The Gazette 

Joseph's Grainery sees record sales

 

A tower of boxes is ready to ship out from Joseph's Grainery.

COLFAX -- While many businesses have had to limit business hours or close entirely due to the coronavirus, Joseph's Grainery has seen record-setting business these past few weeks.

Joseph's Grainery sells whole grains and milled flours, as well as, cookie mixes, cracked wheat cereal, etc., and has seen a growth of 4,158 percent this month compared to March 2019.

"Business is booming," Joseph's Grainery employee Jeff Geier said. "You have to assume it's mostly virus-related things, but at the same time I think people are becoming more and more aware of where their food comes from and where it's available."

Bill Myers, owner of Joseph's Grainery, said right now their biggest challenge is having enough supplies to meet the shipping needs.

"Flat rate boxes, packing tape, anything that helps with shipping, we just consumed them in this last week, a year supply in the last week," Myers said.

There are currently three full-time employees and a couple of part-time employees just to keep up with orders coming in. Geier said the days have become longer, working 12-hour days right now.

"It's a good kind of crazy," Geier said. "It came all of a sudden, it started about mid-week the week of March 16 and then we set an all-time Joseph's Grainery sales record on Sunday, March 22."

The majority of sales comes from Joseph's Grainery's Amazon store. Products are also sold directly from their website. Geier said they also have had a hard time keeping up with the products that they sell in other retail locations like Rosauers in Colfax and Dissmores IGA in Pullman.

Joseph's Grainery sells at 11 retail locations in Whitman County and more locations outside of the county.

"Our busiest time is usually in the fall and around the holidays," Myers said. "Now is generally when it dies off and has dovetailed nicely with farming because it dies off here and we are able to focus on our day jobs. With this increase in business now it's been an entirely new thing where we have to split things up and create a balance."

Myers said he is at the point in spring farming where he can spend a great deal of time and attention to this influx in business.

"We have good guys on the farm, where I am able to do that. I'm blessed to have that going for us," Myers said. "It's a rare opportunity, but it's our responsibility."

Prices have remained the same for Joseph's Grainery products and everything sold is free shipping/shipping included in the price.

"We haven't changed our prices, the whole supply and demand thing, you see stores jacking up the prices, we aren't doing that," Geier said.

Myers and Geier shared that Joseph's Grainery recently donated more than 10,000 pounds of milled grain to Warrior Liquor in Spokane.

"They are making hand sanitizer to give to first responders and hospitals," Geier said. "Our goal is to feed people; we think it's God's work to feed and help people and that's what we are trying to do."

With a variety of products available for purchase, Geier said over the past few days they have seen an increase in flour sales, but for the past couple of weeks products all across the board have been selling well.

"It's challenging, but it's rewarding," Geier said. "It came kind of fast, starting a couple of weeks ago. I think it's just people looking for good quality food, that they can trust and that they know is natural."

Born and raised in Colfax, Geier said ever since he started working he has worked on farms and watches the crops that are planted and harvested here taken down to the river, loaded to a barge and then loaded to a giant ship in Portland where the product these farmers produce disappears.

"Here at Joseph's Grainery, Bill plants the crop, we harvest the crop and then it comes here and with very little processing and sometimes only just cleaning, we package it nicely and I know I'm sending it directly to a person who's going to eat it," Geier said. "It doesn't just disappear into some cargo ship. That to me is very gratifying. Although the farmers here are feeding the world, I can actually tell you the names of the people we are feeding."

"We've had our best week ever, we have done more business in these past couple of weeks than we have all this past year," Myers said. "It has put us in a position to supply all these people who are concerned about having food."

 

Reader Comments(0)

 
 

Our Family of Publications Includes:

Cheney Free Press
Ritzville Adams County Journal
Whitman County Gazette
Odessa Record
Franklin Connection
Davenport Times
Spokane Valley News Herald
Colfax Daily Bulletin

Powered by ROAR Online Publication Software from Lions Light Corporation
© Copyright 2024