Final Transcript

[PART ONE]

       Recently, the milk pail market in Mountain View California has celebrated its 34th anniversary. Since its opening, it has witnessed the arrival of a Safeway, a Trader Joe’s and, more recently, a whole foods. Yet, despite the rising level of major corporate competition, the milk pail continues to run at maximum capacity. It is for this reason that I want to find out what makes the milk pail tick.
            Initially, I went strait to the customer to find out what they found out what drove them to such a unique place.

Customer1: “I just happened to be shopping in the basic shopping areas here and then I stopped by at the milk pail and I found the prices and the amount of items available very impressive so I because sorta semi regular because I don’t live in mountain view, I live in Sunnyvale.”

Customer2: “And originally the first inkling I had of a place being here was through word of mouth some friends of mine told me about it decided to come down and check it out and I’ve been coming down here ever since at least once every few weeks and if I could make it, I live in Palo Alto, I’d visit more frequently. I think it’s the best market around.”

[PART TWO]
                   
     So know we know how the customers find the milk pail, we wonder what keeps them coming back again and again…

Steve: I think the fact that we are in an area that is known widely for very educated and well-traveled and very cosmopolitan people makes our product mix fit really well with that group of people. There is a movement right now in the United States where local business owners are trying to communicate with the public to become higher in the public’s mind as opposed to chain stores and box stores. People love having choice, and small businesses like the Milk Pail do just that. We offer an alternative, and small business in the United States is beginning to find it becoming popular again because people like to vote with their pocket book.

Employee: We haven’t advertised in many years. The reason being, that we’re pretty much maxed out on how many customers and volume that this store can handle. For now, we’d much rather just upgrade and take care of, to the best of our abilities, the customers that we already have.

Steve: And one of the reasons why the milk pail is still in business 34 years later is because many, many years ago we were selling a dozen eggs for a penny a dozen in exchange the customer would have to buy a lb of cheese. Well of course we were losing money when we were selling a dozen eggs for a penny but it created a type of awareness and loyalty and fast forward 25 years and you have customers that only buy their milk from the milk pail. And maybe it’s not the original customer from 25 years ago, but maybe it’s their children or grandchildren. So we get a lot of generational business these days.

{Part 3}

With all of this in mind, what is it in the milk pail that people usually shop for?

Customer2: as you can see, fruits vegetables they have great bargains on cheeses other comestibles they have a great section in the back on imported cheeses from France or Italy very small specialty items. There is Small emphasis on Russian and eastern European ethnic foods.

Customer1: …vegetables, and cheeses. Sometime bread, sometimes yogurt. Things like that.

                                                           [Part 4}
So it seems obvious that the milk pail is a reliable, ethical source of produce, cheese and other things. But will the milk pail truly remain as such?
        Customer 2:: well I’ve been coming to The Milk Pail for a number of years the markets been around for quite awhile and it’s evolved into a much large place then it used to be.

         Employee: Who noes in the future. We are in the middle of that remodel. That might make it possible to handle more customers quicker. So maybe then we could bump up. Sometimes people don’t come here because it’s a little crowded for them, so maybe they’d come back if it was easier.