MONROE, La.– With the meat shortage at the grocery stores, local meat markets are seeing an uptick in customers buying meat from them.
“When they are out, they start to look everywhere. We got wiped out. I mean every time they go out grocery shopping at the first of the month, we get wiped out because I bring in enough product to do what I can do,” said James Massey, owner of Massey’s Meat Market.
However, this caused a problem for local meat markets. Panic spread and so did panic buying. Eventually, Massey’s Meat Market had to put restrictions on how much a customer could buy at one time.
“When they found something they wanted to buy everything you had. Well, I have all these customers standing around behind you and I can’t let you take it all when I’m trying to fill everybody’s needs,” said Massey.
However, now the meat shortage isn’t just affecting grocery stores, but everyone, including Massey’s Meat Market. It’s become harder to get his hands on food and keep up with the demand.
“The products are not there, the warehouses are all empty, there is none coming in. I hear that there are products out there to be processed, but they can’t process them because there is nobody at the processers to do their job,” said Massey.
Massey says he orders 2 times a week from 3 different suppliers, but the delivery process is slow.
“This weekend I was trying to get a certain amount of different kinds of steaks, we were looking for t-bone’s and stuff like that. I wanted them today, well they may be here where I can get them on Saturday,” said Massey.
Massey says this shortage could last anywhere from a few more months to the first of the year.
Massey says people don’t need to panic as there is food out there, it just takes time and patience. In addition, he says he is trying his best to have as many meats as possible for his customers.
