I'm John Batchel. I'm joined by my good colleague Jim McTag, former Washington editor, Bairns Magazine,

now a novelist in Lancaster County. And we begin with post-Christmas, post-New Year, January

snows, and the Hay Barn at Costco. Jim, a very good evening to you. You send me a photograph, I have not seen it before, of the Hay Barn at Costco. Jim, a very good evening to you.

You send me a photograph, I have not seen it before, of the Hay Barn full, full of what,

and what does it tell us about the shopping post-Christmas?

Good evening to you.

Good evening, John.

Well, the Hayburn is where the Amish park their horses and buggies.

It has a capacity for three horses and buggies. The day I took

the picture, there were many, many more horses and buggies, so they had to tie their horses up to

light posts around the parking lot. It tells us that the economy is still pretty good. The

Amish are a big spending, very important part of the consumer economy

in Lancaster County. There are some of Costco's largest customers. They're either buying

for the community or they have, the Amish have stores for people who are too far away for a horse and buggy ride.

And so they're really the backbone of the Costco operation here in Lancaster County.

And again, because they're still buying pretty heavily, it tells me the consumer economy in general is still pretty good here it occurs to me now

to ask how you drive your vehicle with the Amish on their horse drawn carts on the road i've

i have photographs in 1940s all very charming from lanc County, a father and his son and one horse ahead of

them. What do you do when you come across the Amish all lined up with the horses?

Do you pass them? Do you wait? Do they pull over? No, I wait, but I tell you, it's very

dangerous. We had an Amish woman killed this week in a car buggy collision.

There are no statistics yet for 2025, but in 2024, there were over 30 collisions between cars and horses and buggies.

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