July 24, 2008
My Love-Hate Relationship With Ellwood Thompsons Continues
I am a creature of habbit. Every week I used to buy my veggies from this awesome colorful Hanover County Farmer named Mike Wiblin at the 17th Street Farmer’s Market. This year, after a few weeks of giving it a go, he stopped showing up. Turns out me and a whole bunch of folks had joined the Victory Farms CSA instead or Amy’s Organics and made it not worth his while to come downtown. He always had the best, cheapest produce. And was so fun to chat with each week. Only problem was he wasn’t organic.
So, when I ran into him selling at the Lakeside Farmer’s Market a few weeks ago, I was beyond happy. Now I could suppliment Victory Farms expensive produce (ie $1.50 per eggplant, or $1 per ear of corn) with not-organic squash that was a fraction of the cost ($1 a pound for zucchini). Best of all, I could get my beloved poblano peppers, that Victory Farms decided not to grow this year.
Imagine my surprise when I showed up yesterday to buy my poblanos and found that Mike had just sold the entire crate to a buyer from Ellwood Thompsons. Not a one did they leave for the average Joe like me. Not only that, but after going to ET this morning, I saw that they had put them out .99 cents each instead of the .50 cents that Mike charges. I should mention here that Mike did not know the buyer was from ET, or he might have done things differently (like saving me the 6 peppers that I buy each week).
Ah, my love-hate relationship with Ellwoods continues. I’ve now got a standing order with Mike for 6 poblanos each Wednesday at the Lakeside Market, so this will never happen again. And so, my pepper happiness will continue. In the meantime, Mike might have to raise his prices to discourage the ugly practice that Ellwoods has started. More power to Mike if he contracts to sell to Ellwoods and grows just for them. I hope they pay him a fair price. In the mean time, don’t be surprised his prices go up just to discourage someone from swooping in early at the market and buying him all out then making more money from his work than he makes.
Hi, I was formerly the store manager of Ellwood Thompson’s Local Market and have recently moved into a new position Ellwood Thompson’s has created called “Forager” which is essentially a local product scout. The creation of this position is to further E.T.’s commitment of offering local items whenever possible. It’s an exciting new position that will work with producers of all kinds within a one hundred mile radius filling all departments of the store with local items. E.T. understands how important is to eat and shop locally and we are doing all we can to make it easier for our customers.
Jonah, I am sorry that there were no peppers available for you at the Farmer’s Market, but when I spoke with Mike, I asked him if it was okay if I bought all of his peppers and he said of course, he was happy to sell them because the Lakeside Farmer’s Market had not been highly attended and encouraged me to come back next week. I did introduce myself to each farmer, gave them a business card and explained that we would pay them their market value for produce and that we would be out every week. We at Ellwood’s honor the local farmer and will do everything we can to make them successful. That is the reason I truly love my new position.
However running a brick and mortar grocery store staffed with 120 employees can not be done on good intentions alone, we do have to sell items for more than we buy them for in order to continue to operate.
But I really do believe Ellwood’s is a great company to support, they are actively involved with the community, supporting social and environmental groups, sponsoring parks, and youth programs. It is an employee owned company, meaning each month the profits of the store are shared with the employees, we offer free health insurance to our employees, 401K and all of the other benefits that makes working somewhere great which is truly impressive for such a small company and most importantly we are independently owned and operated meaning the money spent at E.T. stays here in our community.
I am sorry that you are upset with Ellwood’s, I would love to meet with you to discuss your concerns feel free to call me at the store (804) 359-7525.
I applaud Ellwood Thompson’s on their local initiative although I do agree they can leave some produce for the “average Joes” at the market. I can not always make it to the markets but after reading Barbara Kingsolver’s” Animal Vegetable Miracle” I am making an effort to incorporate more local foods in my diet and do not mind spending a little bit more for the convenience of being able to get everything under one roof at any time I want. Anyone who has owned or worked in a retail establishment realizes that it makes business sense for Ellwood Thompson’s to mark up the items they buy. Anyone who thinks that any business does not do this is mistaken, that is how retail works and marking up .50 cent peppers to .99 cents is only a 100% market this is an incredibly low mark up in my experience most businesses I have worked for have at least a 200% some as high as 600% mark ups. Ever wonder how the stores in the mall can mark down an $80 shirt to $9.99? They are still making a profit even at $9.99 businesses do not sell things for less than they pay for them.
Keep it up Ellwood Thompson’s, and I’ll keep shopping there.
100% mark up is considered very low in most businesses.
When you shop at Wallmart or Target, how much money goes into the hands of the little islander that sewed the tank on Barbie?
ET is paying that particular farmer’s retail price and that is great! Will Whole Foods buy from local farmers?
Mike is a great guy. In the 4 years we have been back in Richmond, my wife and I have bought produce, including the most awesome Hanover tomatoes of all, at 17th st, Ashland, Byrd House and Lakeside as well as at the farmstand his wife runs in Ashland. We consider him a true friend and know he appreciates his regular patrons calling them by name. True he is not certified organic but he does follow all the practices of sustainable, responsible farming using natural fertilizers, etc whenever possible.
His antipathy toward CSA’s and their patrons are two fold: 1)., as a small farmer he assumes all risks should his crops fail or be destroyed by weather or similar problems and 2). CSA members who would not buy from him (not certified organic) still bought volumes of tomatoes that left his faithful regulars without any to buy.
Personally, a CSA makes no sense to us as a two person family who do not eat anything in huge quantities and we also prefer to deal with individual growers, organic or not who provide the best of any particular item we desire that week.
Dennis,
I hope it came across in my post that I really appreciate Mike and love being a regular customer of his. I feel really badly that the CSA has affected him poorly. And I know he is a responsible and extrememly knowledgable farmer, with extensive experience working for the extensions office. I hope that he can figure out a way to both meet his customer’s demands, sell to Ellwood’s and make a tidy profit for himself.
I also will say however, that if you investigate a CSA like Victory Farms, you are buying from a small farmer, and you could split a share with another family. At the same time, Victory Farms prices continue to increase, and I’m waiting to see if they will level off. Also, for me that means I’m choosing only items that I feel are reasonably priced (ie i’m avoiding the $2 peppers, and $6 melons, and $4 lettuce).
Thanks for the comment and for supporting Mike.
Jonah
jonah, we too avoid the high priced CSA stands (Amy included) if we can find equal quality produce at other vendors. Bill Heath, who is at Byrd House and also Petersburg (Saturdays) is another favorite of ours for heirloom tomatoes, better beans, beets, potatoes, smoe of which Mike has been for shorter periods of time. A run in with a Victory Farm volunteer at 17th St. (attitude and arrogance) put me of of them and also at Byrd House where initially there was no indication it was a “members” only vendor and a notice was since posted clarifying when non-members could buy, etc. but their prices certainly also are a factor. Trails End is now a CSA but we had bought heirloom beets and other things in Ashland but they have since priced themselves out of our comfort range. Victory Farms also has a reported 200 member list and at $500 a pop, they are exactly small time growers like Mike and Bill Heath are. More reason for us to deal with them.
Just personal peeves I guess but I am honest in expressing them. I bear no ill will toward CSA’s but they are simply not for us.
Just wanted to reiterate what Cyndi mentioned about her experience at the Lakeside Farmers’ Market. I was with her when she introduced herself to the farmers. (I was there picking up my Agriberry share – they’re awesome!)
Cyndi was wearing an Ellwood’s t-shirt (the ET logo is very visible – almost the entire front of the shirt), she was carrying an Ellwood’s bag and was handing out business cards. There was no mistaking she was there meeting and greeting farmers as a rep from Ellwoods.
Ellwoods has always paid farmers’ asking prices; we pride ourselves on supporting local farmers – they are growing our food, they deserve to earn a living wage and live comfortably. And, ET has been supporting local growers for a very long time.
If Ellwoods could sell local produce cheaper, we would. It would help with the affordability of food and probably increase our sales. But, the company has to pay its employees and keep the lights on. There’s a certain amount of money that has to come in to stay in business. The company is trying to be fair to the farmers and our customers.
Mike and his wife, Mary, were featured in the Times-Dispatch last week. Here’s the link if you want to read about them or stop by their stand.
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2008-07-23-0038.html
ET is in Style this week http://styleweekly.com/article.asp?idarticle=17453 .