Welcome to episode 17 of From the Front Porch, a collection of conversations on books, small business, and life in the South.

Today I'm joined by my friend and co-owner Katie Chastane and we'll be chatting about shopping local, the future of retail, and what we're reading right now.

Hey Katie.

Hey Annie, can I just tell you how excited I am about this podcast?

These are all the things I love to talk about.

This is a fun topic and I thought you would enjoy chatting about this today.

Absolutely.

So let's talk about shopping local.

We live in a town that is pretty devoted to local shopping and local eating.

Tell me about shopping local in Thomasville specifically.

Okay, well one, I think our downtown pretty much covers I like to think of it like all of your basic goods.

Yeah, so the one that is missing a little bit is our grocery grocery.

And I don't want to not a little bit is our grocery. Grocery.

And I don't want to knock Carvies, which is only four blocks for me,

and I do walk there some, but it's not your small local grocer.

Harvies is only four blocks from you? might be a stretch it might be I was

I was going to say it's longer I thought well maybe six or eight regardless if anybody

is listening I would love a grocery store downtown I've been advocating for one for like a year and a half since we moved here.

I think that's the biggie. I mean Annie texted me at 9 o'clock last night just almost in tears because she couldn't find a dessert that she could buy downtown.

We specifically, so here in beautiful Thomasville, Georgia, we had the most beautiful

spring day yesterday and I was able to go home at 5.30 and I read on my front porch and I cooked dinner for the first time in I couldn't tell you in.

And then Jordan and I looked at each other at about 8 o'clock and we said let's walk downtown to Grass Street which is our local

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