BEAUMONT, Alta. — More than 1,000 customers drive to Darcy’s Meats in an industrial park to buy meat each week.
There are no walk-up customers, just those who want fresh, local meat and are willing to drive out of their way to buy it.
“They are always looking for something different than the grocery store,” said Kyle Iseke, owner of Darcy’s Meat Market in St. Albert, Alta.
“Number one, they want it local, the closer to home the better. They love to hear the name of the farmer. They also want it as cheap as possible.”
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Iseke took over the meat shop from his father in 2009.
“I have an interest in local, healthy meat because I have seen an increasing demand for it,” he told producers at an Organic Alberta conference.
His products include 21-day old dry aged beef, goat, duck, chickens, ostrich, rattlesnake, poultry, rabbit, bison, elk and deer.
He recently added a salami room and already makes 220 flavours of sausage.
Customers want local first, said Iseke, and then in order of priority Alberta meat, Canadian meat and American meat products.
He said consumers prefer meat that has no added steroids or added growth hormones and wasn’t fed soy or genetically modified grain products.
They want to know how the animals were raised and how they were transported.
“They want to know if the animal is happy,” said Iseke, who buys his beef and pork from local suppliers just north of St. Albert.
Knowing the farmers’ name isn’t enough to sell meat, he said.
Customers won’t be back if the meat is tough, he added. Building customer confidence doesn’t happen overnight.
Iseke said customers come to his store to buy fresh meat for that night’s meal, but they’ll often leave with sticks of salami, jerky and other processed meat, which has a high profit margin.
