April ' 25
I’ve been thinking a lot about pie. Apple, Pecan, Key Lime, Chicken Pot, and the ratio of the circumference of a circle to it’s diameter. I know that last one is a little different, but stick with me. I stumbled across a beautiful little video illustrating how pi is an irrational number. It illustrates the formula: z(θ) = eθi + eπθi in which 2 rods spin around a fixed center and each other. As they spin they get very close to returning to their original starting positions, but they never quite there. It makes a beautiful pattern, but it also makes an apt analogy for the newsletter this month. That things come full circle, but not quite.
There’s a massive supermarket chain that recently opened a location in Johnstown. It’s a Missouri based company and this location is the first that isn’t in Missouri. Nothing in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas, or Tennessee. All neighboring states. But the powers that be decided that the Front Range of Colorado was where they could extract the most money for their investors, whoever, or wherever they may be. It got me thinking about how interconnected the world is and how that interconnectivity can be beneficial and also extremely detrimental to a community. And I think that’s what this newsletter will be about this month; my thoughts about potential threats to our community and how to navigate those issues.
Here’s the threats I see. When companies move in and open massive chain operations in communities they are unaffiliated with, they don’t feel any responsibility to maintain the health of those communities. They are there to extract as much profit as possible and pad their stocks value. If/when that money dries up, they just close up shop, find another thriving community to milk, and fire everyone (or force them to uproot their lives and follow them to the next stop). There used to be a Safeway on the corner of Mullberry and College. When Safeway decided that store wasn’t profitable enough, they just closed up and moved. When they moved, that area of town became a food desert where people don’t have access to healthy food (particularly fruits and vegetables) within walking distance (about a mile). It wasn’t until Lucky’s moved in that the situation was resolved. Now, that’s not the most egregious example, but in a place without a lot of public transportation, biking infrastructure, etc, it can become a real problem, real fast.
There’s a slew of things I take issue with here, and I’ll try to keep it organized, but just to name the issues so I can remember to expand on them later: The company has no soul and feels no connection to the people it serves, the money is removed from the community where it would have helped everyone, the quality of the product is generally substandard, the weakness of the supply chains and how hard they are to build and how easily they can be destroyed.
So let’s start with the product quality, since that’s what I hang my hat on. Concentrated Animal Farming Operations (CAFO’s) are, in a word, gross. Too many animals squeezed into too small a space, treated like an expense line on an income statement. That’s where most of the meat in a supermarket lives out it’s life. And I’m not lamenting the slaughter of a cow to feed a person. If I learned my lessons from the Lion King, that’s the circle of life. But from a strictly quality perspective, an animal that’s raised with care, treated properly, and allowed the opportunity to pursue it’s natural instincts will taste better. Stress caused adrenaline, adrenaline tastes bitter. Now, market forces and integrated supply chains allow us, as a civilization, to grow silage (livestock feed) in Canada, ship it to North Carolina, feed it to a warehouse of pigs, ship the pigs to Mexico to slaughter them, import them to a warehouse in California, label them for a Missouri company, and truck them to Johnstown. For whatever reason, that’s cheaper than raising a pig in Yuma, slaughtering it in Brush, and delivering it to Fort Collins. And the quality of the pigs I get from Trifecta Natural Pork? It’s literally the best pork I’ve ever had in my life. And that includes all of the Michelin starred restaurants I cooked at in NYC. Neal is a craftsman and artist with his pork. Smithfield is working on an IPO to increase their value.
5 year ago we closed for 9 days and I honestly didn’t know if we’d ever reopen. That was when one of my employees’ roommates contracted COVID and was hospitalized. This was before testing, so I did what I thought was responsible and shut down to allow my staff to quarantine. We’d only been open 22 months and figured it was over. The pandemic was graphic example of how fragile the supply chains are that hold the economy together, because the supply chain IS the economy… full stop. In the next two years our little butcher shop managed to thrive while many businesses struggled. The reason I cite most is that we had a much shorter supply chain. At no point was my supply of beef or pork ever in danger. I buy my meats locally as much as possible. There was never a day where I couldn’t just call my beef or pork guy and arrange to pick up, or have delivered, what I needed. My supply chain was stronger because it was shorter. The most life altering event I’ve ever lived through couldn’t break it. And that includes 9/11, the 2008 market crash, and the time Noah pantsed me at the assembly in high school, he got my boxers and everything. That has nothing to do with my supply chain, but it was life altering.
Having short, local supply chains made my business stronger and more resilient to outside forces. And it’s all happening again. The fucking ridiculous tariff power play by Chester Cheeto and the Oligarchs is going to disrupt everyone’s supply chains, hence, the economy. And again, I’ll still have access to all my pork and beef. I honestly don’t know how much the prices will be affected, but the meat will still be there. Those tariffs are going to hurt small businesses way more than a multi-state supermarket conglomerate. I wrote a whole newsletter on that last month. And Chester and the Oligarchs isn’t the worst band name I ever heard. It could be a lounge act with every member dressed in a furry costume.
I think I’ve finally arrived at the issue that stirred up all these thoughts. This new supermarket has a bakery counter that’s 150 ft long. The meat counter is the same. The entire store and all it’s offerings comprise the same products you could get a small, local shops run by people who live in the community. Shops that put more pride into their products and more care into serving their community. I guess this bothers me because it feels like one store, one company, one income statement is trying to replace a neighborhood of shops and stores that compromise our town. It strikes too close a parallel to a Demolition Man society where every restaurant is Taco Bell and every store is Amazon. And I bought a bidet during the great toilet paper shortage so I don’t want to learn the three shells.
And that’s the almost full circle that started this letter. There are now companies trying to replicate and monopolize the products of an entire community, but without the care, or craftsmanship, or artistry, or soul that makes a community special. We live in an amazing city partially because of the community of small businesses. I know it’s part of what drew me to move here, open a business, and start a family. Our lives are not meant to be filtered down to how much money we can provide for a corporation. They are meant to be lived together with your neighbors, supporting each other, and lifting each other up. That builds robust communities that can survive and thrive under extraordinary pressures and circumstances. And I’d rather have that than an all you can eat buffet next to the check out line when I’m buying an Adirondak chair and some limes (you know, for my relaxing with my spring break margs).
Friendly Nick
Friendly Nick’s Butcher
The pi video, in case you want to watch.