the smedley log - suburban scrawl

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Posted
05/08/05 @ 7pm

Tagged
culture, Greater Philly, buying local, photos

McCaffrey’s

The newly re-opened McCaffrey's Supermarket

Jim McCaffrey’s Lower Makefield store, located at 635 Heacock Road in Yardley, is the first local business I’ve gotten around to choosing for a series of businesses I’m highlighting in the spirit of Buy Local Philly Month, which I mentioned a little over a week ago.

I know McCaffrey’s doesn’t technically qualify for the Buy Local Philly campaign, but since I’m not actually in Philadelphia, I thought I’d select from stores and businesses local to my little patch of suburbia.

In addition to being a truly local business venture, McCaffrey’s is something of an inspirational story over the past fifteen months, since a fire destroyed the store building. The store finally re-opened last month to much local fanfare. In the interim Mr. McCaffrey not only vowed to rebuild, but also to find ways to keep providing a certain level of benefits to his employees. Already known for relatively generous employment compensation, he sought help from many sources. One source that came through was the Pennsbury School District, in which McCaffrey’s store has been located since 1986.

The story of how he’s decided to help repay the district for its generosity is detailed in yesterday’s news, from which I learned that he has pledged to offer scholarship help to two graduating seniors of Pennsbury High School every year, starting with next month’s graduating class.

Incidentally, when you read a story like the one about the store re-opening, could you ever imagine people saying things like that about a Wal-Mart? Just wondering.

In a related note, Dragonballyee highlights a local Philly business called Sue’s Produce, for those local shoppers in his neck of the woods.


2 Comments

Posted by
Matt
10 May 2005 @ 9am

Great idea, Howard!


[…] was rebuilding from a fire. The store re-opened this past April (a story I addressed in a this May post), and discussions have been ongoing about what to do with the remaining funds from the $27 […]