A corporate shill of Christian love

There is a children's song called "When you learn to follow Jesus, you will act a little strange."  It's a bit of a silly song, but I've only begun to realize how full of truth it is.

When I signed up for BVS, I knew that i could be sent anywhere to do most anything.  And I was down for that.  I wanted to do a year of service, and I understood that service takes many forms.  Or at least I thought I did.

Fast forward to my time in Ohio.  I work with kids, tutor adults, all pretty common, run of the mill good things to do.  I also paint, clean out fridges, preach and organize Easter Egg hunts.  Maybe not the first things you think of when you think of service, but I do work for a church.

This is me hanging with TWO six foot white rabbits. Jimmy Stewart, eat your heart out.

Recently, however, I have been spending a good deal of time encouraging people to shop at a local grocery store.  Not a small, local mom and pop store featuring organic produce.  But at Kroger, the largest grocery store chain in the United States.

 And it's not because we're boycotting another store or trying to make a point.  I want people to spend money, lots of money at this Kroger so that it makes money, lots of money.

The fact is, this grocery store - the Walnut Hills Kroger - hasn't turned a profit in over four years.  And any business that doesn't tun a profit is danger of closing.  If this business closes, it just might be the final nail in the coffin for Walnut Hills.

First, if Kroger leaves Walnut Hills, our neighborhood becomes a food desert, which in short means that there is no source of healthy food.  Many of us in this neighborhood do no have access to cars, so we walk to and from the grocery store.  The store closes means taking buses and cabs, annoying enough for a single person like me, but even more of a head ache to anyone with children.  All of this adds expenses onto already strained budgets.

Second, Kroger is the largest business in Walnut Hills.  If it closes down the store and leaves a big empty box, the challenge of revitalizing the neighborhood shoots through the roof.  Empty buildings aren't exactly welcome signs.

So, on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, I help out the Walnut Hills Redevelopment Foundation (WHRF) with their Buy 25 Tuesdays. 

Which means I sit at this table for 4 hours, being friendly and polite.

What WHRF and Kroger management figure out was that it would take 200 new customers spending $50 a month to make the store profitable.  So we set out to do just that.  Every second and fourth Tuesday, we hold events from 4 pm to 8 pm, asking people to come spend around $25 and to tell us about their experiences.

Which means they tell me what products they couldn't find

The Walnut Hills Kroger management has been great.  Because we're bringing in a new customer base, they want to buy different things.  After every event, we tell them what the top three most requested items were, and they do their best to stock them for the next event.  So far, we've added organic fruits and vegetables, whole wheat pasta, whole bean coffee and local beers to the store's inventory.
 
I'm just a small cog in the machine, but I do get to interact with most of the shoppers who come out to support Buy 25 and our local store.  It's rewarding to see so many people who care about the neighborhood, about the community and about their neighbors.

I also get to do the date entry, which is largely boring, but means that I'm the first one to know the results of our efforts.  Since every event has been more successful than the last, that means I get to share good news.  At our last event we brought in almost $7,000 in business, two grand over our goal for each event.  I'm going to chalk that up in the win column.

Just in case you're not yet bored with tale of Buy 25, here's a video from the local news, with a silent cameo by your favorite blogger.