Buying locally could really help improve your club. Here is why:
1) Could cut cost.
2) Provide members with healthy food.
3) Make your club more part of the community.
4) Bring your club into the present where buying locally is a big deal.
Buying locally isn’t just something for hippies and yuppies anymore. They may have started the fad, but it was a smart move that has caught on. People in cities of all sizes have the opportunity to buy locally.
If you Google “Farmers’ Market” in your city, you’ll find one. Use the market to meet local growers (aka farmers). Develop a relationship with them and bargain with them until you get prices exactly where you want.
Think about how your marketing can shift if you serve fresh sandwiches with fresh produce? Members would love your club if for $5 they could have a sandwich they couldn’t get at any store. You could make breakfast sandwiches with fresh eggs. Members would love you for this!
Also, remember, you don’t have those thoughts of, “How fresh are these really?” Produce was brought to you from no farther than 20 miles from your club. The meat could be a few days old. The produce may have been picked yesterday. Eggs, maybe that morning.
The point is, by buying locally you can become a greater asset to your community. Not only are you just a local business taking money from the community — now, you are a buyer that helps support the community. You support farmers, the community as a whole and you have become a vital asset that members and potential members have to get behind.
Tyler Montgomery is the Editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com
