INDEPENDENT butchers could be set to gain new customers after the last of the big three supermarket giants put the final cut into its in store butchers on the weekend.
From Sunday, Coles now only sells pre-packaged meat, joining Woolworths in axing the in store service.
Rosewood’s Greg Harmer said the move could drive more customers to independent butchers like his.
“Supermarkets are really pushing for cost efficiency at the expense of the consumer,” he said.
“We, the traditional butcher, can offer that service that you won’t get there anymore.”
Further south in Kalbar and Boonah, The Butcher Co’s Kane Lutter said the move highlighted the difference between the big chains and the family companies.
While butchers could offer speciality cuts and cheaper prices, he said the biggest drawcard for many customers was personal interaction.
“We have some very loyal customers,” he said.
“And about 90 percent of people who come in always have a little chat.”
He contrasted that with a supermarket, where there was “no interaction”.
“You go in, buy what is on the shelf, and if there is something wrong with it, there’s no one to complain to about it, there is no one to make it right,” he said.
“That’s the difference.”
But while Mr Harmer said he expected the trend towards pre-packaged food with no personal interaction might drive some to their local butcher, he said the big picture was more complicated.
Mr Harmer “worked the floor at Dinmore” for almost four years but spent much of the rest of his 17 years in the meat processing industry as a business analyst in the corporate sector.
“We live in a time poor society now,” he said.
“Older generations always know the benefits of shopping at a butcher.”
“But we are starting to deal with a society of click and collect.”
“So, you’ve got the ones who love coming into the store, and others who don’t have the time.”
“For them, they think it’s easier to get it delivered.”
He said that Coles and Woolworths had been moving towards pre-packaged meat since Aldi entered and shook up the sector.
“It’s all about mass manufacture,” he said.
“That change came around because Aldi came into this space and demonstrated the gain in efficiency that produced lower costs and also longer shelf life.”
The Rosewood butcher said he was moving Harmer Family Meats towards home delivery.
“Not because we want to,” he said.
“But because we have to.”
But he said a trend to have emerged since Covid-19 gave him hope that more customers would start to rethink the way they shopped.
“There is a trend to go back to what we used to do,” he said.
“I think Covid has helped us realise that we don’t have to be on the go all the time.”
“A lot of people have gone, hang on, we’re not actually getting the best deal at the supermarket.”
But while independent butchers may score some wins from the supermarkets’ push towards pre-packed meat, unions say hundreds of workers would be poorer for it.
Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union’s Matt Journeaux said more than 1570 “Meat Team Members” were offered redundancy or “alternative work for far less than their current salaries” following Coles’ recent decision.
“This is a shameful move that shows Coles cares more about profits than people,” the AMIEU acting federal secretary said.
Mr Journeaux said product knowledge would disappear and workers who had provided decades of loyal service would be thrown on the scrap heap.
“These workers kept meat on your tables throughout this pandemic and this is how they are treated,” he said.
“Instore Butchers and Meat Packers will be replaced with a store service representative that may not have ever worked with meat before or for that matter may not have even ever cooked a leg of lamb before!”
Coles put out a media statement saying that in recent years it had invested in “state-of-the-art facilities and worked with supplier partners to produce retail-ready fresh Australian meat of the highest standards for our stores”.
“To help us meet the changing needs of our customers, we are aligning our meat operating models nationally in our stores, so that we can consistently deliver high-quality retail ready meat for our customers whenever they want to shop.”
“The change will mean our fresh meat range will be supplied to stores as retail-ready products and will not require any preparation to be carried out in-store before being placed on the shelves of our meat fridges for customers to buy.”
“We will continue to operate meat counters in a small number of stores.”
