At independent grocery store Summit Store, Inc. in Los Gatos, locally sourced foods from Aptos, Santa Cruz and Monterey share shelf space with familiar commercial brands like Kellogg’s, Nabisco and Coca Cola.
Summit Store is a small, local, community-oriented grocery store that supplies both conventional and organic products to Santa Cruz Mountain residents, said owner Darrell Osborn. Store manager Ben Abeln acknowledged that the need for commercial products comes from both customer demand and corporate acquisitions of local brands.
“Sales is not what I want; it’s what you want. And if you want it and it moves off of the shelf, that’s not my choice, it’s a customer’s choice,” Abeln said…