When Amanda Gruss was asked if The Country Monkey Thrift Shop’s new discounted groceries will be helpful, Gruss’s response was, “Absolutely!” Gruss said grocery store expenses make it so you can’t even eat what you want to eat anymore, and is happy to find in The Country Monkey, “A lot of stuff I would use on a regular basis: your salad dressings, tomato paste, beans, like, that stuff you have to have in your pantry at all times. And then the treats of course, like the fruit snacks and rice crispy treats. Even the seltzers, we go through seltzer like crazy in our house; it adds up very, very quickly.”
On August 1st, you could find a large array of cereals, and extraordinary prices in The Country Monkey Thrift Shop on bottles of honey ranging from $1 - $6, 10 OZ. chopped pecans for only $5, a variety box of 8 Blue Diamond Almonds snack packs for $4, and individual Mott’s Applesauce 4 OZ. cups labeled 25 cents each! There were also Barilla rotini pasta boxes for 75 cents, which are currently found through a Cobleskill Walmart pickup search at $1.66 (which is a sale price from $1.84), and Schrom said they had big bottles of Chick-fil-A sauce they priced at $3 each, which is normally $5 or $6 a piece in grocery stores.
By Heather Skinner
SCHOHARIE- On the morning of July 25th, owner of The Country Monkey Thrift Shop, Elaine Schrom, revealed a surprise she had successfully kept secret for the last 6-8 months. The only signs of change came as she completely cleaned out the front section of her store, adding glassware and additional items to new shelves above clothing racks in the back room. People started asking what was in the works and speculating things like a café addition.
After closing on Thursday July 24th, and working steadily until 7 PM, the next day Schrom posted on Facebook, “Here is our exciting news! We are now carrying DISCOUNT GROCERIES!!! We worked over 12 hours yesterday to try and get the shelves filled but couldn't so instead of closing another day I will be pricing and putting out more all day today. So stop in and save yourself a bunch of $$$$$.”
Community members responded in the comments with comments, including “This is great will help a lot of families with the prices in stores for sure we enjoyed stopping in today we'll be back soon !” - Liz Cooper; “This is exactly what we need on Main Street!! Great addition ya'll!!!” -dry A.F. Craft Beverage Shop; and “Denise Diane no more out of the way Wal-Mart trips.”- Katie Sperbeck.
In the store on August 1st, shelves were filled in even more with food items, and one couple could be heard marveling with a “Wow!” as they noticed the new grocery section upon entering.
As customers have been coming upon their new discounted grocery section, many have been returning twice a day to buy more groceries. Amanda Gruss was there on August 1st and the day before saying, “I’ve been coming for years shopping the rest of their selection, but they just started doing the food and I’m excited! I told my mom and mom was like, go back!”
Though Schrom moved the Shop to Schoharie in 2018, it has been running even before that since around 2013 in Cobleskill. Their new discounted grocery section Schrom admitted is a $15,000 gamble, but she hopes it will be a successful addition to help the community after noticing food prices going up to the point of, “out-of-hand,” adding, “We’re hoping we can keep it that low, because a lot of people can’t afford to go out and buy food.”
Schrom recounted a customer who said her food stamp amount doesn’t last the whole month up against current grocery store prices and was relieved to see the discounted food item prices now available in The Country Monkey Thrift Shop that she plans to come back for.
While The Country Monkey doesn’t currently accept food stamps, Schrom plans to take at least a couple of months to learn more about the process involved to accept them while monitoring how this trial run of offering discounted groceries will impact their business.
These new food items are able to be brought to you at a discount by The Country Monkey through a process called “Salvaged” or, “Reclamation Grocery.” Schrom will have to order a minimum of 24 pallets at a time of banana boxes, but without knowing what food items they will receive in each box. The items may have slightly damaged boxes, may have been missing one cup from a package that can’t be sold individually in a grocery store, may be a surplus from manufacturers, or may be past its suggested best buy date, but still OK according to Agriculture and Markets, which the Country Monkey went through to start offering food.
Not a part of their discounted groceries but just as exciting, Schrom also offers sweets she makes at the counter and on August 1st those sweets included Chocolate Zucchini Cake slices for $3, Peanut Butter S’more Sandwich Cookies, and Scotcheroos for $2.
The Country Monkey Thrift Shop treasures their customers, and their customers show that care in return. One regular named John they praised for his sense of humor and relayed, “He says this is the only place that he can come where he can be himself.”
Gruss said of The Country Monkey, “They are the best! I come once a week; we always chat about what’s going on in the community and what’s going on with them and I’ll return again and again and again. I tell everybody about this place.” And in return for the many pants and tops Gruss is always so grateful to be able to thrift there at $2 and $3 a piece for work, she brings donations back for them to sell from her closet. Gruss added, “They’re really giving back to the community, which is why I like to support them, because I want them to be successful.”
Follow The Country Monkey Thrift Shop on Facebook for updates. Their bio states they offer, “Furniture, housewares, jewelry, toys, DVDs, books, tools, collectibles, clothing, and so much more! Visit us at 322 Main St Schoharie across from Stewarts!”
They plan to expand their hours starting next week by an extra day and hour to 9 AM- 4 PM Wednesday – Saturday and might expand by more in the future. You can bring thrift shop donations during their open hours, but they’re not taking donations for their grocery section and recommend if you have any food donations to bring them to a food pantry.
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