MEAT+POULTRY - November 2024 - 68

SMALL BUSINESS MATTERS
Dustin says that most of the orders were
picked up by women or wives and that he
wanted them to be happy with the purchases
rather than feeling it was a troubling chore to
get their finished game meats.
A quick visit to the Strick's website -
stricksspecialtymeats.com - details the
company's rules about accepting only clean,
boned out or quartered game carcasses...or
paying a $6 per bone removal charge. A whole
carcass brought in results in a $40 breaking
fee. Their list of finished product options is
a mind bender. They offer small individual
batch processing for smoked sausage,
summer sausage, snack sticks and smoked or
pan sausage.
Smoked
sausage rules
the meat counter
at Strick's which
produces plenty
of specialty
blends.
emphasis on game processing. Gone were the
four gas pumps and the convenience store.
The enterprise was then located in a strip mall
20 miles south, about a quarter mile from the
University of Southern Mississippi campus. It
now has expanded to 12,400 square feet. The
family took over other storefront suites to
expand their capabilities.
A DIFFERENT GAME PLAN
Here's a quick look into what Dustin did
differently in his game processing that now
accounts for about 85% of Strick's meat business
which goes from early October through midFebruary
and some later sausage and snack
stick processing that can run into April.
" I knew if I was getting my own deer
processed, I would not want a 30- or 40-lb bag
of one kind of product, " he explained. " I would
want it in individual packages like you would
find in a grocery store. It would be vacuum
sealed and convenient to retrieve in exact
portions from the home freezer.
" I wanted to be 'mom friendly,' meaning
that no box of meat packs would exceed 25
lbs. It would mean that if we used a certain size
box the customer could put that box into their
home freezer. It meant that if we somehow
screwed up on an order, there was no charge
for that order. "
68 MEAT+POULTRY | 11.24 | www.meatpoultry.com
" There is a confidence level that a customer
is getting only meat from the animal they
brought in, " Dustin said. He points out that the
business is planning classes for small groups
on such topics as making sausage or meat
sticks, cutting and grinding your own game
carcass and other topics that some say, " gives
away your secrets. "
" In the long run, many of our customers
will be able to do their own processing, but
we think eventually that few hundred dollars
they spend to have us do that backbreaking
work will be money well spent in future years, "
he said. He'll also be able to sell customers
casings and seasonings if they continue to do
their own processing in future years. By the
way, his company also will smoke game meats
for a bit under $2 per lb.
Putting himself in the customers' shoes
has also paid dividends for Strick's Specialty
Meats. The shop does about 15% of its sales
volume in retail sales, featuring over 50
versions of sausages as well as meat snack
items like jerky and sticks.
Dustin said he noticed that customers
were confused with the difference between
the meat sales area, the barbecue restaurant
and the catering department. The store has
10 employees and another 15 who handle
restaurant and catering activity.
" I saw that customers coming in might
wait five or 10 minutes to pick up an order, "
Dustin said. " That was time that they could
be shopping for other things we had to
offer. We rethought our original concept of
a convenience store and really became a
food business. "
http://www.stricksspecialtymeats.com http://www.meatpoultry.com
MEAT+POULTRY - November 2024

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