Basin Towing and Repair didn’t know what to do with tens of thousands of pounds of pinto beans it had from last year. Then a pandemic hit.
The local business in the past three days has sold about 30,000 pounds of dry pinto beans to hundreds of people in the community as grocery store shelves around the region have gone bare, said Paul Krueger, who owns Basin Towing with his wife, Elizabeth.
“There’s nothing in Durango, and people complaining there’s nothing dry to buy,” Krueger said Thursday in an interview with The Durango Herald. “I’m just trying to help out.”
Basin Towing and Repair obtained the beans after a delivery truck crash last year, Krueger said. The beans sat at the business for months until earlier this week, when Krueger posted to Facebook Marketplace that he was selling 50-pound bags of beans for $30 and 100-pound bags for $50.
Residents of all ages have come by the Basin Towing and Repair office in Durango, Krueger said. He donated some bags to churches and anybody who asked and could not pay. Some people have tried to buy thousands of pounds – likely for resale – and Krueger said he turned them away.
“It’s more to just help whoever we can,” he said. “This stuff, if I kept it, it would go to waste. And right now, Durango needs all the help it can get.”
bhauff@durangoherald.com
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