Myers’ Market seeing more than daily grind

Monday, March 30, 2020
Preparing a pound of ground chuck for a customer, Mitch Myers of Myers’ Market reflects on what a blur the last two-plus weeks have been as customers stocked up on meat in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Banner Graphic/Jared Jernagan

This is another in a series of articles on how local businesses are currently coping with the coronavirus and its related issues.

In more than six years since it opened, Myers’ Market in Greencastle has generally enjoyed a pretty steady stream of customers.

In that time, though, nothing prepared Mitch Myers and his staff for what they’ve seen in recent weeks.

“It’s been fairly crazy for us,” Myers said Monday.

With the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and whispers of a coming shelter in place order or even “martial law” if you listened to the wrong person, demand began to pick up for certain items a little before the middle of March.

There was a run on toilet paper, hand sanitizer, soap, bottled water and baking supplies, among other things.

As a business specializing in fresh cut meat, Myers’ Market saw a “pretty drastic pickup in meat sales,” starting around March 11 and 12.

“It peaked two weeks ago,” Myers said. “That week of St. Patty’s Day — that was a blur of a day. We couldn’t get enough meat from trucks to keep up that day.”

Demand increased so sharply that Myers went back to a couple of suppliers the business had not been using in a while. The main demand was for ground beef and pork.

“Everything we could get our hands on, we were grinding,” Myers said, “just to keep up with ground beef demand.”

And while Monday was a bit of a respite at the 302 E. Washington St. establishment, he said he still hasn’t had the chance to calculate how much of different items was sold during the rush.

Despite the rush for ground beef, though, the demand for more expensive cuts of meat has not curtailed.

“Steak has still been in way high demand,” Myers said. “We feel like the number of our clients has increased exponentially. Things we used to cut just once a day, we were cutting two or three times, even filet and other prime cuts. I didn’t foresee that.”

And while demand was pushing the market to its limit, Myers said he was never worried that the supply of beef was going to run out.

“I never got the sense from any of my suppliers that we should worry about the next day,” Myers said. “There was always some option we could use to fill the needs of our customers.”

In the few moments he had to speak with customers, Myers even took time to assure them that suppliers would be able to continue meeting the need.

Of course, Myers isn’t the only one who’s been putting in extra time recently.

“Our employees were doing all they could so we could help everybody,” Myers said. “They put in a lot more hours than expected.”

The demand has counterbalanced the fact that, with the governor’s order that restaurants close to sit-down service, the deli side of Myers’ Market is now only open for take-out.

As a supplier to other restaurants in town, Myers is keenly aware that other businesses haven’t been so fortunate, having to either close or seriously alter their business model.

“In those days we were so busy, it made me appreciate what we have and feel for the businesses we work with and supply,” Myers said. “Just realizing that it could have hit us in the same way and trying to help them an way we can.”

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