reason I know this is once they make their mistake they spend the first few months denying a mistake was made. When they figure out that’s not working, they spend the next several months lying and blaming someone else for their mistakes. When that doesn’t work and if they haven’t been voted out of office, thrown in jail or checked into rehab, they will offer an apology. And boy will it be a good one!

My favorites were performed by Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Bakker and Bill Clinton. I would include Nixon but am not sure his was an apology.

Who could forget their quivering lips, tear filled eyes, and Tammy’s makeup running down our television screens. Maybe they have to deny and blame for so long to give themselves time to rehearse for their performance.

We seem to live in a world that is quick to criticize and blame and slow to apologize and forgive. The people we look to for leadership seem to have decided that personal responsibility should only be practiced as a last resort. As long as they have fifty-one percent of the people on their side, they do whatever it takes to keep their slim majority happy. And it is usually to the detriment of the other forty-nine percent. I think we are seeing the results of this all across society.

The good thing about the grocery business is we have to try to make one hundred percent of the people happy one hundred percent of the time. If we only make fifty-one percent of our customers happy, we go out of business. I am sure most of you are in the same boat at the places you work. When you know that going in, it makes it a whole lot easier to try to treat people with kindness and honesty. Maybe we should require larger majorities to win elections?

Well I went way off course today writing this. I think I have had too much time to sit around and think about things. Nope that’s not it. A lady just walked by while I was writing this and told me she liked my blog but she said she was a little bit off in her head. I told her I was a little bit off in my head and she said she could tell that by reading my blogs and that’s why she likes them. So now I have an excuse and something to blame for my behavior. Maybe I should go into politics?

Have a great weekend and go Vols!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life September 30, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. The weather continues to be near perfect and the football team is playing better and better every week. This seems to be a great combination for the general attitude around town which has translated into good weekends of business for us. Hopefully the Vols will get over the hump and win this weekend which will really get the fans excited.

I have been trying to do my best at staying calm and still the last few days while my arm is healing up. I have felt great since my surgery which led me to overdo it one day. I learned real fast just because you feel good doesn’t mean you are healed.

I am back on my normal work schedule this week which has been good. This lets everyone else here get back to their normal schedule which I am sure they are glad of.

This blog must be getting popular. Yesterday I got a four page letter from a company in Seattle, Washington concerning it. Unfortunately it was addressed to our legal department at Butler and Bailey Market. It turns out we put a picture on a past blog without a valid license to use it. This company in Washington apparently owns the rights to this picture and now they want to be compensated for the use of it. It was a picture of a dog sitting next to a Christmas present. This apparently is a special dog because they want me to pay them $555.50 for putting the picture on the blog. That’s more than I have ever paid for a dog much less a picture of a dog.

I guess when you are a three billion dollar company you have a legal department. When you have a corner grocery store you don’t. You just happen to be lucky enough to have a brother who is a lawyer. I called my brother about the letter and was advised to write them a letter of apology for using the picture.

Since they must read my blog, first I would like to thank them for taking the time to read it and secondly, I would like to extend them a public apology for inadvertently using their dog picture in the blog. We took the picture as well as any others we are not sure about off the website yesterday, per their request.

Most importantly, I would like to apologize to the dog in the picture. My family and I are dog lovers. We have two dogs that we love very much. We don’t pay them when we take their picture but we do feed them and give them water every day. We also walk them, bathe them and take them to the vet when they get sick. They are an important part of our family so by no means did I ever wish to cause the dog in the picture any harm or mental anguish and would welcome him or her to come and play with our dogs anytime.

I hope when this company receives my letter or reads this blog they will except my apology and pass it along to the dog in the picture. I also hope they love the dog in the picture as much as we love our dogs.

My business is selling groceries. An important part of that is building relationships with our customers which is why I write this blog. You get my honest beliefs on what I and we stand for at the store as well as how my family and I live life outside of the store. As you have probably realized, I screw up just as much as I get things right and I am glad to share both of those outcomes with you.

I will never have a three billion dollar business but if I keep writing this blog I may have to have a legal department here at the store. I wonder what one of those costs? Probably more than the dog in the picture.

Have 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

Grocery Life September 26, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good morning from the South Knoxville outpost of Butler and Bailey Market…. that would be my couch. The great Johnny Cash once said, “Put the screws to me and I will screw right out from under you.” I have shared those same sentiments for the most part until yesterday. I had the screws put to me (9 of them plus a metal plate) and had they not put the gas mask on me before they started I would have probably screwed out from under them.

Yesterday, I had my arm surgery. I have only been put to sleep twice in my life, both times being in the last two weeks. It is really weird to me to be there one minute, and then you are gone, and then when you come back changes have been made to your body that you never knew about. I don’t know how I feel about all that. Maybe I am a control freak? Everything went great, took about an hour and I was home by one o’clock.

Once I got home, I plopped down on the couch and decided I had about four hours to feel sorry for myself before the kids got home. I figured I would put on a movie, start feeling sorry for myself, doze off for awhile, wake up, feel sorry for myself some more, doze off etc. etc. Well the movie I chose was Twelve Years a Slave. That is not the movie to pick when you want to feel sorry for yourself! Matter of fact, I would take all the broken arms in the world before I would change places with the people in the movie.

The movie is based on a book written by a man who was born free, kidnapped and enslaved, and twelve years later, finally freed. What a story! My eyes were opened to another aspect of the brutality people have endured once again and every time I want to feel sorry for myself, God has his little way of telling me to get over it.

I thought it was a great movie and I think I will get the book now. If you get a chance, you should watch it.

I hope to go to the store later this afternoon for a little while. I have been way out of the loop and can’t wait to get back to my normal schedule and routine. I told Erica yesterday that I am sure everyone will be glad when they start reading about store news again instead of my foolish escapades.

I will tell you we had the chicken chili from the deli for lunch and it is really good. I think Nancy must do her special magic to it because it has a lot of flavor. We had the flatbread pizzas from the deli the night before. We make four varieties. The two we chose were the spinach feta and the spinach Roma tomato. I love those little pizzas, my favorite being the spinach feta one. I had Ashley’s smoked bologna for lunch Wednesday. I didn’t know you could improve on plain bologna but I think the smoked is better. I am sure he will have plenty for the weekend as well as all of his other smoked items.

I talked to Claire Gillespie Wednesday about the Rocky Hill Christmas Parade. She says the planning of it is going great. The businesses and area churches, as well as the surrounding neighborhoods are really involved in the planning. There are several parade committees that need volunteers and would love anyone’s help. If you would like to volunteer they have a website up which you can view by clicking here with more information or you can call Claire at Gillespie’s Auto repair shop. As of yesterday, it is three months until Christmas so maybe helping with the parade will start to get us into the Christmas spirit.

Have a great weekend and go Vols!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life September 23, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. The weather has been beautiful which figures since I can’t do any of the outdoor activities I enjoy for a few weeks. I guess I will just keep reading books and yelling at my kids while I heal up.

I went to the doctor yesterday so he could X-ray my arm to make sure it was still set correctly. It turns out it has moved so now I am having surgery on it Thursday. This should speed up the healing process which I am all for. We’ll see how it goes.

I saw the doctor that delivered both of our children in the store yesterday. He asked what happened to me and I told him that little boy he delivered seven years ago got me on a skateboard. He said “I guess that makes it my fault?” I told him if I knew a good lawyer I might be able to make that case. He knows I come from a family of lawyers and was just kidding, but I bet he has had to defend himself against some crazy lawsuits. My dad defended doctors in his law practice and I was always surprised by some of the things he told me people blamed their doctor for.

I also saw Mayor Burchett in the store last night. I told him what happened and asked him if the city would pay my medical bills since my accident happened in a city park. He told me that bunch of liberals downtown would pay my bills and then raise my taxes to pay for it. I don’t think he agrees with liberals or raising taxes.

I don’t have anybody to blame but myself, but I do hope my insurance will cover a lot of my bills. I have never had to put it to test so I guess I am about to find out.

We have a group plan here at the store which my family is a part of. Years ago when the store finally got into the black I decided that we should start providing insurance for our full-time employees.

I learned early on in this business that most everyone here went without health insurance. The result of this was people coming to work sick or missing a lot of work because they were sick. If they finally got sick enough to have to go to a doctor they did so through an emergency room which is the most expensive way to see a doctor. The outcome of any of these scenarios was never good. They either spread their illness to everyone else in the store, left us shorthanded because they were out of work, or racked up big bills at the ER that they could not pay and their wages would be garnished and/or force them into bankruptcy. None of these things were going to help us build our business or help their financial futures so it just made since to me that if the store could afford it we should do it.

When we started offering insurance the monthly premium per employee was around one hundred dollars. For that we got very low co-pays, a drug card and low deductibles. The employees paid ten percent of the premiums and the store ninety percent. It was very affordable for both parties. Now the premiums are just under four hundred dollars per employee a month, the benefits are not as good and we have a lot more employees. It has become more of a financial burden for the employee and the store.

Every year when it is time for renewals i.e. increases, I sit down with the staff and discuss what they can afford to pay and what the store can afford and once this is decided we adjust the benefits accordingly, which usually means reducing them.

I don’t know how all this insurance mess is going to play out and how it will affect us at the store. I imagine it will get worse before it gets better.

I do know that investing in our employees, be it through health care or other benefits, has been a huge factor in the success of the store as well as positively impacting the lives of all of us that work here. The only way that happens is when you buy groceries here so I speak for us all when I say we appreciate your business! I hope we have and continue to make it a good “investment” for you.

Have a great week!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life September 18, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. I have not been at the store much this week but everything seems to be going business as usual. I try to go in for a little while everyday but since I am not driving yet Erica has to take me and pick me up so we have to coordinate our schedules.
I have realized over the last few days that almost everything I do in a day’s time requires two working arms. This includes all of my chores much less my hobbies. I am presently working on getting someone to keep up the yard for the next six weeks. I have always done this myself so I am sure I will be surprised by how much people charge to do it for you. Luckily, the mowing season is about over.

Another thing I thought about is if I have to be inactive for the next six weeks I will probably start gaining weight. Oddly enough I have been losing weight since my accident. The healing process must burn a lot of calories. Maybe I can get rich writing a book called the “broken arm diet”?

One thing I can still do is read. I used to read a lot of books but have not read many lately because there just doesn’t seem to be enough time in the day. Before I broke my arm I had decided I was going to read four books by Christmas in order to get back into the habit of reading. I will probably up that number now since I have read two already and have another five weeks in a cast.

The first one I read is Fall of Giants by Ken Follett. I chose it because one of my favorite books is Pillars of The Earth written by him. Fall of Giants is a historical fiction set in the WW1 era. It is no Pillars of The Earth but I liked it enough to get through all 1000 pages. If you are interested in knowing what drew the world into WW1, he does a great job of doing that through the lives of five families. I did discover there was a lot of romance during that period. He details that pretty thoroughly!

The other book I read is called The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. This book won the Pulitzer Prize which is why I chose it. I finished it but it wasn’t my favorite. I think I am figuring out I am not smart enough to enjoy Pulitzer Prize winners. I never seem to like them much.

I am going to read The Book Thief next. Erica just finished it last night. When she came to bed last night she said I just cried my eyes out at the end of that book. I guess that means it had a really happy ending or a really sad ending. She loved the book. I will let you know what I think. I guess if I keep breaking bones I can become a book reviewer?

Getting back to store business, all of our autumn items are starting to come in. Our Halloween candy is in and out on display. We also have pumpkins in about every size and shape as well as ornamental gourds. The new crop of fall squash is also arriving.

The October cooking class schedule came out this week. The September classes were sold out within two weeks of the schedule coming out so if you are interested in an October class I would try to make a reservation soon. You can find the schedule and menus on our website.

Click here for October Schedule. 

We have been eating the prepared foods out of the deli this week. So far we have had the lasagna, smoked BBQ ribs, rotisserie chicken and green beans and red potatoes. They have all been good. Tyson loved the lasagna last night so we must be doing something right. He’s a picky eater. I may try to get back to my grill this weekend. I will be ready for a big steak by then… I just need someone to cut it up for me.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life September 16, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone had a good weekend. I have kind of been on a blog vacation for the last week. Keith has been on vacation and since he is the one that puts it together and sends it out I decided to just take a break from it instead of bothering him while he was gone.

Everything at the store has been going well. Raymond Duncan is back to work. We are glad to have him back! We are still waiting for Jack in our produce department to get well enough to come back to work. He is finishing up some treatments for cancer. His prognosis is great; he is just working on getting his strength back up.

My weekend started out good. Tyson had his first football practice Friday night. Somehow I ended up being one of the coaches for his team. I don’t know much about coaching football but am pretty good at herding cats which is just as important in seven year old football.

Saturday morning Tyson and I went to the skateboard park. We do this about every week. I usually skateboard with him a little but mostly watch him. We were both riding around in the big bowl Saturday and I took a little spill. When I sat up from my fall my right arm was pointing two different directions. So here I was lying in the bottom of this bowl with a broken arm. I called Tyson over to me and told him. He wanted to see it and when I showed him he said “yea it’s broken”. I then thought I better call Erica to tell her in case I passed out because I was starting to feel woozy. She said she was on her way. I then just laid there hoping I didn’t get sick or pass out and wondering how I was going to climb out of this bowl. Tyson was trying to be helpful, bringing me water and wiping my head with a towel and then he started to get upset. I think he was a little scared that his daddy got hurt. I finally felt good enough to climb out and about the time I got out Erica and Lauren arrived.  

When we got to the car I called my neighbor who is an orthopedic surgeon to ask him where we should go. His group works at St. Mary’s so he said to go to the ER there and he would call ahead to let them know I was coming. We hardly walked in the door before I was whisked back to a room. The doctor came and said my arm needed to be reduced which means they stretch it out so they can put the bones back the way they go. Since I had eaten that morning I had to wait 8 hours from that time before they could put me to sleep to set my arm. That meant seven that night which was six hours from the time we arrived. This gave Erica a chance to get the kids picked up and to go get my car from Tyson Park. I got to lay in the room, watch football, and get a shot of morphine every couple of hours. Not a bad way to spend the afternoon.

The time finally arrived to fix my arm. A different doctor was on call by then but he turned out to be a customer at the store which made me feel more comfortable. He put me to sleep, stretched my arm out and put it back in place, wrapped it up in a cast and when I woke up I was ready to go, almost in time to watch the whole Tennessee game.

I went to see the surgeon this morning and he seemed to think I will be ok without surgery so it looks like I will have a cast and sling for about the next six weeks then be ready to go.

I broke my right arm which is the one I use for everything, including writing this blog. Today I am pecking it out on my phone with my left thumb. I will email it to Keith and let him edit it, put it in blog form, and send it out. I am on pain killers so if it is more nonsensical than usual it is not Keith’s fault.

I will probably not be cooking for the next little while which means we will be eating a lot of prepared foods from the store. This will give me a chance to try a lot of the new things we offer. I will report on how they are.

Hope you all have a great week and I should be back to work in the next day or two.

 Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life September 4, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. After a busy Labor Day weekend, we are getting back to normal here at the store. Normalcy will not last long because the Vols have another home football game this Saturday.

The game this Saturday has a twelve noon start time. We don’t really like an early start time at the store for games. We would prefer a night game. When they start early we do a couple of hours of good business but when the game starts it will be like a ghost town in here for the next three to four hours. Once the game is over, business will pick back up if the Vols win. If they lose, business will not be so good after the game.

Restaurants are just the opposite. They don’t like night games, they like day games. They want to catch the crowds after the game is over so I would think the earlier the game ends the more restaurants like it.

All of us like it when football season starts. I don’t know the figures but all the business people I know see an increase in business during football season. If they keep on winning, the positive economic impact will continue throughout the season. So Go Vols!

We are in the middle of our two week ad now. My favorite thing in the ad would be the Cowboy Ribeye steak. This is a bone-in ribeye steak. The ribeye is flavorful to begin with but when it is cooked with the bone, I think it has even more flavor. Another one of my favorites are the chicken thighs and drumsticks. I always cook these on the grill at 200 to 250 degrees. Sometimes I marinate them, sometimes I don’t. Either way they always turn out good.

In the Deli/Bakery, we have red velvet cakes on sale. This is easily our most popular cake. I rarely eat cake, but everyone always tells me how good all of our cakes are so the red velvet must be especially good. Two other things people always comment about are Nancy’s chicken casserole and chicken pot pie. Both of these are made from scratch back in the deli. Our made from scratch quiches are also on sale this week. These might be a good idea for the tailgate this Saturday since the game has an early start time.

The South Carolina peaches have finally run out for the season. Our last load came and went last weekend. We have talked to another supplier about peaches, but they have failed to deliver any so I am not very optimistic. We did get in our first shipment this season of honey crisp apples. They just came in this morning. These are always our best selling apples when they are in season as well as being my favorite variety.

On a sad note, Raymond Duncan’s wife, Rikki, passed away unexpectedly Friday a week ago. Raymond has worked in our meat department for the last twenty years and before that he was at the Rocky Hill Market which was just up the street. He has been an important part of this community for over 50 years and is probably the most recognized face in Rocky Hill. I know Raymond and his family are going through a tough time right now and are very appreciative of the support they are receiving from their church family at Rocky Hill Baptist as well as the rest of the community. Over the last week hundreds of our customers have called or came in to offer their condolences and support. We are all certainly blessed to be a part of a community that takes care of its people in their time of need!

We are looking forward to when Raymond is ready to come back to work and I know you will be glad to see his familiar face behind the meat counter every afternoon.

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Respond to:tom.butler44@gmail.com

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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

(865)691-8881

Grocery Life August 28, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. We have had a busy week at the store.

We got our new produce furniture in last Friday and started installing it Monday afternoon. By Tuesday afternoon the job was pretty much completed. I am really pleased with how it has turned out so far, and we have had a lot of positive feedback from our customers. I think it makes the department a lot more spacious and easier to shop.

We had two guys from our produce wholesaler that helped us with the job which made it a lot easier on us. When they left Tuesday, they left me a list of things I needed to order to really finish out the project nicely; so it looks like I am going to have to spend another few thousand dollars to really complete the job. The price of progress is expensive.

My electrician was in yesterday. We are looking at replacing some of the lighting in our refrigerated cases in the store with LED lighting. The price of this kind of lighting is finally affordable so he was showing me my options with it and giving me the pricing. The great thing about LED lighting is it lasts for years instead of months before it needs to be replaced and it is super energy efficient. Our KUB bill here is averaging about $12,000 a month so we are always looking for ways to be more energy efficient. We have already converted all of the lighting in our freezers and most of the overhead lighting in our produce and deli areas. Hopefully, in the next few months, most all of our refrigerated sections will be converted also.

My kids will be glad to know we are trying to go green at the store. That apparently is a big teaching emphasis at schools now. They always remind Erica and I when we are doing things that hurt the earth like turning on a light or running the water.

They both seem to be having a good start at school. Every night at dinner I ask them how their day was and so far they have answered enthusiastically. Last night, neither one of them made any effort to tell me when I asked. When this happens I try to bring up things to provoke them into talking. Based on their reaction, I brought up the wrong thing last night. I told them I was thinking about getting rid of our televisions. Instead of starting a conversation, they both just started welling up with tears and were pretty much speechless. I did get a “way to go dad” from Erica. Well I pretty much screwed up our supper. I was only half serious when I told them this and figured I would let them explain to me why we should keep our T.V.’s. Nope, they just kept looking at me and looking at their mom with tears streaming down their faces. I don’t think Tyson was that upset with it, he was just sympathy crying for Lauren. She was devastated.

Well we finished up supper and the kids started getting ready for bed. I stayed in the kitchen cleaning up and a few minutes later Lauren came out to talk to me. It turns out she wasn’t worried about not watching T.V; she was worried about people at school finding out that we didn’t have a television. I asked why and she said they will make fun of her. She said they already make fun of her for not having her own Iphone and if they find out we don’t have a T.V., it will just get worse. I had no idea this was going on with her at school, so it gave she and I a chance to talk about it. We had a great conversation about what’s important when choosing our friends and how we shouldn’t get caught up in material things. I told her these issues will be around for the rest of her life and that her mom and I deal with them ourselves.

I guess this stuff went on at school when I was a ten year old, I don’t really remember. I do know with social media, making fun of people can get out of hand a lot quicker today. After our talk, Lauren went on to bed.

Once the kids went to bed, Erica came out and said, “I guess that didn’t go the way you thought it would.” I told her it didn’t at supper but that it did produce a great conversation between a daughter and her dad. I don’t know if I gave her the right advice or if she will try to apply it, but I do know we know and understand each other a little better which was worth all the tears. I am finding out it’s tough to be a ten year old girl.

This should be a big weekend at the store. The Vols play their first game Sunday, Boomsday is Saturday, and Labor Day is Monday. It is the perfect storm.

We will have plenty of things prepared for your tailgating and picnicking. Ashley will be smoking chicken wings, ribs, pulled pork, and beef brisket. The deli will be frying chicken, making salads, as well as, their famous guacamole dip. The meat department will be cutting great steaks for the grill. If you would like to preorder any of these things feel free to give us a call.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe holiday weekend and GO VOLS!!!

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