by Colin Lyons, produce buyer
Monday, August 29, 2011
Consuming locally grown and produced foods is an increasingly popular trend in the grocery industry. Lunds and Byerly’s have always sourced local products and in recent years, we have focused our purchases more and more on local goods whenever possible. This means that when our customers walk into our stores, they increasingly have the choice to buy local.
Why buy local? Many people choose to buy local for many different reasons. Some like to keep the money they spend in the local economy. This means that their money is staying in the area in which they live, and will probably be spent in that local economy again by the grower or manufacturer. Other people like to buy local because more of the money they spend gets to the farmer and not into things like transportation costs and marketing. Normally a local farmer doing business directly with local stores will see a larger percentage of every dollar than going through large shippers that consolidate product.