SCHENECTADY, N.Y. — Price Chopper Supermarkets is highlighting locally grown produce by offering its Facebook fans a coupon for $5 off a $15 purchase. The offer is designed to promote Price Chopper’s practice of buying produce from farms in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York.
"Our local growers personally inspect their crop before shipment and all crops are picked and delivered the same day to ensure the finest quality and freshness," Price Chopper writes in its blog. "We take pride in ensuring you have the freshest produce we can offer."
The coupon is part of a larger locally grown produce promotion. The retailer has also posted profiles of various local produce vendors on its website. Among the featured vendors is Swistak Farm, Verona, N.Y., which supplies Price Chopper with sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, pumpkins, summer and winter squashes, and Gold Krest Farm, East Greenbush, N.Y., sweet corn and green and yellow squash.
"If the consumer knows who grew their product, they feel better," Keith Frosceno, Price Chopper's vice president of produce merchandising, writes in the blog. "It's not some kind of anonymous institution or big agribusiness company."
Also on the pricechopper.com website is a guide to when different types of local produce are available, such as blueberries in July and August; and cauliflower in October and November.
"The list of locally grown items we supply is extensive and growing, because you — the consumer — is demanding more fresh food," according to Price Chopper.
