I've worked in both, full-service and self service meat departments- I liked the customer interaction of a full service case-suggestive selling-seeing how much i can sell to a customer- I always like to be sampling something- like a new sausage or marinade- customers will try it and strike up a conversation- when a customer tastes something they like-they will buy twice as much
I]ve also worked in high volume enclosed supermarkets-it's a factory, wheel in the palletts of boxed beef and bull thru them- it can get cold and monotonous - but if you have a good crew- you can work hard, and have some good comaraderie-
I've worked in independents that have the best of both worlds- my fav meat depts to work in, are the ones that welcome new ideas, and try new items or merchandising all the time
I have a Glass enclosed cutting room where the consumer can see exactly what we are doing We also have a manned service case and the cutters will come out and talk to the customer
__________________
Joe Parajecki
Operations Manager/ Partner
Kettle Range Meat Company, Milwaukee WI
Member Meat Cutter Hall of Fame and The Butcher's Guild
i work in an open market in a small town so you meet your customers on the street every day so its nice to get to talk talk to them in the shop and tell them the best cuts for what they want to cook