Rolling On Into Easter

Good afternoon from Butler & Bailey Market.

I hope everyone is staying healthy this week!  So far, so good for all of our staff!

I thought we would get our Thursday truck in this morning, but apparently, this week, our Thursday truck is now going to be a Friday truck.  Oh well!  We’ll just keep rolling with the punches.  I don’t know why I get so excited about receiving a truck; we never get what we order anyways.  We carry around 30,000 items in our store.  I don’t know how many items our distributor carries, but they sent an email and said they were out of 70,000 items at the present time.  That sounds like a lot to me, and, by the looks of our store, I believe them.

I start everyday thinking everything will be back to normal, and that usually lasts until I get to work and then reality strikes.  I will say, my wife was very proud of me this morning!  I slept all the way to 6am, which meant she got to sleep until 7am.  The last few weeks, it has been a lot earlier.  I don’t think she really cares how much I sleep, but she does care how much our dogs sleep.  They seem to have an internal clock that tells them that, once I get up, they have to stay quiet for one more hour, and then they are allowed to go nuts in their kennel.  One would think I could let them out and everything would be fine, but they don’t seem to like me.  They want their momma, so they just go to the bedroom door and cry until she gets up.  For some reason, they don’t get in trouble for this behavior, but I do!  Unlike the dogs, I think Erica still likes me, but she seems to like me a lot better the longer I sleep.

Getting back to the grocery store, I want you to know we continue to clean and sanitize everything on a continual basis.  We have run out of the antibacterial wipes that we provide our customers when they come in the store, and none of our suppliers can tell me when more will be available.  In light of this, we are designating employees whose sole job will be sanitizing cart handles and so forth after every use. We have solution for this; we just don’t have any wipes.  I wish we had hand wipes, hand sanitizer, and  rubbing alcohol, among a lot of other things to sell you and to use in the store, but you “can’t get blood from a turnip“ (thank you, Mr. Bailey).

It seems a lot of people have become armchair quarterbacks, when it comes to sharing opinions on how to deal with this virus.  It kind of reminds me of sports talk radio after Tennessee loses a football game.  I would be the first to tell you I am no expert on this virus, which is why I am in constant contact with the Knox County Health Department, as well as others in the medical profession.  I want to assure you that we are doing everything that they tell us to do and will continue to do so.  Those of you that know me and our staff, know that we won’t do anything to jeopardize the health and safety of ourselves and customers, regardless of the business outcome.  It’s just not worth it to us.  Everyone’s fuses seem to be getting shorter, mine included, so that’s my nice way of saying something else.

All things considered, we have had a good week here.  The staff continues to do a great job, and you have continued to give us great support.  I said at the beginning of the week that I was determined to have a good week, and that has happened so far.  We are now going into Easter weekend.  Good Friday is tomorrow, so it is a given that tomorrow will be good.  Saturdays are always good around here, and Sunday we will be observing Easter.  I always get in trouble when I talk about religion and politics (and my wife) in this blog, but as most of you know, I am a slow learner…I will just tell you that Easter is a time of renewed hope for me!  I hope it is a time of positive renewal for you!

I hope everyone has a great Easter!

Thanks for letting us be a part of your community!

Tom Butler