I run a local grocery store, and the question I get asked most isn't "do you have X" — it's "why is produce so expensive right now."

Here's the honest answer: big chains buy from massive distributors who ship produce across the country (sometimes the world) before it hits a shelf. Every mile it travels adds cost, and every day it sits in a warehouse loses freshness. You're paying for logistics, not food.

So I started sourcing directly from farms near us instead. Cuts out 2-3 middlemen, the produce is picked closer to when you actually eat it, and the farms get paid fairly instead of getting squeezed by a distributor's margin.

The tradeoff: it only works at smaller scale, which is why I turned it into a weekly subscription box instead of trying to stock a whole store with it — The Local Basket. You get what's actually in season near you, packed the same week it's picked.

If you've been priced out of "fresh" at the big chains, this is worth a look. Happy to answer questions about how local sourcing actually works if anyone's curious.