Salvage grocery stores abound around Middlefield, where Amish families depend on taxis or horses and buggies for transportation.
Salvage grocery stores abound around Middlefield, where Amish families depend on taxis or horses and buggies for transportation.
The shelves in the salvage stores are stocked with a wide variety of goods, making them vital for Amish who live miles out in the country and may not be able to go into town without a long buggy trip in bad weather or paying a taxi for the ride.
What draws other customers are the prices, which are often steeply reduced from price tags in chain stores, and, besides the convenience, people enjoy the country-store atmosphere.
Many of the stores have been in operation for a decade or more, owned and managed by local Amish businessmen.
Scenic View Salvage LLC at 5515 Kinsman Road is just outside Geauga County, but in the middle of the Amish community.
Owner Chris Detweiler bought the B&K Salvage Store, which had been owned by the same family for 20 years, April 1, 2020 — just as the COVID-19 pandemic was heating up — and renamed it.
“It’s the first time I’ve run a business,” Detweiler said. “It was kinda hectic the first couple of months.”
Most of his stock comes from Holmes County in Ohio and from Michigan, where he has connections, he said.
When a store has slightly damaged items, closes out a brand or just shuts down, the items usually are bought by a large company and loaded into semi trailers.
“Then they turn around and sell it to us,” Detweiler said.
Juggling the influx of materials, customers, four employees, the ups and downs of the virus and the weather has made it a remarkable year.
“It’s been quite a challenge,” he said. “But it’s been fun and interesting and it’s nice making new friends.”
Currently, Detweiler keeps his coolers and freezers going with a generator, but has plans to connect to the electricity at the road, a practice allowed for business, he said.
Besides selling everything from gasoline to ice cream, Detweiler plans to install an ice machine.
“We’re moving slowly, but we are going,” he said. “I’m trying to make this a one-stop shopping place.”
Kristina Nagy, owner of Nature’s Nook, 12960 Bundysburg Road in Huntsburg Township, has a back room stacked to the ceiling with banana boxes stuffed with items that have been discarded by supermarkets because they are approaching their expiration dates, have packaging that is slightly damaged or they are simply surplus stock.
“The deals are amazing,” Nagy said.
She and her husband, Rod, built the store on their property in 2006, realizing the Amish population was spreading north and a salvage store on their property, just south of Mayfield Road, might serve that niche.
Nature’s Nook is staffed by Amish with Edna Byler managing the operation — a job that requires some flexibility, since wholesale, case lots and salvaged inventory can swing wildly.
“You never know what’s coming,” Nagy said.
To ensure some consistency, she also stocks some new items, such as baby food and pet supplies, and makes sure the coolers are full of new essentials such as milk, cheese and eggs.
But the most popular aisle holds a huge assortment of snack foods and those shelves are stacked with goodies.
“We hit the jackpot for the snack load,” she said. “We got in with a company that’s been kind enough to keep us as a client.”
David Kurtz, owner of Kurtz Salvage, 16777 Shedd Road in Middlefield Township, said about half his customers are Amish and he has seen a steady increase in shoppers — particularly in the last year — probably because of COVID-19.
“Every year, we are busier it seems like,” he said. “It keeps us hopping.”
He opened his store 13 years ago and now has a warehouse in Middlefield for excess inventory he receives from as far away as Florida. The warehouse minimizes the effect sudden loads of groceries arriving can have, but the logistics are hard to imagine.
“The more stuff we have, the more headaches we have,” Kurtz said.
Other stores catering to Amish and local residents may not carry salvage goods, as such, but they help customers save on groceries or provide items not easily found elsewhere.
Aisles of bulk foods greet shoppers at Nauvoo Family Market on 15979 Nauvoo Road in Middlefield Township and at Fig Tree Bulk Foods at 15970 West High Street in Middlefield Village, but each store has its own character and niche.
Nauvoo Family Market rents out equipment and sells the Amish scooters seen along Middlefield roads everywhere.
The market has a bakery that puts out stacks of freshly-baked goods, as well as a delicious aroma. Plastic bags of bulk foods line the shelves and coolers are well stocked.
Everything from Amish hats to fresh, seasonal produce can be bought.
Most people enter Fig Tree Bulk Foods, 15970 East High St. in Middlefield Village, through the attractive back door off the parking lot behind the building.
The deli counter displays lunch meats and cheeses with specials such as Cajun turkey breast and black pepper American cheese noted colorfully on a chalkboard.
Without corporate headquarters dictating what and how they can sell groceries and goods, the independent storeowners are still cooperative among themselves.
When Nagy got a truck load of frozen chicken she couldn’t store, she contacted Kurtz, who put part of the delivery in his freezer, she said.
She also emphasized there are few expiration dates on items that mean they are unsafe. Gradually, people are realizing the date means “best if used by.” The exceptions are baby food and some over-the-counter medicines, Nagy said.
Inspectors visit often and are very thorough in their examinations of anything that can deteriorate over time
“If customers knew how regulated we all are, they would feel more comfortable coming in,” she said.
