The City of Cambridge has written to all restaurants and food stores like ours and suggested we sell some basic grocery items as well as our normal fare. The intent probably is to reduce the pressure on grocery stores, and help people not stand in lines. We are tiny, as you all know, but we can do our part by selling basics that we already buy. They would be add ons to your regular purchases from us, as we don’t want to turn into a grocery store! We are short staffed, and have turned into a COFFEE SHOP as it is,  because we are the only place open with coffee, Lattes etc.

We were thinking we could offer things like:

•  Sugar (org) (cane, brown or powdered) by the #
• Milk (org) half gallon
• Eggs (org/pasture raised) by the carton
• Cheese (we use goat, swiss, Mozzarellas, Parmesan and Ricotta — supplier says sliced cheese are selling well 🤷‍♀️. We can buy most kinds of cheese. Need to figure out how to sell/package cheese
• Coconut Milk half gallon
• Almond Milk half gallon
• Butter – Cabot (one # packs)
• Honey (5#)
• Fruit (org) like bananas, Lemons, apples, whatever looks good for the week (probably by the piece as we don’t have a Legal scale).
• Frozen fruit (mostly organic) by the # (we always have 3-4 kinds in our freezer)
• Greens (org) Prepacked
• Mushrooms (1/2 #)
• Potatoes (org) by the bag
• Grape tomatos (org)
• Dried fruit like cranberries, cherries, dates by the #
• Nuts (by the #)
• Almond flour (by the #)
• Spices (1#)
• Yeast (Saf Gold) 1#
• And then some fun things like Rhubarb or Scapes. Things that are seasonal specials that we are likely to use in bakery or eat ourselves. We could also sell specialty items like brown rice syrup and molasses.

We’d post a list of what’s available and the price outside the bakery and online for the week.

We’d like your feedback as to whether this is something you need/would use. One of our suppliers has asked if we would offer a CSA box of fruits and veggies, but that seems logistically very hard for us in our small space. He said that people are putting up tables outside and leaving the boxes there, but we don’t really have that kind of outside space, now that our display is in the window. If an overwhelming number of people wanted to get a box of fruits and veggies each week, we’d make it work, but we’d have to have commitment.

Please email us your thoughts and comments about this. It is extra work for us, and if people don’t have the need, no point in us doing this. We are in this together, so we don’t mind helping out, if there is a need.