Taking Amish Friends Shopping (4 Lancaster County Stores)
While in Lancaster County last week, I took Amish friends out to run some errands. We made it to four stores in three hours, in addition to a stop at the bank and another brief stop. I made a video describing the trip and the places we went (at bottom). I’ll also list the places here.
Here they are in order. Have you ever visited any of these?
1. Our first stop was at BB’s Grocery Outlet. This is a bent-n-dent chain founded by an Amishman. It currently has four locations in the Lancaster County area and a fifth in Cumberland County, PA.
It’s a great place to get past-expiration foods cheap. They also have some fresh foods like produce, cheeses and meats. Here’s a post on my 2018 visit to the Quarryville location.
2. Next was a stop at King Road Greenhouse. This Amish-owned greenhouse was packed to the brim with beautiful hanging planters and plenty of other flowers in every color of the rainbow.
My friends picked up some bags of seed potatoes here.
3. We continued onward to Brandywine Shoe Shop.
They needed some boots for their two oldest boys, both teenagers now. This is a really nice store. I hear they do good repairs too. I came back and got some socks.
4. Finally, we stopped at Route 10 Roadside Market. A nice Amish market with bulk foods and produce. There were a good number of non-Amish people shopping in this small market.
My friends got some shoofly pie that we had with breakfast the next day, and some supplies to make snitz pie (they are holding church in a couple weeks).
It was a pretty nice trip and the car was well loaded down by the time we went home. We had to hustle a bit but still had enough time to get in these stops in three hours. It helped that some of the stores were near each other.
One of the challenges of driving Amish friends is car space (usually more people would like to go than you have seats) and there’s often stops that you can’t get to (we would have visited relatives on the way, if the schedule had afforded it). I enjoyed the trip though, as I tend to do, and I think they did too. I go into more detail in the video, so if you like you can check that out here. Runtime: 3:38.
Shopping with Amish
How did you get thru 4 stores in 3 hours?? I drive for the Amish in southern ILLINOIS & I can’t get them thru Wal-Mart in less than 2. Add in Rural King & Aldi & I’m looking at 4 hours plus drive time.
Don’t get me wrong I love driving for this group. They are so sweet.
In two cases, two stores were quite near each other so that helped! Fun day
Amish shopping
Yes, been there, done that, with our Amish friends. They love to take advantage of someone with a car! And, it is true, there is never enough room for everyone, and never enough time to make all the stops they want to make. It is always, however, enjoyable! Nice video.
Thanks Richard – in this case they give me a bed and some meals so I definitely win as well. I enjoy it on its own though as it sounds like you know well
Shopping with the Amish
While living in Michigan I often took my Amish friends to do shopping/errands. Trips down to Schipshewana Indiana were always a blast. Many times we came back home with the tires rubbing the wheel wells.
I have to admit, they are efficient shoppers! Never had any problems making all of our stops!
Now that we’ve retired to Tennessee, we no longer live close to any Amish communities, so there is no opportunity to make new friends. I am hoping my Michigan friends will be able to come down and visit from time to time…looking forward to a day trip to Amish country!
Amish places in Tennessee
Dolores there is one of my favorite communities in Tennessee – near Ethridge. If you like stopping at small Amish stores you’d really like it. Very conservative group. Besides that there are around 12 in the state. Check this list out, might be one near you: https://groups.etown.edu/amishstudies/files/2021/08/Amish-Pop-2021_by-state-and-county.pdf
Just curious..why does your facebook post say you are based in Poland?
Route 10 Roadside Market
Enjoyed. I am at BB’S often when I visit Lancaster as that is where my amish friend shops. I pick up things, too.
Can you give an address for the Roadside Market? I enjoy stopping at those.
Hickory Nuts
Hi Erik,
Do you ever come across Amish selling hickory nuts? I love to eat them but they’re very time consuming to shell.
I don’t recall that I have. A friend of mine named Rich Stevick had a sort of charity project going to collect and shell these with local Amish friends in Holmes County a couple years back. I’m not sure what came of it. That’s the main hickory nut Amish connection that comes to mind. I guess he was addressing the same issue you are having with the time consuming part.