You might notice this week that some items — like the chicken packages from Kent Heritage Farms — are priced lower than you might expect.
There’s a reason for that.
In retail, there’s something called a “loss leader.” It’s a simple idea: you lower the price on a few key items that people really want or need. You don’t make much on those items — sometimes you make nothing — but it encourages people to place an order. While they’re ordering, they pick up other things they need, and overall the system still works.
This isn’t a trick. It’s a strategy, and it’s been used in food retail forever.
We use it here too, but for a slightly different reason. For us, it’s not just about getting orders. It’s about moving food. Farmers need food to move. We need food to move. And families need food to be affordable enough that they can actually buy it regularly, not just once in a while.
So sometimes it’s chicken.
Sometimes it’s strawberries.
Sometimes it’s potatoes.
Sometimes it’s lettuce.
Not every item has to make money. The system has to work as a whole.
That’s the difference between thinking about food as individual items on a shelf and thinking about food as a system that has to keep moving every week.
When you order, you’re not just buying chicken or produce or milk. You’re participating in a system that is trying to keep local food moving in a way that farmers, families, and a small food hub can all survive.
That only works if the whole cart works — not just one item.
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