Gluten Free Shopping: Get to know your Grocer
September 27, 2009 by Brenda Wilkey
I love my local organic food store. It took many many years for us to get anything like it in our rural area. I have to say the owner of Millie Hill Market has had her hands full with me. She is constantly ordering new GF items for us to try. To her delight most of them end up selling right off of her shelves. This is the type of relationship you want to have with your local store. If they are supportive it can make your life a ton easier.
Find out who is in charge of organic foods at your local grocery store.
They are always looking for feedback on what to carry. They want to know what will sell and if you can give them some items they might be more willing to carry similar items. If they seem hesitant just keep on building that relationship with them. Have other friends or family come in and request the same items. Usually if they get enough requests they will try out the product and watch the sales of these items.
I had been trying to get our local store to carry the Tinkyada noodles because they were my favorite. My uncle is a manager at this store and I had him ask his supervisor. After about a year of asking I lucked out one day. I was shopping and the store had managers from another store visiting and setting up displays. I asked them if I could talk with them for a minute and they were willing to listen.
I explained that the GF noodles they carried were not selling because they turn to mush when cooked. I also told them I had a much better quality noodle that would sell a ton faster. Let’s just say in a few short weeks my store had 4 different shapes of Tinkyada noodles and they have been selling like crazy. Now all I usually have to do is ask my uncle if they can carry an item. If they are able to order it they usually will. They had the Betty Crocker GF mixes almost imediately after I asked. This whole process makes grocery shopping a lot easier on us and our budgets.
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