I don’t know what I would do without Daily Groceries. It is perfectly located to be a neighborhood bodega for Normaltown, Boulevard, Newtown, Cobbham and the hospital, and it is right on the flight path into and out of town for Forest Heights and Homewood Hills. It is there for you every day 7:30 a.m.–9 p.m. If you need something, you can run to get it without having to cross the Atlanta Highway.
If you need more, shopping at Daily, where the staff is friendly and up close and probably includes people you know, is easy. Fresh vegetables from local farms and all the staples—milk, bread, yogurt, ice cream, coffee, chips, cereal, teas, nuts, candy, frozen foods, wine, beer, cleaning stuff, and the Daily Deli with freshly made cakes (yay, Vernon!), handmade sandwiches, entrees like rice bowls, pasta and meatballs, soups, Asian dumplings—all in a pleasant, intimate atmosphere that is a respite from the efficient but impersonal world of big-box groceries. Plus, a soundtrack of cool music.
Even so, Daily is having a hard time right now. It recently posted a video to social media with the message that Daily may not make it through the summer. In the video, Daily manager Julie Perkins says Daily has lost 1,000 customers since last year and is behind $20,000 in sales. Of course, summers are always hard in Athens, and this one has been particularly unsettled. Daily fairly recently moved from its longtime location farther down Prince, which disrupted shopping patterns. The present location, the iconic ‘60s round building across Prince from Piedmont hospital, is slightly confusing to drivers, because the entry alongside Daily is one-way out, and to enter, you have to go on down past the Flying Biscuit, turn in and then come back around to Daily. Parking right next to Daily is limited to three spaces, plus one handicapped, but just below, there’s plenty of free parking much closer than you’d get at Kroger or Publix.
We all know how we’ve lost so many of the local businesses that make Athens Athens, and that’s always a concern, but with Daily, practicality trumps sentiment. Without Daily, the immediate intown neighborhoods would become a desert for anything other than fast food and would lose an oasis where sustenance is accompanied by a friendly respite from anonymous sameness.
Daily is a domestic nonprofit corporation “owned” by its members and governed by a local board of directors who are not beholden to the demands of out-of-town stockholders. Daily’s problems are local, and so are its solutions. Manager Perkins says six years ago the co-op was $100,000 in debt, but now is mostly out of debt. What they need now is the annual infusion of money that comes from memberships, which are $20 a year, and of course having those members doing some shopping. And donations can provide the cushion any local business needs to continue day-to-day operations and to buy much-needed new equipment. So many of the problems we read about are beyond our meager ability to help, but we can help Daily, and thereby help ourselves and the community Daily serves. We can join. We can shop, and we can donate, whatever the amount. Easiest is Venmo to Daily Groceries Co-Op, but of course you can also walk in the front door and hand them a check.
Perkins says they’re in the process of adjusting Daily to carry even more of the staples we all need, making the co-op even more helpful to its surrounding neighborhoods. And they’ve added some tables and chairs inside the front window for folks who want to grab lunch or coffee and visit. Perkins would like to hear from you if you’ve got suggestions for how Daily can serve you better or if you have complaints: [email protected].
Years ago, when I first started shopping at Daily, it had sort of a hippie vibe that made me wonder if I was cool enough to buy a sandwich and coffee. Now it has matured into a friendly place that makes you feel cool just being there. The co-op is important to Athens as one of our unique local places, and also because it’s chock full of the groceries we need daily.
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