From the never-to-be famous play "Organico and Conventionette" by yours truly, I am pleased to bring you:
Prologue
Two peaches, both alike in dignity,In Bothell, WA, where we lay our scene,
From ancient fields break to retail mutiny,
Where peach juice makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two produce foes
A pair of star-cross'd stone-fruit take their life;
Whole misadventured "pit-eous" overthrows
Do with their sale bury their retailers' strife.
The fearful passage of their fuzz-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their fruit market's rage,
Which, but their successful sales, nought could remove,
Is now the summer long traffic of our displays;
The which if you with gentle hands attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.
- Darby Brennan/William Shakespeare
There were organic peaches and regular peaches at the market over the weekend. Both from sunny California. Both were $2.99/lb. Both were excellent quality.
So which one do you think outsold the other by a 5:1 ratio? Maybe not what you would have guessed. And as an innocent observer I am left scratching my head as to why. Is it the display location? Do you walk by an organic sign and just assume it's more expensive? Do the silent majority of fruit market customers actually prefer non-organic, even with all things (including price) being equal?
By Monday the price had gone down to $1.99/lb for the regular, $2.99 for the organic. And Dale tells me the margin is now more like 10:1.
So many customers request organic and the fruit market would love to accomodate them! But as a family business it's not sustainable to offer something that won't sell. So, there you have what I will refer to going forward as The Dilemma.
What's the deal?
(As I've said a gazillion times, your purchase is your vote.... if you want organic, look for the hot pink signs at the market.)
