The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Dear Editor,

As a recent resident of Waitsburg I have discovered myself in a position most of you are familiar with - sometimes you have to leave Waitsburg for everyday shopping needs. Surely it's easier and cheaper (gas- wise) to shop here rather than surrounding towns. Sometimes I have to go to Dayton (bigger grocery, pharmacy, restaurants), Walla Walla (more restaurants, even bigger groceries and more pharmacies, plays and concerts), or even the Tri-Cities (Costco & other big box stores). Sometimes it's just a lot less expensive to get something in the larger towns.

So I thought of the simplest way to change that. I just asked Danny Cole (Waitsburg Grocery) to add a few items to his shelves so I didn't have to go elsewhere to get them.

One item was a whole case, so Danny was able to just order it for me, tack on a small profit for handling it and I bought the whole case. No chance of it not selling or taking up shelf space. Win-win and more money spent in town.

Another item is artichoke hearts. That's requiring a bit more work to build a 20-case minimum order for a specialty item, but I've checked with other people in town I know who like to cook and can account for almost half of the order from the first pass. Another win-win and visiting "foodies" will be de­lighted to see more capers, olives, artichoke hearts for their creations.

Waitsburg Mercantile will never put up an inventory like a big box store, but I'll bet if we let John know what items we need to have handy in the Mercantile, I'm sure he'd be happy to respond.

Richard Hinds

Waitsburg