Shady Maple’s produce department is an anomaly in more ways than one. Featuring a wide range of items including bananas, cucumbers, zucchini, salad greens, eggplants and even pineapples, they are sold at the ridiculous bargain price of $1.25 a half-peck. “We do a lot of different things that I call that ‘farmers market feel.’ We want to keep that farmers market feel and are very strong with that.”įor instance, long before ugly produce became all the rage at its upscale conventional competitors, Shady Maple was selling its Ugly but Tasty seconds. “We do the half-bushels of apples year-round, and the same with potatoes,” Weaver continued. We have restaurants coming in here and buying their produce, but then we also have a lot of volume buys from the average household, like half-bushels of apples that we’ll have for $6.99, $9.99 and up from there, depending on variety and availability. “We actually have a lot of people come in here and buy cases of oranges, peppers and tomatoes. “We’re known for selling produce by the bushel and the peck,” Weaver said. Shoppers entering the store from the vestibule are greeted with a replica of the original Shady Maple stand along the left wall, complete with a faux maple tree and rows of half-bushel baskets of apples. “We have a very large footprint of produce, triple the size of a Giant or Weis,” Weaver said, referencing his two major traditional supermarket chain competitors.īecause of that larger footprint, Shady Maple is able to do something that Giant and Weis cannot - sell in bulk. The department itself covers eight aisles. One example could readily be seen the week before Memorial Day when 14 crates of watermelons, priced from $3.98 to $6.99 depending on size, spanned the length of the department. We really push massive displays and low prices. When they see that big display and a great price, they’ve got to pick some up. Customers will come in with one thing on their grocery lists and end up buying 10 because they just can’t help themselves. It makes you hungry just looking at them. “The biggest thing we’re known for is our massive displays,” Weaver said. The same can be said seasonally for the local strawberries, rhubarb, lettuces, green beans, potatoes, onions, peaches, nectarines, apples, pears, pumpkins, squash and other delicacies. “It is grown just a couple of miles down the road, was picked this morning and brought in. “This is literally the nicest asparagus that we’ll have all year,” he said.
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We really thrive on local-grown and I feel that Lancaster County has some of the best farmers in the world,” Weaver said as he pointed to a 10-foot display of asparagus. We’re sourcing product from literally all over the world, but we buy local whenever possible. “We sell more produce than any competitor that I know of in Lancaster County. “Produce is the second-biggest department in the entire store, after grocery,” Weaver said.
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The supermarket is the star attraction, posting more than 914,000 transactions annually - virtually every one of those involving produce. What started in 1962 as a roadside produce stand on Route 23 - under the shade of a pair of large maple trees - has blossomed into a massive complex consisting of a 130,000-square-foot supermarket, freestanding greenhouse, a 2,000-seat Smorgasbord restaurant, banquet hall and conference center, and a 44,000- square-foot gift shop. Shady Maple’s Lancaster County produce roots run deep.
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In the peak summer months, a good 50 percent of Shady Maple’s produce hails from Lancaster County. When we say it is ‘homegrown’ or ‘local’ it is grown in Lancaster County - literally a 10-mile radius.” We’ll put a sign on it that it’s from New Jersey. “I know by law I’m allowed to call New Jersey local, but we don’t. “We don’t call it local unless it is from Lancaster County,” Weaver said. “We’re different from most people,” said Linford (Lin) Weaver, store manager and co-owner of the massive family-owned independent supermarket in East Earl, PA - the heart of Lancaster County’s Pennsylvania Dutch Country. In the world of produce there is local - and then there is Shady Maple Farm Market local.