Erie County Farms on Broad Street may be under new ownership, but their mission to keep prices low remains the same.


"Our main focus is affordability because it shouldn't be wealthy people that can afford quality food, so however we can get the food here to make it cheap enough for them, that's our focus.", said Jarrod Grover, one of the event organizers of Saturday's Meet and Greet.


The new owners held a Meet and Greet on Saturday with food, music, games and $10 discount on $50 or more grocery bills to show residents their commitment to the cause.

"We want people to come in and shop and be happy when they leave. We don't want people to feel like they have been got. We got the prices fair, we got fair prices all around the board", said Charles Bass, who runs the Fish and Meat area.


Bass said he has run the fish and meat area for years and said even when other stores raised prices, they did their best to keep theirs low. "We are trying to keep the prices down as much as possible and we are keeping them down. The average place you go to, for instance for chicken wings or whole wing, you pay at least $3 or $4 a pound, we sell a whole pound of wings for $1.96 a pound", explained Bass.


Bass said  their low costs and variety of fish and meats also helps set them a part from other stores.


According to event organizers, the new owners were customers of the store for years before the opportunity presented itself to buy it. They decided to take it up the offer to help revitalize the Erie area.

"We are starting businesses and employing people in different fashions and so Erie Country Farms falls under that same realm, so just bring it back to Erie and focus on local", said Grover.


Organizers said that the new owners plans to bring more multicultural food options to the store. "One of the ways they are focused on getting new produce is reaching out to different places to get it, if they need to go out of town", said Grover.

Organizers said hey hope to have more of these community events in the future and hope to expand to farmers markets as well with their produce.