Grocery Shopping in a Small Town

For those who don’t already know I live in a small town. I’m talking the pharmacy and post office (as well as the bank) all still close at noon on Wednesdays. The grocery store actually just started staying open beyond 6 pm thanks to the new owners. At the high of the pademic back in the spring we struggled doing shopping just here in town.

Truthfully our store was mostly used for those items that you had ran out of and didn’t want to make the thirty to forty five minute drive into a bigger town. In the spring our store became our lifeline because we are high risk and couldn’t go to those stores. So I went from buying milk that cost about $2.00 a gallon to buying milk that cost almost $5.00 a gallon.

All of the prices went up and some not for the better. We just started eating hamburger meat again. Steak is still a big too high for us, although I will buy roasts and such as needed. I admit this was a stretch to our budget and we all had to pull together to get through this. We had gotten used to paying less. Now suddenly we were paying more and getting less. I worried. A lot!

GET DELIVERY

I was asked why we didn’t just get delivery from one of the bigger stores in the larger towns. Delivery is not an option for us. We simply live too far away from the bigger towns and nothing really delivers here in our small town. We only have one restaurant that delivers which is the pizza place. In fact, we only have a hand full of restaurants all together. The only reason we those is because we are a tourist town.

FARM FRESH

Thank heavens for the local farms we have. I was able to purchase much of produce there. While our little store has a produce department, it just isn’t very large. We have a local farm that will post what they have online each week. We can place our order and then just go pick it up. That is what we have been doing since the farmer’s market here has been closed this year. At least so far. Fingers crossed it opens up again.

ORDER ONLINE

Now this was something that we did do when we could. In fact, it is something we have always done for some of the bigger items. Things like paper towels, toilet paper, and such I order from Sam’s Club or Amazon. We have a Plus membership with Sam’s Club which gives us free shipping on most items. That helps with some of the pantry stuff. Lets face it though, we don’t need five pounds of many items. I buy sugar, flour, and other spices in bulk. the items we use a lot.

Back when the store closed at six pm I used to rush up there bright and early. I mean I needed to get the shopping down. By early I mean nine am because they didn’t open early either. Now I have until eight Monday through Thursday and nine Friday through Sunday. One of the biggest things I learned was that my local store only has so many brands. That meant having to change a brand or just make do with something else. It wasn’t easy but now I’m not sure I remember how to shop any other way.

I wanted to share the joys and struggles with grocery shopping in a small town. Especially during a pandemic. Thankfully I can now do a mix of our local store and the big box ones. I enjoy the idea of promoting my town and the local businesses here.

WHERE DO YOU SHOP? IS IT IN A SMALL STORE OR A LARGE ONE? SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS WITH US PLEASE.