Organic Foods: Casualty of the Economy

By: Miranda Marquit Tuesday, November 11, 2008 4:27 PM

Sectors: Personal Finance

IStockAnalyst

Last week, I mentioned that consumer spending on luxury goods is down. What I didn’t really think about at the time is how organic foods might be a luxury item.

The thought that luxury spending might extend to such things as organic food occurred to me yesterday when I got an email from the local organic market explaining that the store was closing later this month. Since I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, this is a blow to me. We don’t have chain organic stores. Sometimes the other grocery stores have a few items, but there are a number of things that I like that I can’t get anywhere else.

At any rate, the reason the store is closing is that, after three years of steady growth, customers have dropped up. In these economic times, the more expensive organic food has become a luxury. And my local market saw a sharp decline in sales, culminating in a need to take the loss this tax year and get out.

So, next week we’ll be heading to the organic foods market for the last time. Unfortunately, the fact that we’ll be finding some great deals doesn’t do much to make us feel better.

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