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Thriftown Grocery Store Supports Locally Grown

Bill Mehlinger owns Thrifttown Supermarket in Clarkston and he accepts locally grown vegetables at wholesale prices. Pictured in the slide show, from left to right, are, store manager Keith, workers Fatima and Selam and Bill.

For years mostly only foreign refugees have been taking advantage of this opportunity. They bring their exotic herbs and vegetables which go to the grocery shelves.

Here is how Bill works with local growers:

• 10 pound minimums of the particular vegetable that you bring in from your garden.

• Wholesale prices are negotiable at that time.

• For health/sanitary reasons he keeps track of the producers of the various items, until they are sold off the shelf.

Keep in mind gardeners, this is no get rich quick scheme as wholesale prices are considerably lower than retail, so you would probably have to show up with a large quantity of something that Bill wants to make good money. But in the meantime, it is fun to think that a lot of local veggy gardeners could support the idea of locally grown, no matter how few vegetables you have to offer.

He is aware of federal bill SB 510 that would close down any such operation involving locally grown, but he is also optimistic that Georgia will adopt a pro- locally grown law that counteracts the federal, and Georgia Department of Agriculture inspectors are already sympathetic to markets selling locally grown.

I like visiting the Thriftown Supermarket. There is a very soft and friendly family of nations atmosphere in the place. Mostly teenagers run the cash registers; from Iraq, Vietnam and now possibly Nepal and Burma; the new refugee arrivals to Clarkston. The first walk down the side entrance aisle impresses you with exotic bottled and canned fruits and vegetables that are quite ethnic. I even found a German Spaetzle traditional noodle product with package writing all in German. Thriftown keeps a Southern flavor as well, with the Moonpie product.

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