And that's probably why the supers are the way they are.
In most of the country they don't face the fierce "take no prisnors" competition of Southern California, so they can get away with being fat and lazy.
Aside from a swarm of local and ethnic markets, in Los Angeles and Orange Counties alone we have over 100 community farmer's markets that operate about 5 hours one day every week. This is particularly an outlet for organic growers who sell organic below the supermarket price for industrial. Since some markets are midday and others evening growers can often hit two towns a day, and there's markets 7 days a week.
This sort of community thing takes time to develop, and so do the local/ethnic markets. Sunland Produce started as a vegetable stand, moved into an abandoned wine tasting room and now occupies a full size supermarket building with a full size supermarket parking lot that's full most of the time (and there's a parade of armored cars on Saturdays). It takes time for farmers and distributors to learn how to sell their stuff through alternate channels too.
It may not be as easy as here in the agricultural and trade powerhouse of Southern California, but it can happen anywhere.
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