Stretch Your Food Dollars with Carol Ann's Grocery-Insider Wisdom

Hey BOSS ladies, 👋🏼

In this episode, I sat down with Carol Ann Kates, founder of Penny Lane Press of Colorado, and let me tell you… Her story is one of resilience, reinvention, and real-life wisdom.

Carol shared her journey from growing up in her family’s tiny corner grocery store to helping grow that business into multiple stores, pharmacy operations, and even a bakery production facility. She also opened up about the heartbreak of losing the family business after a series of devastating setbacks, and how that painful chapter led her into writing, publishing, and teaching others how to stretch their food dollars.

This conversation was packed with powerful reminders about trusting your intuition, pivoting when life forces your hand, and using what you know to help other people in a meaningful way.

And yes… if you’re the one in your house doing the grocery shopping, Carol dropped some gems you’re going to want to keep in your back pocket. 

In this episode, we talk about:

•  Carol’s journey from family grocery stores to author and publisher 
•  What happened when business hardship forced a major life pivot 
•  Why trusting your intuition matters more than most people realize 
•  Grocery shopping tips that can help stretch your food budget 
•  Food storage and “sell by” date truths more people need to know 
•  How reducing food waste can save real money 
•  Why quality ingredients matter more than fancy recipes 
•  The message Carol wants to share with the world through her books and platform

Where to Find Carol:

Website | www.carolannkates.com

Facebook  | https://www.facebook.com/p/Carol-Ann-Kates-Kitchen

Instagram  | https://www.instagram.com/carolannkates

Transcript

0:00

Hey boss lady. Welcome to the Hey Boss Lady podcast. We're real conversation, powerful connection and intentional growth collide. I'm your host, Candace boss, founder, community builder, and your biggest hype lady around here. We don't do surface level. We talk strategy, systems, success, and the real stuff that happens in between. Whether you're tuning in on your morning walk during that client work, sprint. For a late night hustle session. I'm glad you're here. Let's get into today's episode and boss up together.

Candice Dorsey 0:38

Hey, boss ladies. Welcome back to another episode of the Hey Boss Ladies podcast. I have the boss lady herself, Carol, and Kate's founder of Penny Lane Press of Colorado. How are you doing today, Carol?

Carol Kates 0:53

Great. Thank you.

Candice Dorsey 0:55

That's good. That's good. So tell everyone who you are and what you do.

Carol Kates 1:01

Well, um, I will start that. Um, I grew up in a grocery store in a little corner market. It was so small that carts could only go in one direction. You couldn't have two directional shopping in our grocery store. My father, uh, was a grocer who worked hard every day. Uh, when I got married, I moved to Denver. Our market was in Fort Collins, Colorado. After my parents died, I inherited co-ownership in the grocery stores. So my husband and I moved back to, uh, Fort Collins to help run our markets. Uh, when we moved to Fort Collins, we had two stores. Uh, we eventually grew them into, uh, six, uh, grocery stores. We had nine pharmacy operations and we owned and operated a bakery production facility, which was picked as in-store bakery of the year by National Bakers of America. Uh, in 1998, we opened a big new store on the corner of Drake and Worthington in Fort Collins, and two months after it opened, the city closed the road in front of it. Uh, our sales dropped from 390,000 a week to 190,000 a week. Uh, the road was closed for six months. Uh, we got, we had gotten behind with our supplier. Um, our supplier promised that when the road opened, they would turn what we owed them into a short term. Uh. Bill and we could pay it off in five years. However, the day the road opened, they sent this lovely man whom I called Jack the Ripper, and he tried to take us over. He said, give us a million dollars or give us your keys today. Uh, we, we wound up in federal court. They tried to take our business, uh, we did fight them and the case was settled because they had RICO violations, but it was cost us a million dollars to go through that to try to hold onto the business. Uh, we filed for, we ended up having to file for chapter 11 in February of 2001. We had our plan approved in August, and then Super Walmart opened, and nine 11 happened and people changed their buying habits and our creditors forced us sent to bankruptcy. So it was a very painful, uh, stressful three years for us. Um, when the, um, store closed, I thought this mom and pop fighting the big corporation would make a great book. So I started writing a memoir, which I call busted but not Broken. I drove my husband crazy. He said, you have all these wonderful recipes. Why don't you do a cookbook? Uh, one of the, one of my favorite jobs at the store was to write a recipe for our ad every week. So if we had pork chops in the ad, I would do a pork chop recipe, and as I got better at it, I would try to combine other ingredients we had in the ad. In that recipe. So after, um, I did write a cookbook and I did self-publish it, which is my company Penny Lane Press, because I didn't want anyone telling me what I could put in the book because it was about my family. It was really a tribute to my family. So I do have a cookbook, secret recipes from the Corner Market, which was picked in the top 10 favorite by the Denver post food staff in his won three national awards. To set myself apart, I included Grocery Insider Wisdom on how to select and store perishables. I believe I am the only award-winning cookbook author that, uh, was a former grocer, you know, in a garden, had delis. I had grocery stores. I was not. Interested in social media. So I didn't do it for a long time. Um, after I published my cookbook, I did manufacture food and sell it in farmer's markets and craft fairs. I had a line of gourmet food products called Corner Markets Secret Recipes. Uh, I was doing nine farmer's markets a week, and at least one craft. Fair a month, and it just got to be too much for me as I got older. I also had our granddaughter living with us at the time and trying to be a mother and work that hard, just wasn't in the cards. So I, I did shut down that business, but I have kept my publishing company. Uh, I started working with a young man named Bobby Crew in 2021, and I do put out a weekly recipe in a, in a newsletter, and he asked me when food prices started going up so much in 2022. He asked me to do a blog on how to save money at the supermarket. Uh, our worst year for inflation was 2022, and the supermarket industry will tell you that, uh, food inflation went up almost 10% that year, and they attribute it not only to, uh. Disruptions in the supply chain, but also the Ukraine war. Ukraine is the bread basket of Europe, and when Russia invaded, uh, Ukraine, wheat prices soared 34% per per metric ton. So they, they think the avian flu, uh, fierce of COVID disruptions in the supply chain and the Ukraine war are what started the food inflation to be so, uh, terrible. So anyway, Bobby encouraged me to write grocery shopping secrets, which I put everything I know into how to buy food, how to store it properly, uh, so you can save money on your food bill. The FDA thinks that we can save 1500 to$2,000 a year by simply reducing our waste. So that's my story, Candace.

Candice Dorsey 8:02

It is amazing. I. I love it. I love how you did, you had the timelines and years and everything all the way down to the present. That was beautifully laid out. I don't even have to ask you like, how did you get to ball status because you already told me and the, the, the storyline. So, um, thank you so much for that and I love your journey as well. Um, this is my first time actually having an interview with someone with a journey that's unique like yours. And, um, I rarely even hear anyone talking about how they were, you know, used to be like a grocery store owner or, or, you know, or having like a, a store, um, in itself. It could be like a mom and pop, you know, old school liquor store or something like that. So, um. I, I'm, I love the history of, you know, your timeline and how you laid it out. Um, so tell us what is one pivot that surprised you the most and taught you something game changing about yourself during your journey?

Carol Kates 9:10

Um, well, you know, I think as women we have intuition. That sometimes isn't always backed up by hard facts, and when we were in the process of trying to build the last store that took us down, I was the only one in the family that didn't want to build that store. I just had an intuition that it was the wrong thing to do. Uh, we did have a very trusted employee who worked at the store we closed to replace the new store that ended up embezzling over a half a million dollars from us. And the reasons that he gave for why that store wasn't making money didn't just add up to me in my heart. So I think sometimes as women. Especially we have intuition that we're sometimes afraid to follow because the men in our life, uh, don't always understand it. But anytime I have not followed my intuition or what my heart was telling me, it's been a big mistake.

Candice Dorsey 10:34

So good, so good. That's that gut feeling. Mm-hmm. Yeah, and guys, men, they kind of like laugh at us about it and they're like, you're always going. You're always saying your intuition or something told you, or you go your gut or your heart. I hear it all the time, you know, guys are like, what? Because they don't get it. But um, we do. And it happens to us all the time. Yeah. I love that so much. I love it. so let's talk about stretching your food dollars. Can you speak more on that?

Carol Kates 11:13

Well, sure. Well, a couple of tips. Um, the FDA says that we throw. A good portion of our food away because we don't understand the sell by dates. So let's talk a little bit about sell by dates, because when you have a sell by deed on it, that is the date that your supermarket must remove it from the shelf. Food is going to be good for several days past that. For example, eggs will be good three to five weeks past their sell by date. Now, how do we know if an egg is no longer good? We do the float test and if it floats, we shouldn't eat it. But if it sinks. It's acceptable to eat. If it floats on its side, then it's in the perfect condition to hard boil. If it stands up in the water, uh, milk is going to be good three to seven days past the cell by date. And how do we know if milk isn't uh, acceptable to drink? We take a good sniff, and if it doesn't smell good, we should toss it out. Um, beef is gonna be good for three to five days past the sell by date. Uh, we'll know that beef, uh, is, uh, starting to pass its prime when it starts getting brown spots on it. Ground beef and chi and chicken are going to be good for one to two days past their cell. By date, we know that chicken will turn gray, feel slimy, and start to smell When it isn't good anymore, ground beef will feel slimy and start to smell. Uh, canned goods actually are good, can be good for several years past their sell by date. And how do we know when they're not good anymore, if they're bulging or if when we open them there's mold or, uh, unsightly fungus or whatever, then we throw it out. So I do have a lot of tips. Um. I do have tips like that in my book, grocery Shopping Secrets. I also go through every type of food you can buy and say, what is the very, what should it look like and how should you store it for longer shelf life? Um, the FDA says We throw away a good deal if. Produce because we think it's too ugly to eat, so, so my book really focuses on how to get the very best, and I will just give you an example. I was shopping in the grocery store for cauliflower. And cauliflower should have white, creamy colored curls. And when it starts getting brown spots, it's starting to decay. And I asked the produce clerk, do you have any produce, any cauliflower that hasn't started turning brown? And she said, no, this is all we have. It just came off the truck. So that particular, all I could do was buy that and cut out the bed, but that particular head I bought sat in my fridge for five days because my wheat got disco bubbled and I didn't make it when I was supposed to. And by the time I got to it, the brown had already settled into the interior and I lost a good deal of it. I do have a lot of tips in my book on how to freeze things. So for example, if you have kids and you buy a lot of milk and you have a gallon of milk and you're going on vacation, you don't have to throw it away. You can freeze it. And we freeze milk by putting it in an ice cube tray, uh, putting it in the freezer until it's solid, and then transferring it to a. A freezer bag. We do wanna mark the date we, we froze it on the bag. We should only keep frozen milk for about one month. Now when we thaw frozen milk, it's going to be grainy and slushy. So we can't put it on our cereal or in our coffee, but we can use it in macaroni and cheese for baking, for cooking sauces, things like that. So I do have a lot of tips. Um. Like that. And I also have tips about, for example, we need to think about unit size. So sometimes we shop at Costco or Sam's to buy things in bulk. My daughter feeds three teenage boys and she buys a lot of Nature Valley sweet and salty granola bars. So Costco has a 48 count package that they sell for 1749, which is 36 cents per bar. Sam's has a 36 count package, which they sell for 1128 or 31 cents per bar. So we need to divide it out by unit price. So really the Sam's price is going to be cheaper. Than the Costco price. It isn't just the one that has the most in it, that's gonna be the cheapest. And another thing we need to think about is, uh, taking advantage of store specials. So where I shop, I shop at a Kroger's and they will often have a buy one get one. So I, um, I did price inman's little bites, chocolate chip muffins to see who was cheaper. Costco, Sam's, or Mike Kroger store Costco sold 20 pouches for 1399 or 70 cents each Sam sold 20 pouches. For 12, 26 or 61 cents each. But on that particular day, Kings had a buy one get one free. Their package, uh, contained five or 5 79 or for 5 79 a package. So if you bought four packages with the buy one get one, you would be able to buy them for 56 cents. So sometimes buying things at the grocery store when they have that buy one get one, you really save money.

Candice Dorsey 17:33

I love this'cause I actually go to, I'm. The, the store girl I go to, I'm the, the store runner, I would say. Um, I'm the one that actually go to the store and get the groceries and everything. So these are really good tips. Like I didn't know that about milk. Um, normally what we do before we go on vacation is, um, we try to eat up or drink up as much as we can. Either that or we look at the dates and then if it's like gonna be, you know, gonna be expiring when we're. On vacation or when we go, we just in the, in the sink. So, you know,

Carol Kates 18:11

Yeah.

Candice Dorsey 18:12

that's a good tip to actually freeze it. I'm like, I'm have my little notepad here. I was writing things down. Um, especially, I like the Costco tip, the Costco and the um, the Sam's tip as well. I didn't really think about that. I've always thought that Sam's probably were priced a little bit lower than Costco, but you know, Costco is Costco. um, it is very, uh, brand oriented and well known, so, yeah. Um, but wow. Thank you for that. Thank you so much. I love these tips. Awesome. All right. So as you know here at Hay Boss Ladies, we're all about connection and collaboration. Um, what type of collaborations are you looking for right now? Um, or are you looking to get on more podcasts or any of that nature?

Carol Kates 19:02

Um, I was on a podcast last week, um, the Untraditional, and she told me she thought that the information I was sharing about how to shop was really important, that especially young people today aren't really taught how to shop or really they don't cook, they Uber and do DoorDash. And so I guess. I would like to share my love of quality food with the world. Um, my father taught me my most important lesson about cooking, and he would say Garbage in, garbage out, but more poetically spoken. It is the quality of the ingredients you use that are more important than the recipe. So you can have a really wonderful recipe, but if you're using garbage, it's going to taste like garbage. Uh. You know, running a grocery store is hard to always have quality ingredients. I don't know if you've ever been shopping and you're trying to grab a tomato or a pepper or something and it's got fungus on it and it's all shriveled up and you think, does the produce clerk think I'm blind that I would buy this? But there are so many items that having everything. Always top quality is really hard. So I think at this time when prices, people are struggling with their food budget, I would just like to share what I know. Uh, I also am hoping to finish my memoir, which I call Busted but Not Broken. I've been working on it for 20 years and my goal is to finish it this year. Um. What we went through was, um, because we guaranteed the debt of the store, we had to take personal bankruptcy. So we had a time in our life when we had to have a garage sale every Friday to put food on the table. So I know what it's like to struggle and would like to share what I know to help people stretch their food dollars.

Candice Dorsey 21:29

Oh, amazing. Yes, I love it. Awesome. So how can people connect with you?

Carol Kates 21:37

Um, I have a website. It's uh, carolanne kates.com. I do have a weekly recipe that I share, which I always share top. Shopping tips. Uh, my cookbook, uh, secret Recipes from the Corner Market is on Amazon and it's also on my website. Uh, grocery Shopping Secrets is on Amazon on my website, and is available in, um, bookstores through Ingram. Uh, my grocery shopping Secrets is also an ebook. Uh, which I sell for 7 99, so you can download it on your phone and take me shopping with you. So if you have a question, you can just scroll through and find the answer.

Candice Dorsey 22:25

Amazing. I like that. Thank you so much. Yeah, we'll go ahead and link those up in the show notes, um, so that people can definitely click and go directly to your website and. Find and learn more about you. So, um, any last minute advice, uh, you have for the people out there?

Carol Kates 22:45

I think follow your heart. I trust your intuition. Trust yourself. I think sometimes it's hard for women to trust themselves.

Candice Dorsey 22:57

I love that. with that, I'm so happy to have you on Carol. This has been wonderful.

Carol Kates 23:03

Well, thank you Candace.

23:05

And that's a wrap for today's episode of Hey Boss Ladies, if you love what you heard, don't forget to follow the show, leave a review or share with a business bestie. And if you're ready for deeper conversation and powerful connection, join us inside the hey boss ladies collaboration experience happening every month. The link is in the show notes below. Until next time, stay bold, stay brilliant, and keep showing up like the boss you are.