by Rob Coward
Back to 1967, I was a young butcher of 17 already experienced in my trade.
I remember clear as day, a customer asking if she could buy half a lamb because she had bought a second hand ice cream freezer.
The idea of freezing was ultra modern at this time especially in your everyday household.
This lady was starting work and she wanted to purchase in bulk, buying in this way helped to free up some time from shopping whilst juggling feeding the family and working.
I gave her a price on half a Lamb, which came out around £5! The lady was saving over £2 by buying this way, a huge saving in 1967. She thought it was a good deal and purchased the half lamb.
This lady came back four weeks later with a friend and they bought half a pig between them, which got me thinking…
Just next to the Butchers shop, was a 6ft black fence painted to match the family house. I went to Gleaves (which in those days was in Sandfields) and Robert Gleave sold me a sheet of 8ft by 2ft plywood. I painted it black, traced the shop logo onto the plywood in white and I wrote on it “Home killed meat for freezing”. I then hung the painted sign on the black fence, for all passers by to see.
In those days the M56 wasn’t built, so the A56 was the main road from North Wales to Cheshire and Lancashire.
I drafted a freezer price list and started handing them out to the queuing cars. Electrical stores selling chest freezers had just started to pop up and they were the latest home appliance. I hoped I could attract a wider audience and I did. People started to come from all over to buy our freezer meat.
Within three years we had to extend our opening times until 8pm to pass out freezer orders to customers after work and in the early 1970’s demand was so strong that we had plans for a new shop, built in 1975, and we moved to where we exist today.
This still forms the backbone of our offers in the shop today. Our freezer prices for customers buying in bulk mean great savings can be made on the best quality meat.
With everyone’s lifestyles busier than ever, this is more important than ever.
This new blog is my hand painted blackboard of 2018!
