24
The Communicator - February 2005
Last year the market conducted a survey to find out more about the interests and concerns of our
membership. Response to the survey was informative and validated many of the things we do to serve
you in the best way possible. We very much appreciated the response and thought that our general
readership would enjoy hearing about what some of our members say are their...
TOP REASONS FOR SHOPPING AT THE MARKET
Story and photos by Gwen Uetrecht
This month, I talked to Laura Sanders, who has been
shopping at the market since 1998. She and her family,
husband Randy and daughter Elena, live in Clintonville.
Laura is a fine arts painter and started her own business last
year painting Oil Portraits. She is a self-professed "bar-
gain" shopper and takes the time to shop around and find
the best prices. For Laura, high quality products at a good
value are her key reasons for shopping here at the market.
Laura says she grew up eating mostly processed foods and it
wasn't until she was in college that she first experienced eth-
nic cuisine. When she was in her late 20's, she came to realize
that her food choices effected the world environment and
economy. She discovered the Moosewood cookbooks and be-
gan exploring alternative diets, including vegetarian. She
says that now her family doesn't eat much prepackaged or
preprocessed foods. She cooks meals mainly from scratch
and Indian and Thai dishes are her family's favorites.
Laura first got involved with food cooperatives in the early
90's when she and her husband Randy discovered the King
Ave Co-op while exploring the neighborhood around their
favorite restaurants - the King Ave Coffee House. When they
moved to Clintonville in 1997, they quit shopping at the co-op because of their change in locality. In 1998, just after
Elena was born, Laura was overjoyed when she discovered that the King Ave Co-op had relocated to the Clintonville
Community Market and was within walking distance of her home.
When she first started shopping at the market, Laura spent about 25% of her food budget here. As our product
selection grew, so did her purchases; and now she spends about 67% of her food budget at the market. She believes in
the benefit of eating organic and buys as much as she can afford. And the market is the only place where she has been
able to find some of the ingredients she needs for her recipes.
Laura is not sure that others in the community know that the market has such "good deals". She says that the majority
of our prices are very competitive. There are many items here that are cheaper than the bigger stores, including Wild
Oats, who she says has "wild prices" as opposed to "wild savings". Laura says the market has the best prices in town for
cheese and butter. She likes buying her spices in bulk because "you buy just the amount you need and it's fresher than
prepackaged." She also saves money when buying other products in bulk, like maple syrup, cooking oil, and peanut
butter. Laura likes that we offer special member discounts on case purchases and takes advantage of this when buying
soymilk. And she especially enjoys the extra 5% discount we give all customers on the first Monday of the month -
Customer Appreciation Day.
But cost savings are not the only reason that Laura shops at the market! The market offers products from local
producers, an important value that Laura supports. In the wake of the Buckeye Egg scandal, Laura now buys free
range eggs from the market, mainly because she trusts the quality of the products we stock and wants to make sure the
money she spends is not going to any business involved in the inhumane treatment of animals. The market is also close
to her home, so Laura and her daughter Elena walk whenever weather permits. Laura says that she always sees
someone she knows and enjoys visiting with friends and staff when she's shopping. In fact, she enjoys this so much that
Elena has had to ask her to "Please stop talking to your friend. I want to go!"
(continued on the next page)