Small Town Grocery Shopping

Bethlehem is a small town. It’s a really small town. There is no grocery store with big aisles and check out counters. Instead, we have this lovely little food co-op. It’s really little - no bigger than 10‘ x 12‘. It has an honor payment system. It has graduated from its cash box days to Venmo now. 

It has lovely fresh food, from the local farms, including locally butchered meat and fresh vegetables, and it also has local dairy products, bakery products, and local eggs. I went in the other day to drop off empty egg cartons so that local farmers can use those cartons to package their eggs for sale at the co-op. Outside, there’s a ‘take a book leave leave a book’ stand.

It’s a jewel, this little grocery co-op. It is a beautiful example of how communities can and do function with cooperation and kindness.