As to your produce sales-
I don't try to compete with the local grocery stores on price. What I sell is a superior product to what is available commercially from Wal-Mart or any other commercial outlet and I price accordingly and in three years of selling I've only had one old hag complain about the price. I invited her to shop elsewhere.
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I wouldn't suggest boutique prices but if try to undercut the local supermarket you're selling yourself short.
I understand what you're saying, and as a consumer I'm OK with paying higher prices for local produce. It does taste better. I know there's value in that.
But our entire business is centered around giving people a better product at less than what it would cost at a big box store or the other small guys. We know how to do that with pretty plant material. Our low prices actually get us in trouble sometimes because people think that a $19.99 Boston Fern is a "dinky" little 10" basket, even though you tell them that's our price on the 14" basket that has a plant probably pressing 3' in diameter. What they think is a $19.99 basket actually sells for $7.99. Our $19.99 ones would cost $39.99 anywhere else.
We have managed to get our retail prices so low that some retail places will load up carts from our floor, buy it, then retail it at their own place because we're cheaper than their wholesale connections.
My goal is to replicate that with fruits and veggies. I have no idea how I'll do it, but I will.
