We were lucky to catch up with Courtney McAlister recently and have shared our conversation below.

Courtney, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

Owning a business in which we started 100% as a family definitely has positives and negatives. My husband, Damien, and I are the ones who started the business and worked together to grow in order to be able to hire employees. My sister and her husband built our first checkout counter. My mom and dad came up for a weekend to paint the floors and get some shelving made. Damien’s dad has come up to teach classes and has watched the store from time to time. Damien’s brother works for us full time in store now. We are truly running a family business!

As someone who likes having control, this has given me peace of mind in knowing that our family is taking care of the business when I’m not there. These days, it is increasingly difficult to hire people, and I hear horrible stories from other business owners which has made it difficult for me to move forward. But, tis a part of owning a business! Help is needed in order to grow and we are at that point.

In the first year, Damien and I had a hard time creating boundaries and being together 24/7. Figuring out business problems we may not agree on and also navigating personal time. When Damien’s brother started working at the store, we were able to take a tiny step back and reevaluate what our life looked like. I’m a workaholic, fully accept that, and Damien is always trying to get me out of my work bubble. We’ve been able to navigate a better balance and make it really clear who does what and when to ask for input!

Damien and I do not have children, but I think it would be great experience for them to work with us if they wanted to. We have a lot of different avenues for experience (marketing, delivery driving, quality control, packing, customer service…) which would help them determine which direction they would want to go in life.

I wouldn’t have it any other way. We are both passionate about helping people and through this adventure, we are helping farmers move products and consumers find local products in one location! Our families are so supportive wherever they can be and that eases my mind knowing they are there.

Courtney, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my local food journey working as an AmeriCorps VISTA for Catawba Farm and Food Coalition (CFFC), a non-profit based in Chester, SC. From there, I fell in love with the area and worked up to being the Executive Director. CFFC’s mission is to support the local food system in our surrounding counties, creating new sales avenues for local farmers and connecting consumers to their food source.

The pandemic came around and CFFC needed a support system to keep running, so we all brainstormed and The Country Carrot was created. The Country Carrot is even more of a support system for the local food producers in the area. We opened a brick-and-mortar store and really dove into more home deliveries. People wanted to purchase locally, but might not have wanted to leave the house. We were there and ready to go. Our store gives consumers one location to shop at and support over 100 local vendors spanning dairy products to produce, meat product and more.

I feel what sets us apart from other ‘locally sourced’ stores is that we truly are locally sourced. We only work with vendors in SC, NC and GA. A lot of other stores will fill in with products outside of what someone would consider local, when they can’t get products locally year-round. For example, our citrus season is in winter, but a lot of stores pull from Florida. Another example is tomatoes. You won’t find them in our store year-round, because they aren’t grown in the area year-round. We are truly committed to keeping things 100% local. So, it is a learning experience for our consumers as well.

I’m most proud of the growth we and our vendors have had. Some of our vendors have been involved with CFFC and grew with us while we opened The Country Carrot. For many of our vendors, we are their first wholesale opportunity outside of selling at farmer’s markets. We are committed to the area and committed to growing our local small businesses. We are all growing together and the store doesn’t exist without the amazing people committed to their products.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Do everything to make the customer happy. It isn’t that this isn’t right, but there has to be boundaries. When we first opened, my husband would get frustrated with me for going way out of the way for people. It is just in my nature to say yes, every time there is a challenge or question. I started out with this being my mindset and it quickly spiraled out of control. I was doing extra deliveries when people couldn’t pick up their orders. I would pick up from farmers when I knew I didn’t have time, and they had previously committed to delivering. People would start taking advantage of my leniency. You can only do so much. I guess this is just a good life lesson too. It is ok to say no and find another way.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We (Catawba Farm and Food) started the first online farmers market in the area. This was the absolute best way for us to start when we had no equipment. Our farmers would deliver in a certain hour window, we would pack customer orders and then leave for deliveries with in 2-3 hours. We worked out of coolers with ice to keep everything temperature controlled. Online ordering was the absolute best way to start in my opinion.

It helped us grow a good customer base without being open and at work 24/7. When the pandemic hit, we were still 100% online based. This worked to our advantage, because everyone wanted delivery. We were already set up to handle everything that was thrown at us. From there we opened The Country Carrot in 2021 and were split between being online based and opening a brick-and-mortar. When they say location, location, location, they mean it. Our first location created more growing pains than we thought we were ready for. Still having the online market going, helped carry our physical store. In 2024, we were able to move to a bigger space in a better location and it is a whole new learning experience. We have an actual physical store that is hopping, and we span multiple counties in our area for our online customers. It has helped our vendors expand their reach too, because we now have more infrastructure to run deliveries and get all kind of products to customers all over!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://TheCountryCarrot.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/TheCountryCarrot
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/TheCountryCarrot

Image Credits

Sarah Key