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The resurgence of the Traditional butcher

I was annoyed recently when I heard BBC radio 4 cover a story about the demise of butchers shops. Yes, many are closing due to the supermarket or bad practice or retirement. Others however are seeing a resurgence in business by going back to traditional values with a modern twist.

First the closures; a year ago I visited a butcher and asked where his pork came from, a pig, I was told, presumably to entertain the only other customer in the shop. I dread to think how stupid he would have made me feel if I had asked what the difference was between a sirloin and fillet steak?

If however I had been told that the pork came from a local farmer, that, like for like, it was cheaper than the supermarket and given a recipe tip, I would shop there every week, perhaps spending £2,500 over the year.

This is the kind of practice and service synonymous with a traditional butcher. A friendly man/women brimming with meat knowledge and dying to enthuse customers about his products and services.

What I find really exciting is that many butchers are beating supermarkets for quality and price and after the horse meat scandal consumers trust their someone local instead of the profit focused supermarket.

Local food map with rosette & '£' flags on a butcher's icon

Local food map with rosette & ‘£’ flags on a butcher’s icon

And the modern twist? At BigBarn we want more people to switch from the supermarket to local shops and have over 1,000 butchers on our local food map. Some have red icons meaning you can buy online and get a delivery, many are flagged with a £ sign, meaning cheaper than the supermarket, like for like, and some with a ‘Crop for the Shop‘ rosette meaning they will sell your home grown produce if they like it.

We are hoping that all those listed will have the traditional values above, and add more to their BigBarn icon & webpage to help us find them more customers. If you would like to help please email [email protected] with any errors or omissions, or get your butcher to call us about adding more to his page. You could even make a quick video on your smart phone and add it to You Tube and linked to the butcher’s icon.

Lastly please complete and social network this survey, which I think, sums up why we should all buy our meat from a butcher and not the supermarket.

survey software

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