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Opening a new store right before the COVID-19 pandemic struck was a challenge for True Value of Rock Hill and owners Jay Simpson and Alex Dorsey. To overcome the obstacles of supply chain woes, Simpson and Dorsey turned to locally made and locally sourced products, which became so popular that many of them are still sold in the store today.
One of those products is raw milk from a local dairy farmer, who is a friend of Simpson’s and also works full-time as a firefighter. Simpson says they started selling the raw milk to help out a friend, and it has ended up helping the store. On average, the store sells 60 half gallon bottles every week.
“We’ve become a destination for raw milk and have people come from out of state for the novelty of the glass bottle, as well as some of the health benefits raw milk can provide,” Simpson says. “It’s been so popular that we’ve actually had to double the size of our refrigerator to keep more in stock.”
Discover how another retailer added a milkshake machine to his operation here.
