For more than two decades, Meat Masters has been carving out a niche in the Marion County community.
Fred Mitchell, who owns the business located at 1327 Old Mississippi 13 North, decided to take a chance on the meat shop nearly a decade ago.
“My brother-in-law owned it, and I came to work with him. When he got ready to get rid of it, he asked me if I wanted it, so I bought it,” Mitchell said.
The four employees who help run Meat Masters with Mitchell are the beating heart of the company.
“The employees that are here are what makes Meat Masters,” Mitchell said. “It’s not me or the meat being cut fresh every day. It’s the employees who have been here 20 years. Some of them have been here more than 20 years. There’s not many places around here that have employees that have worked for 20 years. There’s a lot of people that come in here to see the employees and buy their stuff. They are a big asset to this company.”
Mitchell said that Meat Masters prides itself on its fresh meat and ability to get nearly any request a customer may have.
“We cut meat fresh daily,” he said. “We have deer processing. We can get near everything you want. If you want anything particular, we’ll try to get it. We’re just a normal meat market.”
Mitchell believes that Meat Masters’ customer service and family atmosphere separates it from similar businesses in the area.
“Our customer service,” he said of what sets it apart. “Meat Masters is like a big family. We have people that have been shopping here for 20 years that still come here to buy their meat. We have a lot out-of-town business. I’d say we have to be doing something right for them to keep coming back. We try to make all the customers that we have happy to keep them coming back.”
To go along with Meat Masters’ lunch meats, ground beef and other common meats, it has an assortment of fresh meats arriving throughout the work week.
“I get a truck in nearly every day. There’s just one day that I don’t get a truck in and that’s on Tuesdays. I get one Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It’s certain things that we get from every truck,” Mitchell said. “The most popular is Forbes Sausage. Then we have shoulder roast, chuck roast, smoked neck bones, smoked pig tails, all sorts of meats. We sell all parts of chicken. Our chicken comes in fresh and we pack it up and don’t freeze it. The only time it will be frozen is if the customer takes it home and freezes it. It’s always fresh so we sell a lot of chicken.”
Mitchell’s definition of success for Meat Masters is simple in a down economy.
“Right now, I think success is if you’re able to come to work and pay your bills every month you can call yourself successful,” he said. “That’s the way it is now. A lot of people don’t understand how slow it is in Marion County.”
Mitchell has always been in the grocery business and likes the simplicity of having a place to go every morning.
“I enjoy just being able to get up and go to work. This is all I’ve ever done,” he said. “I’ve been in the grocery business all my life. I was a produce manager for 18 years, then I got into meat when I came over here.”
In the coming months, Meat Masters will have a few new items available, including rabbit, quail, frog legs and boudin balls.
Meat Masters is open from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and can be reached by at (601) 731-2449 and on Facebook.
Pictured Above: From left, Mary Barnes, Fred Mitchell and Dorris Stogner are a big reason customers return to Meat Masters. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
