Hopey & Co. — Local services in Black Mountain

I used to be a regular customer here, when I say regular I mean every other day. Sometimes seven days in a week. I noticed they were hiring and spoke to Steven about it. Steven gave me a 1st interview and told me to expect a call from David.

I didn't hear anything for weeks and kept following up. Steven, upset for me due to David's lack of initiative, set up a 2nd interview for me with David. I lived in Swannanoa at the time but was house sitting my Girlfriend's house in Weaverville that week.

I came dressed for success in a suit and tie that morning and asked a manager coming out of the back if he was David. "What's it to ya?" replied David with a snarky tone and smug look. "I'm your 9am interview" I replied. "What interview ??" Demanded David with incompetence and anger. "The one Steven set up weeks ago" I replied. David then replied frantically with exaggerated hand gestures that "There is no Steven that works there and besides I have a cooler down in the back I have to fix." As if the cooler was my problem and I was an inconvenience to him. This was a Tuesday morning with no customers in store and he couldn't keep his composure together. Makes me wonder what he's like when it's actually busy.

How about my inconvenience? Showing up for an interview with a incompetent manger who doesn't even know he has an interview scheduled? I drove an hour and 30 minutes round trip for nothing and raced out of bed the morning my girlfriend was leaving town for nothing. She was gone by the time I was back and it would've been nice to spend the morning with her and not waste hours of my time.

I then made contact with Daniel Hopey, son of the owner who owned the unprofessionalism displayed by David's attitude. He said he would pass my concern to his father but said probably nothing would come of it. ...

Best little community grocery for the budget minded that you can imagine! They make trying out the right food ok because They price it right AND they allow returns if you have a problem with it. I am trying to stay off dairy and am gluten free. Recently found "rice cheese" as a string cheese like snack. It's great! Fake cheeses usually are not. Affordable nut cheeses available too. Different things every week so it's like a treasure hunt! Local produce in abundance as well as other local products. It's really a great community asset and I love them and couldn't imagine life without Hopey. Update: Still as awesome as ever. They are now plastic bag free and I love the design of their Hopey reusable shopping bags (although you can always grab one of their more than decent boxes. New deliveries come on Wednesday and Thursday at the Black Mountain store so I'm usually in there 2 or 3 times a week, depending on my needs. .49 cents for dairy free yogurt just cant be beat! And yes, completely dairy free with this update. As good as...

This is an interesting little grocery store. We stopped in to get some AppalaChai drink & decided to look around. I was surprised at how low the prices were, especially for the gluten-free foods because that's what we buy on the regular. It's discounted because it's close to the expiration date, but that doesn't bother me one bit because nothing ever makes it to the expiration in our house anyway & just because it's close or slightly past doesn't mean it's bad. I love this idea since food is often times than not wasted. But I noticed that only applied to most of the shelf stable items.

There's all kinds of stuff from pantry, meats, cheeses, fruits, veggies, wines, canned goods, snacks, health & beauty. I don't think you could go in with a shopping list, but you could definitely get most everything on your list & some extra at a much much lower cost. Next trip to the area, we will make this our last stop before...