Kroger offering locally grown produce
The Kroger Mid-Atlantic division, which includes 122 stores in Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and parts of Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio, this week announced that it is ramping up its efforts to stock locally grown produce.
In our neck of the woods (Roanoke and New River valleys; Alleghany Highlands), that means we can buy fruits and veggies grown by Layman Family Farms in Blue Ridge. Farmer Eric Layman said he is currently selling peaches, summer squash and zucchini to Kroger, and when tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and fall apples are in season he may provide those items.
To be clear, this is not the first time Kroger has stocked local produce. Layman said he has been dealing with Kroger for about four years. But York said the company is trying to increase these efforts and is improving signage that will help customers find local products.
York also said the pricing of local produce will be handled the same way pricing of other grocery items is done, taking into account what they pay for the product and what they need to sell it for to make a profit. Some of this local produce might be cheaper because it costs less to transport it from farm to store.
To find this produce in your local Kroger store, look for special signage that indicates it was grown locally. York said they also have signage that “calls out” their local producers. Also, take a look at the weekly Kroger sales ad, which should include more information about what locally grown produce is available at that time.
Proponents of the slow food movement will no doubt rejoice when they hear this news. It costs a lot for a small, independent farmer to grow, market/advertise and sell their goods, which often accounts for slightly higher prices at the farmers market. Layman confirmed that when a big company such as Kroger takes on the marketing and advertising, the local farmer can concentrate on what he or she does best: growing food.
“We’re always excited to deal with Kroger,” Layman said. “It’s not many places around here that you can sell 700 boxes of peaches to in a day.”
This announcement makes me realize that I need to check around at other grocery stores and see whether they sell locally grown produce and if so, how much do they sell and where exactly is it coming from. I’ll be working to answer those questions for you guys. Meanwhile, if you’ve seen local produce in a grocery store around Southwest Virginia, please feel free to leave a comment and let us all know.
July 11, 2012 - 5:27 PM
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Yea!
I will always be a proponent of buying locally sourced food as directly from the grower as possible. Ideally, that means just that – buying directly from the grower. If not, then a secondary source like Kroger is the second best option.
Food City, a grocer based in Abingdon, does much of the same, although they do not reach up into the NRV or RV areas. They actually name the supplier and location for the source of their produce sourced in SW Va and NE Tennessee.
I think it is fantastic for companies to do this. I would love to see Food Lion do the same, as they seem to be the type of chain that would embrace such a concept. Smaller grocers would be easily adaptable to this as well. For me, Wade’s in the NRV is a natural for such a promotional campaign.
To me, it is like touting ‘Made In America’, in that there is no downside, and it’s such a great selling tool as to be the cliched ‘no-brainer’.
We may never get a Wegmans here, but it’s nice to see Kroger modeling their practices. The more options there are for small local farmers, the more small local farms we’ll have. Win-win!
Will any of this produce be organic?
Organic by the fed’s standards and organic by common sense standard are two drastically different things.
@David, I checked back with Eric Layman and he said they are not certified organic. He said they “minimally spray.”
I don’t know what type of spray he uses.
Although it may not apply to this situation, Crooked Road is correct when he points out the difference. A lot of growers’ practices would be considered organic under the standards but they have not forked over the cash to have the paperwork that says they are “certified organic.”
This is why it’s always a good idea to talk to the grower about how he does it. And that’s why it’s nice to have access to local products because you can actually CALL and talk to the man who grew your food
Lindsey nails it on the head. The best of intentions are to buy ‘organic’, but the federal definition of ‘organic’, take note of the ‘quote’ marks, is quite different than reality.
As Lindsey correctly states, the more you can talk to your actual food supplier, the FAR better off you are.
We all want to do the right thing, but these days, it’s like wandering through a corn maze to get there. (little tip of the cap to Layman Farms, there)
To reiterate, I’d eat anything Eric Layman grows. There are far too many barriers to purchasing the ‘right’ food applied by our federal and state governments.
It’s a shame that it has devolved into such a state…