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Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

Grocery Life November 28, 2014

Posted on November 28, 2014 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life November 28, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. We had a nice day at our house yesterday. I did have to turn the fly tying room into the dining room for the event. It was the four of us, plus my mother, my brother and his wife and daughter, and Tyson’s piano teacher, Charleena.

Charleena’s family is in Chicago so Erica invited her to eat with us since she will not be able to get home until Christmas.

I learned yesterday that it is a good idea to invite a piano teacher to Thanksgiving lunch. I think since we fed her, she felt obligated to play the piano for us. After lunch, she did just that.

We have had a piano since the kids started taking lessons, but yesterday was the first time it had been played by someone with her skill set. It sounded great! If I ever get rich and famous, I think I will hire someone full-time just to play our piano at my pleasure. Up until that time, I am going to recommend Erica inviting Charleena over for lots of meals.

Well today is Black Friday. This is the one day of year I would not go shopping, except for groceries. I don’t like crowds, I don’t like lines and I don’t want to start shopping at midnight.

Tomorrow is small business Saturday. I guess this is when all the small businesses get the leftovers from Black Friday.

It is small business day every day in Rocky Hill. We are a community of small businesses. I guess Pilot is a big business but it still seems small to me. The folks that own that company shop with us and take an interest in our community like the rest of the business owners in Rocky Hill. So I guess that’s why I still consider them a small business. I think the only difference is they can probably afford a piano player at their house.

I hope you will get out Saturday and support small businesses that you do not normally frequent, and I appreciate the support you give our small businesses in Rocky Hill on a daily basis.

Next Saturday, the sixth, is the first ever Rocky Hill Christmas parade. The big stores may have Black Friday but we have Parade Saturday.

Post by Rocky Hill Christmas Parade.

A lot of people have put in a lot of hard work planning this event so I hope you will come out and support it. The parade starts at 6:00 p.m. but I am sure there will be festivities for you to enjoy before and after the parade as well. I hope you all will be able to come to the big event. Sam the painter says events like this only happen every fifty years in Rocky Hill so you don’t want to miss it.

Have a great weekend and I will see you at the parade if not before.

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

Grocery Life November 25, 2014

Posted on November 25, 2014 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life November 25, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. It has been a whirlwind around here the last few days. We spent the end of last week preparing for our holiday open house which was on Saturday. We had a great crowd for the event and I think it was a big success. All of the vendors that participated seemed very pleased with how you responded to their products and the things we prepared here in the store were a big hit also.

I usually spend a lot of time on the planning and execution of this event but this year the other folks on the staff pretty much did the whole thing on their own. It’s great to have a great staff!

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I mentioned last week that we have food bags that you can buy to donate to second harvest. We have already filled up two big bins with bags and second harvest is coming today to pick up the first load. Thanks for your support of this cause. We will continue to do this through Christmas so hopefully we can reach our goal of 5000 pounds of food for second harvest.

Once we cleaned up after our open house our focus shifted to Thanksgiving Day. Our main focus is on taking care of business up until Thursday, but I imagine most of us are also focusing on getting a day off on Thursday. Thanksgiving is one of the three days a year we close. The other two are Christmas and Easter. It seems more and more grocery stores are staying open on these holidays but unless I get hit in the head real hard and lose my mind, we will always be closed. If we can’t make it on the other 362 days a year, I don’t think three more will help us.

I guess I will cook a turkey Thursday. For the last few years, family has come to our house for Thanksgiving and I have been in charge of the turkey which is kind of ironic since turkey is way down the list on things I like to eat. I always threaten to cook beef but I know my place within the family so I cook turkey.

I don’t have a secret recipe for cooking a turkey. I change it up a little every year. Sometimes I cook it in the oven and sometimes I cook it on my Green Egg. It just depends on time and my mood. There are a few things I always do before cooking, regardless of how I cook it.

The first thing I do is I always brine my turkey overnight. My brine may be as simple as a cup of kosher salt to a gallon of water or I might also add orange and lemon juice to it for some citrus flavor. I change it up based on what we have at the house. I know a lot of people that use apple cider in their brines so I may try that this year.

Butterball turkeys are somewhat brined when you buy them but the free range birds are not. I would definitely brine a free range bird. I don’t think it is as important with a butterball but I still do it. If you do brine your turkey, make sure you rinse it thoroughly after removing from the brine.

The next thing I do is let my turkey get to about room temperature before I start cooking it. This speeds up the cooking time and I think it cooks the bird more evenly.

Once the bird is close to room temperature I loosen the skin from the breast without detaching it. I do this by taking my hand and running it under the skin and keep working it back towards the legs until I have the skin separated from the whole breast. I then make a mixture of melted butter, olive oil, salt and pepper and minced garlic and basically pour it between the skin and breast. I then rub it in with my hand to make sure the breast is covered underneath the skin. I rub the same mixture on the outside of the turkey as well.

The last thing I do before cooking is put a bag of ice on the breast for about twenty to thirty minutes so the breast will be colder than the rest of the bird before cooking. The breast will usually cook faster than the thigh portion of the turkey so chilling the breast will even up the cooking time with the rest of the bird. This keeps me from over cooking the breast trying to get the rest of the bird done.

I always cook the bird at 325 and base my cook time on fifteen minutes a pound. It never seems to take that long so I check it frequently with a meat thermometer. Ideally I want to pull it out when the thigh is 165 to 170 degrees and hopefully the breast will be between 160 and 165. I will then let it rest with loose foil over it for at least thirty minutes and then carve.

That’s about all I know about cooking a turkey but they must turn out good since the family still gives me the honor of cooking it every year. I should probably screw one up then maybe they would vote to have beef on Thanksgiving?

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving!

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

Grocery Life November 18, 2014

Posted on November 18, 2014 by pwpadmin

1 Comment

Grocery Life November 18, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is staying warm today. I guess some people like weather like this, but I do not. I am thankful I have heat where I live and work.

Neither place is real energy efficient. At the store it seems there is always an open door, plus the heaters in the store have to fight with all the open coolers in the store.

Our house is almost a hundred years old so it is very drafty. Both places have high ceilings so we end up heating a lot of space that we never get the benefit of.

Regardless of the weather, we have been staying busy at the store. We are starting to really stock up for the holidays which is always a challenge. We have limited storage space so we have to do a lot of stacking and restacking to fit everything we need into the store. We end up having to handle everything about a hundred times before it finally gets out on the shelves for purchase.

Yesterday Ashley, our meat manager, and Barbara Tenney, our cooking class instructor, taped a holiday cooking segment for WBIR. This is the second year they have done this. I am not sure what all they prepared for the special but one thing they did was a standing rib roast. Ashley brought the leftovers back to the store after the taping so we ate pretty well yesterday. I am not sure when the show is going to air but when I find out I will let you know.

Standing rib roast is on the menu of things we are preparing for our holiday open house on Saturday. We will also be preparing beef tenderloin and pork roast. We will also have a large variety of side dishes and desserts you can sample. Everything we will be sampling will be available for purchase in the store or we will provide you with the recipes to make at home.

One little thought I would like to put in your head is our annual food drive for Second Harvest. We started this last year and you ended up providing 2700 pounds of food for second harvest. My goal this year is 5000 lbs.

We will have bags of food available for purchase in the store that go directly to Second Harvest. We have a five dollar bag and a ten dollar bag. When you purchase one, you can simply put it in a designated bin in the front of the store and then they are delivered to Second Harvest.

The open house is a free event but I would love for you to buy a bag and donate it to Second Harvest while you are here. You are a giving community and this is a great cause so I hope you will consider donating.

I saw Sam “the painter” in the store last night. He has lived in Rocky Hill since the early sixties. Sam paints for us at the store and has also painted for me at the house. I asked him if he has been staying busy painting and he said he has but has been more busy getting ready for the Rocky Hill Christmas parade. He doesn’t strike me as the parade type but it turns out he and his horses are going to be in the parade. He is also going to be pulling a wagon with children on rocking horses. He told me he is going to have to find a bigger wagon because so many kids want to be in the parade. I told him I didn’t figure him for a parade and he told me he rode his bike to the grand opening of Rocky Hill Market in 1964, which was a big event, so he wanted to be a part of the first ever Christmas parade in Rocky Hill.

I guess we haven’t had a big event in Rocky hill between 1964 and the upcoming parade. Sam apparently only comes to events every fifty years so you may want to come to the parade to see him.

Have a great day!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

Grocery Life November 14, 2014

Posted on November 14, 2014 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life November 14, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. It is windy, cloudy and bitterly cold as I write this. It just took a couple of days of this weather for me to remember how much I dislike the cold. I am sure Erica is already preparing for me to be grumpy for the next three months.

Business seems to be holding up pretty well. We had a little snow rush yesterday afternoon which always helps. The problem with snow scares is you have great business for one day but that is usually followed by three or four really slow days. Typically one good day cannot overcome several bad days but you take business when you can get it.

We are hard at work preparing for our Holiday Open House next Saturday the 22nd. It always seems a long way off and then all of a sudden we realize it’s next week. We will be spending the next few days finalizing the foods we are going to sample, who is going to be working at each station and the appropriate order to serve the food in. We are also confirming with the vendors that are participating. I talked to Cruze Dairy Farm in Kodak, Vienna Coffee in Maryville, and Carnathan’s honey here in Knoxville yesterday and they all confirmed that they will be here for the event. Barbara Tenney, our cooking class instructor, will also be here to share some of her favorite holiday recipes. Several other vendors will be here along with the aforementioned so it should be a great event.

We have a very complex way of figuring out the quantities we need for the event. Every year when we finish the event, we take a black sharpie and write the quantities we used on a plywood wall in our back room. When the next year comes around, we go look at the wall and adjust the quantities we will prepare. This year we year we are really upping them. We are expecting a big turnout. We do the same thing for turkeys at Thanksgiving and beef tenderloin at Christmas. I bet some of you have a wall in your home that you use as a growth chart for your children. It’s kind of the same concept, just in a business application.

Erica and Lauren are going to be out of town this weekend so Tyson and I will be bachelors for a couple of days. We are going to do the typical guy thing on Saturday. We are going to Frank’s Barbershop to get him a haircut. Tyson loves going to Frank’s because he gets root beer in a frosty mug, they have dartboards and a pool table and a lot of beautiful women who work there.

I don’t like root beer, I can’t really throw darts with my arm yet and I have never noticed all the pretty ladies working there. I like Frank’s because they know how to cut hair and when they cut it, they manage to keep it from going down my shirt collar. To me, that’s the true test of a barbershop. Frank seems to operate a great business so if you are looking for a “man cave” that cuts hair, that might be the place for you.

Before I started going to Frank’s, I used to walk down the sidewalk to Rocky Hill Barbershop. Glen and his daughters ran it. They were nice folks but Glen passed away and the daughters decided not to keep it open. I always like a short walk to get where I need to go instead of getting in the car and driving so I think for my next haircut I am going to walk over to Yellow Sky Salon. It is just across the street from the store.

I really like the owners John and Cristina McClure. They have done a great job of converting an old house into their hair salon. It’s really a nice space inside! They probably cater more to women than men but now they are going to have to put up with me. I want to support folks that are advocates for the Rocky Hill community and they certainly are. They are also loyal customers of ours.

All of the businesses in our community seem to take a great interest in the success of each other’s businesses. I guess that’s part of what makes Rocky Hill, Rocky Hill.

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

Grocery Life November 11, 2014

Posted on November 11, 2014 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life November 11, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. Today is Veterans Day. We should all be thankful for their service to our country. We have certainly benefited from their service. I know I tend to take my freedoms for granted and should be more appreciative of the sacrifices others have made for me. It takes a special person to serve and they certainly deserve to be honored today as well as every day.

Rocky Hill continues to be a growing, vibrant community. The planning for the Christmas parade on December 6th is really going well. You will probably start seeing posters advertising the parade. We have them in our entry ways. The committee still needs volunteers to help with the parade and there are also opportunities to be a sponsor of the parade. You can find out more information on the parade website.

We have a new restaurant in the shopping center. It is called Ichiban Asian Bistro. It is located three doors up from us in the old echelon florist location. Ashley and I walked up there the other night to check it out and it is really nice. We ended up ordering about five kinds of sushi that was really good. I have noticed the employees are getting lunch there and they all say it has been good at a good price. I think you will be impressed with the job they have done with the space so you may want to give it a try.

I also paid the new REI outdoor store a visit last week. It is located on Papermill Drive. I had never been in one of their stores but was told how great they are. When I heard they were coming to town, I was worried about how all of our great local outdoor stores would compete. After visiting REI, I am not as worried. It is a nice store and bigger than the local ones but they didn’t seem to offer anything better than what the local stores have so I am going to keep it local.

In the same shopping center as REI, Whole Foods is building a store. Just what we needed, another grocery store.

Whole Foods is a national company that sells high-end organic groceries. They have already started to advertise locally in anticipation of their opening which I think is in January. The commercials I have seen are about how special their beef is. A lot of their beef is produced by southern natural foods which is a Tennessee company. We have been carrying their beef and pork products for the last couple of years. Maybe they will add our name to their commercials?

I was talking to another one of our local vendors Friday. She is in the process of trying to get her products in Whole Foods. She has spent several months being interviewed and filling out paperwork to get her products approved by them. She has finally jumped through enough hoops to make it to the Whole Foods Global level, whatever that means. She and I have a handshake deal for her to sell her products in our store. My “global level” has about a fifty mile radius. I guess that’s why they are a multi-billion dollar company and I have one neighborhood grocery store.

I hope she ends up getting her products in their stores. It will be a great opportunity for her and she will have certainly earned it.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. We are already stocking up on all of the holiday items.

The meat department will have fresh as well as frozen whole turkeys and breast. They will have both free-range fresh turkeys and Butterball fresh turkeys. If you are interested in a fresh turkey I would go ahead and reserve one, supplies will be limited on those. Just give us a call to order one.

Our beef tenderloin price through Thanksgiving will be 13.99 a pound. I hate to even type that price. I was hoping to sell them cheaper than this for Thanksgiving but the cost jumped another sixty-five cents this week. I am not very optimistic about Christmas pricing so now may be a good time to get one.

The bakery/deli is starting to prepare some of their holiday dishes. They will have stuffing and casseroles available through the holidays. A new item they are making is bread pudding. It has already become a favorite for those that have tried it.

You can sample these things as well as a lot of other holiday foods at our Holiday Open House on November 22nd from 11:00 to 2:00.

Have a great day!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

Grocery Life November 6, 2014

Posted on November 6, 2014 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life November 6, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. It has been an interesting last few days. Friday was Halloween, which is always a big day. It was made even bigger because there was a pending snowstorm that turned out to be a near miss for us but hit the mountains pretty hard.

Saturday, the Vols finally won an SEC game against none other than the “ole ball coach”. Butch seems to have Spurrier’s number. If we can win a couple of more games we will finally get to go to a bowl game.

Election Day was Tuesday. Nationally, it looks like we have new leadership. Once again we have been promised that they will work together to fix all the problems and make the country great again. It seems like I have heard that before and in two years, I will hear it again.

In local politics, the wine bill passed overwhelmingly. I voted against it. It was more of a protest vote against the politicians than against having wine in grocery stores. I think the politicians are going to have too much control over the selling of wine. It seems the more control they have over a business, the harder it is to operate a business. It will be at least two years before wine will be in grocery stores so it will be interesting to see how much political wrangling will go on between now and then.

Last night I went to a concert at the Tennessee Theatre. Not only am I getting too old to ride a skateboard, I am also getting too old to go to a rock and roll show when I have to be at work the next day. My friend and I decided they needed a matinee show for us older folks.

I continue to go to physical therapy for my arm. They told me they want me to exercise it at home also. I decided good exercise would be building Tyson’s skateboard ramp and painting Lauren’s room.

I had promised Tyson a ramp before I broke my arm and he has been waiting impatiently for the last six weeks for me to get started. Nine sheets of plywood, 50 two by fours and about a thousand screws later, it is almost done.

We are also redoing Lauren’s room. It is going from being a little girl’s room to a teenage girl’s room. We have pretty much let her design the look she wants and have finally gotten started on it. I didn’t think we needed a budget for it until Erica started telling me the prices of things. Now we have a budget which is why I am now the painter. If I knew how to make curtains I could really save some money.

Tyson is thrilled with his ramp and Lauren is really excited about the changes to her room. I now have less money and my arm hurts. Oh well, the price of progress is never cheap but being a dad is priceless!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

Grocery Life October 30, 2014

Posted on October 30, 2014 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life October 30, 2014

By Tom Butler

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

We received the rest of our fixtures for the produce department this week. I really like the way the department looks and have already gotten a lot of positive comments about it.

Once we got the produce department set up, we started rearranging the deli/bakery department. We are still working on this section but I think we got a good start on making it much easier to shop in that department. I know the staff likes it a lot better but our customer’s responses will be the true test.

The deli/bakery department has really grown over the last several months. It looks like all of the improvements we have made are really paying off. We continue to add more and more “ready to go meals” in our refrigerated section as well as the ones we offer hot. We are still trying to figure out exactly how our customers want them but I think we are on the right track.

I really like the fried chicken we are cooking. I like about anything that is fried so I don’t know that I am a good judge or maybe that makes me an expert judge. Starting today and continuing through Sunday, November 2, 2014, our eight piece fried chicken package will be on sell for $5.99. If you have not tried it, this weekend will be a good time to do so. We fry it from three to seven on weekdays and from eleven to seven on weekends.

I am still working on getting my arm healed up. I go to physical therapy twice a week plus I do therapy at home. The therapist told me I needed to stay really hydrated during the healing process so I have started drinking coconut water. It supposedly is one of the best things you can drink for hydration. I don’t know if any of you have ever tried it, but to me, it kind of taste like water that has been poured through a dirty sock.

We carry several varieties of it here at the store and so far my favorite is the Zico brand. I have learned that if you get it super cold it is a lot easier to drink. I have also learned, once you drink a couple of hundred, you start to get used to them. I will tell you, I can notice the difference after drinking them. If you need quick hydration after exercise or just a” pick me up” during the day, you may want to try coconut water.

The Rocky hill Christmas parade planning is in high gear now. The committee will be meeting weekly up until the parade to make sure it is a great event. There are several opportunities for you to contribute to the success of the parade so I would recommend checking out the parade website to learn more about them.

One way to be a part of the event that some of you might be interested in is by buying a booth. For one hundred dollars you can have a booth at the parade to sell products. I think they already have a couple of food vendors signed up but I could see someone selling Christmas ornaments, wreaths or candles, maybe jewelry and on a cold December night, coffee and hot chocolate might be profitable. If you or somebody you know are crafty and are looking for a venue to sell your wares, the parade may be just the place to do it. You can contact Robyn Patterson at cpatterson2@comcast.net if you are interested or have questions.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

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

Grocery Life October 28, 2014

Posted on October 28, 2014 by pwpadmin

https://www.facebook.com/gohugocanada

pumpkin display — We still have some carving pumpkins

Grocery Life October 28, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone has had a good start to the week. The weather continues to be beautiful but that looks like it will change starting tomorrow.

We had a great weekend of business at the store. Great weather and a Saturday night Alabama game is the perfect recipe for our business. Sunday business was surprisingly good considering the tough loss.

Our new two week ad came out Sunday. You can view it by clicking here. My favorites in this ad would be the flank steak, tilapia fillets, and Erica loves sea scallops so I will include those.

We prepare the tilapia and scallops by sautéing them in a skillet with olive oil. We season both of them with Greek seasoning. The flank steak we marinate for a couple of hours in soy sauce or allegro meat marinade and cook on the grill. We then slice it thinly across the grain and serve it with rice or on a green salad.

One thing in the ad I have not cooked before is the eye of round roast. I think I will try cooking one this weekend. I am not sure how I am going to do it so I need to start my research. I will let you know what happens.

On a sad note, we have received our last shipment of Grainger county tomatoes for the year. We have enough to last us another day or two so you might want to buy a few extra.

grainger tomatoes — Get them while they last

We have used the same farmer for these tomatoes since we started here twenty-four years ago. I really like doing business with him. He sells to many of the chain stores but has continued to treat us like we are his most important customer. Another interesting thing he does is collect what we owe him once a year. I don’t know why he does this. Everyone else we buy from wants to be paid weekly. I guess he figures the work isn’t done until his last crop is gone. Or maybe that’s just how they do things in Grainger County. I like this setup until about now. Now I have to come up with over thirty thousand dollars to pay him.

I finally heard back from Getty Images. Based on what their latest letter said, they didn’t like the letter I sent them. I guess they opened my letter and when a check didn’t fall out they felt compelled to write back. I guess I will have to talk to my legal department (brother) again. I like doing business with my Grainger County farmer a lot better. One more reason to deal locally.

Not long ago I wrote about my two little friends, Garrett and Hugo. These two little boys are both fighting tough diseases. I got to go to Garrett’s sixth birthday party a few days ago and he seems to be doing great. Hugo continues to get great reports in his fight with cancer, with his latest report being the best.

You can find out more about these boys here.

gohugo playing — Hugo getting to play with sister at the park.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guardians-for-Garrett/678370925548660

garrett 6 birthday — Garrett enjoying his 6th birthday

They both continue to be in our thoughts and prayers and I hope you will add them to your list if you haven’t already.

Have a great week!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919

Grocery Life October 24, 2014

Posted on October 24, 2014 by pwpadmin

Grocery Life October 24, 2014

By Tom Butler

Good afternoon from Butler and Bailey Market. I hope everyone is having a good week. The weather has been nice and looks like it will be really nice this weekend.

We have had a good week here at the store. The last couple of days, it looks like everyone is buying things to get ready for the big football game Saturday. Which basically means lots of meat and lots of adult beverages.

Speaking of adult beverages, a news organization called me this week wanting me to go on television to debate someone who is against selling wine in grocery stores. I declined the invitation. One reason is I am not made for television. The camera makes me look fat and the microphone makes me sound like I don’t know what I am talking about.

Another reason I didn’t go on is I am indifferent about selling wine in our store. I am not for it or against it. I should probably be more excited about selling wine. It will probably mean a quick increase in total sales which translates into a quick increase in profits but at the same time we have made it just fine the last twenty-five years without it. I think by the time the politicians get through writing all the new rules and regulations for selling wine, it will be a confusing mess. I really don’t look forward to new confusing messes. I already have a big one looming. My daughter will be becoming a teenager. This will happen about the same time wine gets in grocery stores.

One rule they have already made is that if you are within five hundred feet of a liquor store you have to wait an extra year to begin selling wine. Our store falls into that category. This means all the stores not within five hundred feet of a liquor store can start selling wine in 2016. Those of us that are must wait until 2017. I do have a problem with this.

All I have ever asked for in my business is a level playing field. I want to be treated just the same as my competition. With this wine bill, most of my competition will get, what I consider, an unfair advantage.

I called my state legislators and asked them to justify this rule to me. I knew I wouldn’t get far but felt like I needed to speak my piece. They all told me they were trying to protect small businesses (liquor stores). When I told them I was a small business, they backed off that line of reasoning. They really couldn’t come up with any other reasoning to tell me why I was not being treated equally. They finally told me I had fallen through the cracks but assured me they had nothing to do with writing the legislation.

I have several friends and customers that own liquor stores, which are also small family owned businesses. I bet they don’t feel like their legislators are protecting their small businesses either. I bet some of them will fall through the cracks permanently.

Eventually we will be selling wine here at the store which will add a lot of convenience for a lot of our customers which is a good thing. I am sure the transition will be hard but we will get it figured out.

As I finished my conversation with the man from the news, he told me none of the chain stores would go on the air and talk about wine either. He then asked me for some other independent grocery store owners he could call to see if they would come on the air with him. I told him we were about the last one in Knoxville so I didn’t know who he could call. He asked me why there weren’t any more besides us and I said I didn’t know but someone had told me they had fallen through the cracks.

Have a great weekend and go Vols!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community,

Tom Butler

Click here to view past blogs

Butler and Bailey Market

7513 Northshore Dr.

Knoxville, TN 37919