Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market!  

I hope everyone is having a good week!  We are having a good week at the store.  Probably the two biggest challenges in our business right now are rapidly rising prices and labor shortages.  We can’t find people to work.  I am sure COVID has caused some of this inflation and a decrease in the labor pool, but I will lay most of the blame on labor conditions on our fine government.  They have done a great job of hiring and training people to stay at home and receive free money.  Based on the politicians I see and hear on television, I would think I could outsmart them and steal some of their “employees”.  Nope, they are obviously a lot more clever than I am, or it could be the free money I don’t have to offer?  We can only spend what we have; they can spend all they want.

The Knox County Mayor lifted the mask mandate last week.  I don’t think he would have mandated mask in the first place if it was left up to him, so I am not quite sure how to react to this.  I think it is a good signal that we are closer to the end of this pandemic.

This morning, I saw that the Knoxville City Mayor is deciding on removing the law enforcement presence from the public school system.  This seems to be a national trend.  The various local, state, and national governments appear to have decided that, if there is a controversial incident involving law enforcement, the solution is to just get rid of law enforcement in that area.  I guess we will let the mask police, the “woke” police, and the social media police be in charge of law enforcement.  They seemingly can do no wrong.   We will see how that works out.

The irony of all of this to me is the government sends out these stimulus checks, and all you have to do is look at the lines at the gun counter of a sporting goods store to realize a lot of people are using the stimulus money to buy guns.  The next action the government takes is to start removing law enforcement.  I guess they might as well amend the 2nd Amendment to say, “you have the right to bear arms and the government will provide them to you for free.  On top of that we will remove law enforcement to protect your right to commit a crime with them”?  Welcome to the Wild West that was once the United States of America!

Now, here is another problem with what’s taking place that most of you all probably have not thought of and it really hits close to home.  If we get rid of our police force, all of our local donut shops will go broke!  Where will get our donuts?  One of the best parts of going to church every Sunday for my family is they have donuts.  If they start having to serve scones or some other bad substitute for donuts at church, our kids are going to have a hard time dragging Erica and I to church every week!  OK, enough of my uneducated nonsense on those topics!

Getting back to store business, a lot of you have quit wearing mask due to the lifting by the county of the mask mandate.  Our staff at the store is going to continue to wear masks until the Knox County Health Department lifts the mandate.   We fall under their jurisdiction, so we will continue to abide by their mandate.  My hope is that this will be lifted within the next month, and then we can all take them off based on our comfort level.  I think by then, everyone that wants the vaccine will have had ample opportunity to receive it, and I, for one, am not going to wear a mask for those that choose not to vaccinate.  So, customers can choose to wear mask or not, but the staff will continue to wear them.  I would ask that you continue to respect the space of others while you are in the store.

We are going to start cooking classes again in June.  We will have four classes in June.  Barbara Tenney has already prepared the menus, and we are getting them scheduled.  If we haven’t already, we will be sending out emails with the schedule, and you can call the store to sign up for them.  After not having them for more than a year, we are excited to get those started again, so be on the lookout for the schedule.

Another thing I heard yesterday was the annual (besides last year) Rocky Hill Christmas Parade will probably be held this year.  I sure hope we have it.  In my mind, this is the most important event our community puts on every year.  I’m sure the parade committee will be looking for volunteers, so keep a lookout for more details, and I will do the same.

Finally, it sure is a good feeling that our community seems to be getting back to normal.  I have had the privilege of a front row seat to view it for the last thirty-one years.  In a lot of ways, it has changed, but in more important ways, it has stayed the same.  We are neighborly to one another.  We solve our differences through patience, respect, understanding, and a heavy dose of common sense (hint, hint, rest of the world).  When we fail one another, we get up the next day and try to do better.  This last year has put all of those values to the test but here we are, almost on the other side of the pandemic.  We may have a few scrapes and bruises, but we have persevered.

I couldn’t be prouder and more appreciative of how our staff has performed this last year and how our customers and community have supported their efforts.  Thanks again for all your kindness and support and thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market.

I hope everyone is having a good week!  I have not written in quite a while, I’m not quite sure why. Probably because I have been in a constant state of irritation for the last twelve months.  I can’t speak for everyone, but I am around a lot of people every day, and it seems most people are in the same boat. Hopefully, we are turning the corner on this pandemic, and I can get back to only being irritated about normal things instead of pandemics.

I did get my first vaccine shot last Saturday.  The irony of that is I got it at Kroger.  It seemed odd to me that the only place I could get an appointment at the time for a global pandemic is at a grocery store!  A competitor at that!  Anyway, after my shot, they wanted me to wait around a few minutes to make sure I didn’t have a reaction, so I decided, since they were nice enough to give me a vaccine, I would buy a few items while I was there.  I shopped around in the pharmacy area and picked up some vitamins, razor blades, and things like that, and when my wait time was up, I went to check out.  Well, the price I thought I was going to pay was not the price I was charged.  It turns out you have to have some kind of card that says “Kroger” on it to get the price you think you are going to pay.  That would be one of those normal irritations that I run into in everyday life.

We don’t have cards here at the store with our name on them because they irritate me and, at the end of the day, I get to decide.  One of my goals here at the store is to irritate as few people as possible, so if I think cards irritate one other person walking the earth besides me, the choice for me not to have them is a simple one.  Joking aside, I do appreciate the fact that Kroger was nice enough to provide me a vaccine!

As for the vaccine, in the very unscientific polling I have done with the people I run into on a daily basis, I would say about a third of them are not interested in getting the vaccine.  I have heard a myriad of reasons for this.  Some have logic to me, and some don’t.  

Another poll I am conducting is how many people want to receive all these free checks that our government is sending out.  About 100% of the people polled want these.  Free money = 100%, Free Vaccine = 65%.  My suggestion to equalize this number would be, no vaccine = no free money.  Everyone still has a choice about getting the vaccine; they just wouldn’t get any free money until they did.  I think the government would be money ahead to, in essence, pay people to get the vaccine.  I also think a lot of people would decide the vaccine is OK after all…if they got a check for it.  Then, in theory, we could all get back to work and school, and they would not need to keep sending out checks in perpetuity. 

Maybe by the time I go back to Kroger to get my second and final vaccine shot, I will get a card that says “Vaccinated”, and I can send it to the government, and they will send me a check!  I’m all about free money.  I have a bad fishing habit I need to support!

Getting off my soapbox and back to the grocery business, we are slowly but surely getting back to normal at the store.  We have finally moved our store hours back to pre-COVID hours.  We are open from 8:00am-9:00pm Monday thru Saturday and 10:00am-9:00pm on Sundays.  We are closed this Sunday for Easter.  I also talked to Barbara Tenney this week, and we are about ready to start cooking classes again.  We have not had these since the pandemic started.  I want to see how vaccinations go in the coming weeks, but we are going to shoot for May or June to get those classes started back up.

If you have been in the store recently, you might have noticed we have installed a brand new floor.  I think it turned out great!  I was planning on doing this right after we installed our new meat cases 14 months ago, but all my plans went by the wayside 13 months ago!  Oh well, better late than never.

I’m glad we are starting to get back to planning ahead and all the other things that went on hold for a year! It has been a hard year for all of us, but we are a resilient bunch here in Rocky Hill. I think the world could take notes on how well this community has handled this pandemic!

We look forward to the coming months when maybe we will be able to see the smiles on each other’s faces instead of the COVID Fatigue in all of our eyes.

Thanks for all of your support, and thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market.

I hope everyone is having a good week. I think we are in month seven of the pandemic now, and it looks like this crazy roller coaster ride is going to continue for the foreseeable future. The virus has now stretched from the rural open-air markets of China all the way to the highest office in our land and, as far as I know, everywhere in between.

It seems, we are spending a lot of time and energy trying to assign blame for all that’s happened up to this point.  Maybe we would be better served to use our energy and support for all those trying to bring this pandemic to an end?  Like it or not, we all play a part in this solution, based on what I know about it.

Mr. Bailey used to say, “the cow’s already out of the barn”, meaning you can kick and scream all you want, but it’s not going to solve the problem.  I don’t know about you but kicking and screaming has never paid a bill here at the store.  It may help politicians get elected but solving problems and finding solutions has served us well in the grocery business.  I guess I would be a terrible politician.  Hopefully, I’ve become a decent grocery man?

We are now into the second week of October, so I wanted to update you on some things as we enter the holiday season.  First off, there will be no Rocky Hill Christmas Parade this year.  I was hoping we would be far enough along with the virus to be able to have it, but it hasn’t worked out that way.  The parade committee has so much pre-planning to do to make the parade happen, it just wasn’t going to be feasible under the present circumstances.  They are trying to plan some sort of outdoor event to benefit local charities so the community can still have a positive impact on the holiday season for the less fortunate.  I will let you know when I learn any details about this.

Another tradition in Rocky Hill is our annual Holiday Open House here at the store.  Once again, because of present circumstances, we are not going to be able to do this.  I was tempted to throw caution to the wind and have it.  Thankfully my brain is smarter than my emotions, so I thought better of it.  The staff and I are greatly disappointed in having to make this decision, but we felt like it was the right one.  On that note, I have had a lot of calls and emails about Barbara Tenney’s cooking classes that we have here at the store.  Those will continue to be postponed until further notice.  I know Barbara is looking forward to the day that she can start doing them again and so are we!  Hopefully, that can happen sooner than later!

I am sure you have noticed we are still having problems getting inventory on certain items around the store. That situation has improved a lot, but it’s nowhere near where it needs to be.  For the holidays, I am pretty confident we will have plenty of supply on perishable items like meats and produce.  Our biggest concern is on dry goods.  These would be things like canned goods, spices, canning jars, and various cleaning products.  We have tried to get out in front of these problem areas, but my advice to you would be to go ahead and buy things you will need for the holidays as you find them in our store or any other store you might shop in.  I’m not sure last-minute shopping for the holidays is going to be very promising this year, based on what the industry is telling us.

On a personal note, I have had a couple of heartbreakers this week.  Jack Thomas, one of the longest serving employees we have had at the store, passed away this week.  He was probably the best produce man I have ever seen and one of the finest men I have ever known.  I guess he has worked on and off for us for the last twenty-five years.  Jack was quite the character. Whatever was on his heart or in his mind came out of his mouth.  Most of the time it was gospel music.  Some of you might have been in the store when all on the sudden, a beautiful baritone voice would fill the aisles with gospel music.  There was no chance in trying to put a filter on him.  I would have never tried it anyway.  In his own peculiar way, I think he had life figured out, while most of the rest of us are still working on it. Maybe one day I will always have a beautiful gospel song on my heart!  All of us will at the store will miss him greatly and our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.

The second heartbreak I had this week was the death of Eddie Van Halen.  He was the founding member and lead guitarist of the band Van Halen.  I didn’t know Eddie, so the heartbreak is more for sentimental reasons.  You see, when I was in junior high school there was this super-hot girl I had a strong interest in, but I was having a hard time trying to grab her attention. She was a grade higher than me, so she was already a woman and I was still a boy.  While this worked against me, I had it in my mind she was going to be my girl.  Well, my opportunity came.  Van Halen was coming in concert and, since all the super-hot girls in junior high school thought Eddie Van Halen was cute and all that, I decided I would buy tickets and ask her to go on a date with me to the concert.  It worked!  I don’t remember the exact circumstances, probably because I was super nervous, but I also invited my best friend to go.

Well, when you go on a date in junior high school, that means your mom takes you.  So off we went, my mom, my friend, and me in the Oldsmobile sedan to pick up my super-hot date.  This was the first time I had ever been on a date, so I don’t guess I realized when you picked up a girl for a date, the parents answered the door and you had to talk to them.  I must have survived that because down the steps came my super-hot date and out the door we went to the Civic Coliseum.  Not only was this my first date, it was also my first rock concert; hers as well.  I think my friend had been to an ELO concert already, so he was up to speed on how rock concerts went.  Back then, you could smoke whatever you wanted inside a building, and you could drink all you wanted as well.  So here I am, trying to take this super-hot girl on a nice date, and all of this is going on around me.  The one good thing was it was so loud, I didn’t have to try to make conversation with her.  At some point we decided we had had enough, so I had my friend keep an eye on my girl while I went and found a pay phone to call my mom to pick us up.  Back to her house we went.  Back to her front door where the parents were waiting.  Only this time I had brought their daughter back to the door, smelling like an ashtray with bloodshot eyes from all the smoke in the building and probably a slight loss if hearing.

I don’t remember our love affair lasting much longer after our first date.  I assume she must not have liked the concert.  It couldn’t have been me?  So, thank you Eddie Van Halen for giving me a shot at a super-hot girl in junior high school and thanks for the memories! You will be missed!

Speaking of super-hot girls, this Saturday will be my twenty-second wedding anniversary with my super-hot wife. I can’t remember exactly how I captured her attention.  It wasn’t a Van Halen concert.  It might have been Chick-fil-A coupons?  I don’t think she really liked me to begin with, but I knew she liked Chick-fil-A, so I had my angle – coupons to her favorite place.  I’m pretty proud I parlayed that into being married to my hot wife for twenty-two years.  I don’t really know why she has stuck with me for so long.  I quit giving her coupons a long time ago.  I will tell you I have always done four things since we have been married.

Here they are in no particular order.  First, every week I put my paycheck in her bank account. Secondly, I have always provided her with all the food and drink she would ever need.  Third, I keep the grass mowed.  And finally, I tell her most every day how lucky I am to have such a super-hot wife.  It may shock you I didn’t read those in a marriage book.  I just came up with them on my own.  So far, they have worked, so you may want to give them a try.

Well, I hope that gets you caught up a little bit on “my grocery life” during a pandemic.  It has been a challenge for all of us this year.  Fortunately for me, I have a great staff here, a great family at home, and great memories of the ones we have lost along the way.  That might just be enough to put a song on my heart!

Thanks to all of you for the support you have given us through this ordeal, as well as all the years before, and thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market.  I hope everyone is doing well and staying well!

We continue to enjoy good health here.  We have a little over fifty people on staff and so far, no one has fallen ill!  I feel like the safety measures we have put in place during this pandemic have made a difference, and we continue to raise the intensity of those as the virus numbers increase in our community.

The mandated mask rules put in place a couple of weeks ago by the government are going really well here.  I couldn’t be prouder of how our customers have responded to this!  It is just about one hundred percent participation.  I only saw two people enter without a mask yesterday and most other days are around the same amount.  A lot of times, those folks that come in without them have them on by the time they leave.  I would like to think most of them just forget, because they are not used to doing it, but I guess there will always be a few outlaws in the world!  Thousands of customers come through here every week so I couldn’t be more pleased that we have so few.  I can assure you it makes our jobs here a lot easier when we all follow the guidelines!

One reason I haven’t been writing to you much lately is most of my writing time is taken up with responding to emails.  I receive a lot of them, and I try to respond to most all of them. Almost all of them are very positive about the job we are doing at the store concerning the virus.  Those are quick and easy to respond to.  The ones that take a while are the ones that are not positive.  The ones that take a really long time are those mean-spirited ones that question the effort, care, and seriousness my staff and myself have shown throughout this mess.  I would be the first to tell you we haven’t been perfect in those things, but that certainly doesn’t mean we haven’t tried.

How to attack this virus has been a moving target for us and most everyone else since day one.  Apparently, the only ones that have a perfect shot and hit the bullseye every time, somehow have my email address?  Anyway, I take the challenge of trying to email those sharpshooters back.  Mr. Bailey used to say, “you get more flies with honey than vinegar.”  I guess they get me with their vinegar, but I always try to respond with honey.  I will admit that some vinegar has spilled into my responses, but I use white instead of cider vinegar, hoping it won’t be as noticeable.

Having said all of that, I do want you to know that every suggestion I get from you concerning the virus, I hear and I discuss with the Knox County Health Department during my weekly conversations with them.  If they think it is a good suggestion and advise me to do it, we do it!

I did spend yesterday morning putting red markers on the floor in our high traffic areas due to a customer suggestion.  Hopefully, those will help people with social distancing in the most crowded sections of the store.  We are not a big store, which makes the six-foot recommendation hard to accomplish, but at least the markers can be used as a general guideline.  I went next door to Ace Hardware to see if they had any of the fancy stickers to do this with.  They didn’t have any for sale but offered me the ones they use on their store floor that read “Elder’s Ace Hardware”.  I didn’t want to be accused of being cheap by using another store’s stickers, so I splurged and spent about eight dollars to buy two rolls of red duct tape and made my own.  We also are moving a few things around or off the sales floor, trying to make it a little roomier, especially around the front end.  You may also notice we are trying to keep our third register closed and using the fourth one instead.  This allows each line better separation from one another.  These are not monumental changes but hopefully every little thing makes a difference!

We also started working on something this week that we haven’t done since March.  That would be our sales paper.  We haven’t run an ad since this virus started, due to supply issues and fluctuating prices, and I thought that the time it takes to produce one would be better spent in other areas.  The one we are working on now will come out Sunday, the 25th of July, and will be in effect for two weeks.  We are still very limited on available items, so it will only be about half the size of our normal sales paper.  Another change I decided on was to not insert it into the newspaper.  We will have paper copies available in the store, and it will be emailed out and posted on our website.  It should come to you automatically if you are reading this right now.  I don’t know how all that works, but one of my many smarter than me staff people tells me that will happen.

I hope trying to run an ad during such uncertain times doesn’t blow up in my face, but it was important to me to try to get back to some normalcy, even if it is limited.  I also know that prices have really shot up over the last few months, so hopefully this will give you some relief on a few of your favorite things in the store.  You certainly deserve it, with all this mess going on!  So, be looking for that next Sunday!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market.

I hope everyone is doing well!  Everything is going good at the store.  We are all still enjoying good health, so I guess the measures we’ve taken over the last four months have been successful, or we are just real lucky.  Either way, I will take it!

Business continues to be good.  The supply chain for certain things has not caught up yet on various items, but we seem to have all adapted to using different products in the meantime.  One weird thing that is suffering greatly right now is cans.  Specifically, aluminum cans that soft drinks and beer come in.  You may have noticed certain varieties of each have been missing from the shelves for a while.  The companies all have the products, they just don’t have anything to put them in.

Another weird thing is coins.  Apparently, there is a big shortage on coins, which isn’t a big deal to the average person but for the store, it is huge.  We make change hundreds of times a day, so we use a lot of coins.  The bank recommended we round up or down to the nearest dollar if we run out of coins.  Somebody loses on that deal every time, and I’m pretty sure that somebody would be me.  I’m not going to tell customers I’m rounding their bills up!  Also, the way my luck goes, most of the transactions would land on fifty cents, so then which way do you round?  I guess you could flip a coin for it but…we wouldn’t have any coins to flip!  That would put you playing rock, paper, scissors for it, which would probably hold up the line, making every customer waiting behind this process mad.  So, we would end up rounding down every time and, in a business that just makes pennies on the dollar in the best of times, that’s problematic.  Maybe the bank that gave me that great suggestion will make up the difference?

Well, tomorrow starts the mask mandate countywide.  In my discussions with Martha Buchanan, I figured this was coming. I mandated masks for all of our employees several weeks ago, so not a whole lot is going to change for us.  That will not be the case for a lot of other folks.  I would say right now about sixty percent of our customers wear masks in the store and forty percent don’t.  I will be the first to tell you, I’m not looking forward to this next phase.  People are adamant for and against mask, and, after four months of being right in the middle of this virus mess and all the controversy surrounding it, I’m not real excited about being in the middle of this one.

I will tell you that it will make our staff’s lives a lot easier if you will have a mask on when you are shopping in the store.  We wear them eight hours a day, which is no fun, so I don’t think it is too much to ask if you will wear one the few minutes you are shopping.  My staff and I are not going to be the “mask police”, but I am pretty sure you will be reminded and shamed about a mask if you do not have one on.  I can show you a lot of emails where I have been reminded and shamed over things concerning this virus over the last four months, if you don’t believe me.  My staff can tell you stories, also.  

Tomorrow, you will see signs on the doors about the new mandate.  You will also see masks on a hanger, at the front of the store.  You are welcome to take one to use, if you don’t have one.  I want to make this as easy as possible for everyone, so please help us out by following the mandate.

Have a great Fourth of July weekend and thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market.  

I hope everyone is doing well!  I am happy to report we are all doing well here at the store.  I have gone “radio silent“ for the last several weeks.  It is not because I don’t have a lot to say.  I would like to think it’s because I’m smart enough not to say it.

I do want to let you know we are changing our store hours starting this Sunday, the 21st.  We will now be open seven days a week until 8:00 pm.  So, Monday through Saturday we will be open from 9am to 8pm and on Sundays, 10am to 8pm.  It has been quite the journey to get to this point!

In a lot of ways, I would just like to forget the last several months.  The problem with that is, I wouldn’t have the memories of all the positive things that I have come to realize because of them. 

I wouldn’t know how strong, resilient, and caring our staff is at the store.  It’s one thing to do a good job in normal times; it’s another thing to do it with a life-threatening virus coursing through the world.  I couldn’t be prouder of them!

I wouldn’t know how far reaching this community extends.  We have received cards, letters flowers, food, masks, gloves, sanitizer, and all kinds of other care packages from perfect strangers that don’t live near or shop in the store.  They just knew of us and cared enough to go out of their way to show us how much they appreciated us being here.

I certainly knew how special our customers and the Rocky Hill community are, but I didn’t know the extent of it.  Just like our staff, they have gone over and beyond to rally around this store and community.  From helping to celebrate my mother’s birthday, respecting virus guidelines, and adapting to the ever-changing store hours, limited quantities of inventory, and everyone’s high level of anxiety.  We really appreciate your unwavering support during these times!

Well, go figure!  The power just went out with a store full of people! If it’s not one thing it’s another… I guess I need to go.  Welcome to another day in the Grocery Life!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community.

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market!

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday weekend!  We had a nice weekend at the store.  The mood of Rocky Hill seems to be improving, which makes our job a lot easier.

It has been quite the roller coaster ride over the last three months at the store.  I don’t think we have stepped off of the ride just yet, but maybe we are nearing the end…the part where you start slowing down and the rises & falls are not quite as dramatic.  I imagine most everyone’s lives have been similar.

Our staff continues to enjoy good health and is doing a great job keeping the store sanitized.  We have all ruined some clothes, we have so much bleach splashing around this place.  I don’t know about you, but I am tired of smelling bleach and rubbing alcohol all day.

The store is slowly but surely filling up with products again.  We are still struggling to get supply on paper products as well as cleaning products, especially hand wipes, but we get a few more items every week.  With the world starting to get back to activity, I think supply will continue to improve.

Moving forward, we are going to start opening on Sundays this week.  The Sunday hours will be 10:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.  We will continue to be closed on Wednesdays.  I think our present staff and inventory level can support this change, so we will see how it goes?  I know it will be a lot more convenient for our customers to have an extra shopping day.  So, going forward, we will be open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day except Wednesday, and Sunday 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Please help us spread the word about Sundays!

Finally, this has been an exhausting three months for all of us.  Each of us have had to decide how we are going to cope with the circumstances.  Some have thrown caution to the wind, while others have taken every precaution available.  It has been and will continue to be a delicate balance dealing with each person’s differing expectations as they work and shop in the store.  While I know we have fallen short of people’s expectations on some occasions, I think we have treated everyone with kindness, patience, respect, and understanding.  It may not be medical science, but it seems to have been the right formula for us and our community.

Thank you for all of the positive reinforcement and support you have always given us, especially throughout this ordeal and look forward to brighter tomorrows!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market.

I hope everyone is having a good week! We are back to calmer conditions in the store this week. I don’t know if it was the weather, the news headlines, or the soft opening of the economy last week, but it got a little crazy in here again.  I am glad to be back to calm!

So far this week, our trucks have been running on time, and we seem to be getting a little more merchandise every truck.  We are by no means fully stocked, but the trend is looking good.  Having said that, we did put some meat items as well as a few other items around the store back on limits.  We are okay on supply with these, but when anxieties start running high, like last week, people seem to start hoarding again.  It gets a little frustrating when you carry out twenty packs of chicken or ground beef only to have one person take it all.  Sharing has seemed to have gone by the wayside.  I guess they had a different kindergarten teacher than I did!  I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, but I would rather everyone have some of what they want than someone having more than what they need.  I don’t have a whole lot of knowledge on the world food supply, but I will go out on a limb and say no one in Rocky Hill is going to starve to death from lack of food supply.

One thing we are still struggling to get on our trucks are all the antibacterial wipes, sprays, and sanitizers.  This includes the wipes that we provide our customers when they walk in and throughout the store.  We got some last week, but none yesterday, so I had to go on a little field trip yesterday morning to get some.   The place I go is not really a place you go to buy hand wipes.  The reason I usually go is to get hydraulic hoses made for my tractor.  They just happen to sell hand wipes, also.  Yesterday morning, I did both.  I had two hoses made and bought several cases of wipes.  The wipes are very expensive compared to the ones we usually get, but now is not the time to run out of wipes for our customers.  I have thought about trying to beat the owner down on price since I buy so many of them but thought better of it.  First, he is a small businessman, just like me, and secondly, he likes to fish.  I want his business to survive through this mess and, more importantly, it’s just not right, beating a man out of his fishing money.  I guess he is beating me out of my fishing money, but I need him a lot more than he needs me, even if he doesn’t realize it.  My wife would tell you I have enough fishing stuff anyways. A fisherman would never tell you that, but a fisherman’s wife will.  Anyway, I am not going to mention the name of the company because I have come to discover “Big Brother” is watching me.  I think I have known this for quite some time, but recently I had another reminder.  It came in the form of a cease and desist order from our friends at the Certified Black Angus Beef Council.

As most of you know, right before this pandemic started, we replaced all of our meat cases in the store. We also redid our prep room in the meat department and added new scales.  Well, when we bought new scales, the guy that programmed the scales put the logo of Certified Black Angus beef on one of the labels we tag meat with.  None of us really noticed or probably cared, because we have sold black angus beef for at least twenty years in the store without the first problem.  Plus, our old scales weren’t fancy enough to put logos on meat labels anyways.  Not long after we completed this project, I received this nice letter from the aforementioned council to remove any use or image of Certified Black Angus on any of our products.  Failure to do so would result in a lot of bad things for me and my business.  The letter went on to say that they appreciated us selling their products and were glad for us to continue to sell their products, just without the logo or specific wording.  In Rocky Hill, we call that talking out of both sides of your mouth, but however it comes out, I knew I better listen.  Anyway, upon checking some of our meat labels, we discovered some of the labels had a picture of a cow on them.  Even though a six-year-old could have drawn a better cow, the one on our label was the very special, officially licensed, CAB cow image.  That apparently is a big no-no.  Well, our staff was wondering why, after all these years, did we all of a sudden get the nice letter.  I immediately had my suspicions.  You see, on my route home every day, I pass a certain billboard.  The billboard is an advertisement for a large grocery chain, as in more than a hundred stores large.  For months, the billboard boasted that they were the exclusive seller of Certified Angus Beef.  Every day that I went by it, I would say to myself, “self, that’s a lie”.  If my wife was in the truck with me, I would say it aloud, usually with an adjective or two attached.  After twenty-two years of marriage, I think she is getting used to me, but I am sure she still wonders if anyone else’s husband yells at billboards going down the interstate.  It just aggravates me seeing it every day on my way home.

Not long after we got our meat cases installed and I got the nice letter from CAB, a gentleman that represents large meat suppliers came in to help us set up our new cases.  I told him about the letter I received and what my suspicions were.  He said he knew the president of CAB, so he gave him a call to see what was going on.  It turns out, the president, or some other high ranking official, of this large grocery chain was in our store on a Saturday. They noticed the picture of the cow on one of our meat labels and immediately called the president of CAB to voice his displeasure with this.  I would guess he probably used a few adjectives with his displeasure also because the CAB guy said he got numerous calls from this company throughout that weekend.  So, my suspicions were correct!  It was the large grocery chain, the one with the billboard I disagreed with.

Now I don’t have a large grocery chain, but if I did, I don’t think I would spend much time worrying about a little corner grocery store in Rocky Hill putting a picture of a stick figure cow on a meat label.  I don’t think I would even acknowledge that the store existed.  They can buy and sell anything I can.  I don’t own the rights to anything we sell in the store.  Maybe they think, if they have the rights to a picture of a cow on their meat labels and I don’t, that makes their meat better.  If that’s the case, what are they doing shopping in our meat department on a Saturday afternoon?  They probably passed several of their own stores to come here, since they already have me surrounded with them.

While I do appreciate their business, I wish they would pick on someone their own size.  All the big chains seem to want to do is run the little guys like me out of business.  I guess that strategy works, because I am about the only one left around this area running an independent grocery store.  The big chains in other industries seem to share that same philosophy.

This brings me back to why I don’t want to divulge the name of my hand wipes source. For all I know, the grocery chain that seems to have such a keen interest in pictures of cows on meat labels might also read this nonsense I write every week.  If so, they would be glad to know the name of my source so they could go buy all of his hand wipes.  Maybe because they need hand wipes or maybe because they don’t want me to have any…or maybe because I’m paranoid?  I can also guarantee you they would try to beat him up on his price, which would take away his fishing money and I sure don’t want to be an accomplice to that!

Well, we wrote an apology letter to the Certified Angus Beef people and took the picture of the dumb looking cow off of our meat labels.  This must have satisfied them, since we have never heard back.  I have also noticed the billboard has changed on my way home.  The next one was boasting about selling Prime Grade beef.  I guess they bought some Prime Grade steaks when they were shopping in the store and now they will try to get the exclusive rights to those?

I don’t have the smarts or the money to have a big, splashy advertising campaign and fancy billboards.  I sure don’t have the money to get in legal battles with big corporations.  I am not going to spend money for a picture of a cow either.  I will get my kids to draw me a picture of a cow, if I need one.  I don’t have any trade secrets or exclusive rights to anything.  What I do have is a great staff that does their best to take care of our customers!  Maybe that’s the secret?  Let’s see if the big boys can figure that one out.  In the meantime, I think I will just take a different way home.  Maybe that will keep me out of trouble?

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market. 

I hope everyone is enjoying their newfound freedom!  Based on how it has been in the store the last couple of days, it has looked a lot like a jail break from my perspective.  We love having a lot of business, but the last couple of days have been similar to when this whole mess started. 

As I mentioned earlier this week, I don’t know that anything has changed about this virus, so we all still need to remain vigilant about safety measures.  We are going to continue to keep the same safety measures in place here at the store for the foreseeable future. 

That being said, it is sure good to see some of the other businesses in the shopping center starting to open up.  I have missed seeing all of my fellow small business owners, and friends, for the last several weeks.  I hope everyone will start supporting them as they get going again.  I have had a lot of sleepless nights since this all started, and my business has been thriving.  I can’t imagine what all of them must be going through.  I know this community will rally around them just as you have done for me during these times.  They need us more than ever!

All of the businesses in this community make up the Rocky Hill Business District.  This was organized several years ago, and I think the main reason for it is to plan and sponsor the now “world-famous” Rocky Hill Christmas Parade!  Well I don’t know if it is “world-famous”, but it would be if we were not trying to keep it our “little secret” in this community.  Anyway, that is one of the many ways the businesses in this community lend their support to this community, so we all need to make sure we show them the support they need now!

Now, about the Christmas Parade, I saw one of the many parade organizers in the store the other day, and the parade came up.  She told me she wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to do the parade this year, because of all this mess.  Well I say, we have to have the parade.  The government might take away our Bill of Rights, but they can’t take away the Rocky Hill Christmas Parade!  I will be glad to provide mask and gloves to everyone, if it comes to that.  I will even get masks for Sam’s horses, if need be, and I don’t even like horses!

Maybe that should be our goal?  Maybe, the parade could serve as the signal that everything is back to normal in Rocky Hill.  Let’s all get behind our local businesses and help them get back on their feet, as they start back up, so they can keep supporting the things that this community values, especially the Parade!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market.

I hope everyone is having a good week! We are all coming of a day off here, so we are ready to go.  We had a good surprise this morning when we showed up for work!  Our Thursday truck finally showed up on Thursday.  Hopefully, all of these small victories will finally add up to normalcy around here.  I think I can speak for everyone when I say it will be nice to get back to normal!

While our truck today continued to have a lot of outs, we are getting more and more items in from one truck to the next.  The usual suspects are still scarce, paper products, cleaning supplies, and, of course, dry yeast.  Our produce, deli/bakery, and meat departments are still the best stocked departments, but the grocery department is starting to catch up finally.

We are still trying to figure out how to start extending our store hours back to normal, but, as of this writing, we still do not have the available staff to add any new hours.  As I have mentioned before, several of our younger staff members have not worked throughout this pandemic.  Some have started coming back, but, until most of the rest of them are ready, we will continue to limit our hours.

Finally, it looks like things are going to start opening up in the next few days.  While I am glad to see this happening, I am not sure much has changed with the course of this virus.  I want you to know we are going to continue with the safety procedures that we have used since the beginning of this mess.  We will continue to do so until we get the “all safe” word from the Knox County Health Department.

Enjoy your newfound freedoms, and we will see you in the store!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler