Changing Feed Stores

I guess this is just a rant...lol... I hate changing feed stores after you get comfortable with the place you're at. When I got my first rabbits in 2008 I was buying my feed from a lady near where I bought the rabbits. It was her own formula that the feed mill made up for her and I bought it from her for many years. She got out of the rabbit business a couple of years ago so I went to the feed store in town. They were good people, used local sources of grains and, in spite of my apprehension at changing feed, the rabbits had no problem and all was well. Their feed mill burned down last year and they set up shop in town and added a lot of local products to the store and it was a great country store to go to, my favourite store in town along with a lot of other people.

A few weeks ago they had to close it down due to issues with the landlord so ol' Truckinguy was off to find a new feed store once again. There is another place on the far side of town that took over our feed store's clients and some of their inventory and pet supplies so I've been going there so far. The people are nice but they mostly stock Purina feeds in fancy glossy bags and, although the animals don't seem to notice, I'm not real happy about it.


There is another feed place in a town about ten minutes from me in the other direction so I may try that.


Why can't things just stay the same forever?? lol

I agree. I love my current feed store. I went through three of them before I settled on this one.
I think some of it is that rural America is shrinking. Fewer and fewer people buy feed, and especially milled feed and not something made by a big company in St. Louis.
The feed I buy I wish was milled locally, but there are not many farm fields in the desert, so I understand, but it comes from a few hundred miles away and at least is in a paper bag. And the processing date is usually within two weeks of my purchase. And that I like!

My situation was more the opposite. I was so happy the Theisens chain opened for consistent feed quality and brands instead of the small feed stores using 1 local mill to produce all their products. They were limited in options and inconsistent in supply with always that risk of going out of business for some reason. Unless the entire chain goes bankrupt there are 2 theisens in my city and 3 in other towns I can drive to without much inconvenience for mostly the exact same products as the one closest to me. It's so much better than hunting down individual feed stores or mills. The Theisens in our area also carry 3 brands so I've only rarely had to buy purina/nutrena when there was a one time supply interruption. It is unfortunate one useful small store closed but it was also not conveniently located. It was great for bulk dog treats and some livestock products but it's outside the southwest corner of town when all new commercial and residential is being built to the north for some reason. The only thing to expand in that area in 10-15years was the walmart between them and town becoming a super walmart, which did not help.