The City of London is losing a staple of the community, but whether local residents in London and elsewhere heed this as a warning to support other community businesses instead of shopping online or at a big box discounters remains to be seen.
“Laurel Grocery Company has been a proud provider of wholesale groceries to independent grocers in Kentucky and surrounding states for 103 years. Yet challenging market conditions, due in part to the rise of big box discounters and growing competition by e-commerce, have presented serious challenges to our business model. After exploring a number of options to improve our position, we have made the difficult decision to close wholesale grocery operations and lay off a portion of our workforce,” the company announced in a social media post Saturday.
“We recognize and deeply value the tremendous contributions these employees have made to Laurel Grocery over time, and we are deeply sorry for any hardship this decision may cause to them and the communities in which they live. In addition, we have partnered with several other wholesale grocery providers to continue servicing the independent grocers affected to ensure a seamless transition. We are working with advisors to consider next steps for our Company and will provide more information soon.”
According to some published reports, Laurel Grocery Company employs about 100 people.
It is sad to see a company close after being in business for over 100 years in the community, but people should not act shocked that this has happened and it is going to happen again and again unless people start to change their spending habits.
Small local businesses have more expenses than many online retailers, such as paying rent on store fronts, footing the bill for utilities, and paying cashiers to work registers to name just a few.
Pricewise, it is also difficult for small businesses to compete with big box discounters, who can get discounted products to sell by purchasing in bulk quantities that small businesses can’t match.
There are little things we can do to help our local businesses not only survive, but to hopefully thrive in today’s economy, such as making efforts to shop at our local retailers.
If you need to buy a birthday or anniversary present for that special someone, try at least looking first at your local mom and pop businesses before you buy something off of Amazon.com.
Next time you are planning to go out to eat, go to a local eatery instead of a chain restaurant. For instance, if you like Mexican food, there are plenty of local Mexican restaurants to choose from and almost all of them are pretty good.
If you are going to purchase flowers to send to your spouse for your anniversary or need to order flowers for the funeral of a loved one, don’t use some online website, which typically is going to farm it out to a local florist after taking a cut. Just call up a local florist directly. You can get more flowers for your buck that way.
For our local businesses, it works both ways. If you need advertising, don’t do it online but rather reach out to your local community newspaper or radio station. (Preferably your local community newspaper that is…LOL.)
Also, don’t forget to support the businesses that support your local community newspapers and radio stations.
