How is Prime Butcher Shoppe different?
My name is Pepe Manzanares, I was born in Miami in 1976, my parents (immigrants) came to the US, after marrying in Marbella Spain. My mother was Cuban and my father, although born in Al Hoceima/Morocco, came from a family of 100% traditional gypsy Spanish descent. I am the 1st born, the one responsible for all the headaches and the one that lead the way for another 2 brothers. The mix from the Arabic-Spanish-French-Cuban & the mix of African/Taino Indian/ Spanish (Puerto Rican Cuisine) foods, we grew up with, automatically created one unique Foodie Household for the Manzanares Family.
My father was someone that identified a huge opportunity in the Food Service industry in the early stages of moving southbound to Puerto Rico. Even though Puerto Rico was known in the Caribbean for been a trade port, hence the name Puerto Rico (Rich Port), it was lacking of good humanly treated cattle. Having no other option than importing meat from the US, due to logistical reasons at the time, he started his endeavor providing the best available product to PR and neighboring Virgin Islands. The fact that he knew how to cook in different styles & cuisines, helped him talk to any chef about his product, at times shared European recipes, just to get them to try his product offerings. That’s how the Manzanares Legacy in the food business started a career for its new family.
In 2017 while our new purchased house was getting fixed, after hurricane Maria destroyed it in PR, we moved to Tampa and long story short, I decided to share our knowledge and latest family business model, with our community, now our extended family Prime Butcher Shoppe. The main difference between our business model and everyone else, is our product knowledge and superb customer satisfaction, both driven to take the risks we are willing to take, having a store full of highly perishable items & our Foodie passion to help you, our customer indulge, with new flavors in your kitchen. We are constantly pushing ourselves to innovate and this will keep anyone around us trying to compete with PBS, on the heels. If we don’t believe on a product, we don’t carry it. If we think no one will find the value in one, we don’t offer it and when we don’t guarantee ourselves a 5-Star review with an innovation product, we don’t entertain the same. Did you know 31 family owns brands are sold in PBS? 1 fun factor you din’t know, our business supports many, so your dollar feeds many when you shop with us.
Our shop doesn’t use colorants and we don’t bomb our meat case either with CO2 gas like supermarkets, to make the meat red, for a reason. Beef is purchased by grades, not by color like flowers. There are many factors that can affect color, that don’t affect its quality nor taste and most important, you have/need to trust your source, read their reviews before you shop, see who has more to lose if your product is not perfect once at home and you/or you leave them with a bad review. Who do you think hurts more from a bad review? A National Supermarket chain that sells a quarter of a million dollars a day and owns the plaza were their market was built or a Mom and Pop’s shop that is operated by their family 7 days a week? No Brainer, right?
Our society has been taught by Supermarket chains to adopt what suited them (Concerning beef MAINLY), to sell lesser grades of meat, at maximum price possible, with the least product loss due to spoilage, to drive revenue to their meat department. Now you know why they use colorants to maintain product red and “eye appealing” to the general public for the longest possible. What’s your opinion now of Supermarket Beef prior to Covid 19? The reality is that the aftermath of Covid 19th, lead to SM’s to have to increase wages to retain employees and that directly affects it’s top line revenue. This is the reason why most supermarkets (95%+)are purchasing “TRADE PACKED BEEF” , basically the (Meat trays) you see displayed on their shelves, received directly like that from their suppliers. This was decided with sights set into eliminating the highest paying positions “The Butchers” within their operations and the insurance behind to cover them. This passes on the overhead to their suppliers and what do their trade pack suppliers do? They supply them/us the lowest USDA grade beef quality available (sometimes imported South America product as well, if it makes them more money per pound), put through a process call needling or also called artificially tenderized meat, so the customer could chew it, zeroing out your chance to good/decent product quality and/or customer satisfaction. Doesn’t these practices defeat completely their marketing company mission, which is supposed to be customer satisfaction, not their top line revenue.
This is one example from many in many categories they carry, that I could mention in this Blog, isn’t it clear what drives their main corporate business model in reality? Just like this you can see for example how cereal boxes now cost more and boxes are smaller. Corporate greed, is the driver for all of these changes, you see taking place on food retailers presently, you didn’t have prior to Covid 19. All of it leads to each product becoming more expensive at the checkout (Inflation). We only sell, what will guarantee an outstanding experience at home for you & your loved ones, we surly are not perfect by any means, although perfection is all we aim for. Our shop’s main focus is freshness, hence the reason why we use our family network of businesses within the category, (Dad & Brothers Businesses) to purchase the best of the best and by volume, with the best packing dates available weekly, we don’t cut corners and we try not to touch the prices in the meat case, so you can bring the best product home at consistent pricing at the very least, so you can prioritize your shopping accordingly. We don’t offer BOGO’s, nor packages, because the highest grades of meat simply don’t allow it. When you sell FROZEN Beef priced higher-than-average FRESH Prices, then that’s doable, but that is also taking advantage of customers lack of knowledge on meats and that we will never do. We are here for all generations to come, my family will grow with yours and that’s how the Family Butcher comes to light once again, after being suppressed by SM chains for decades. When was the last time you came to a real butcher shop and/or even better, have a relationship with the butcher like your grandpa use to have and/or how he tells you how it was, before corporate greed took charge of our food needs as consumers? Eating well and healthier in this time of age, will be higher priced than prior to covid 19, across the board and that’s a given, although many will repeat again and again it’s all about the gastronomical experience,
Sincerely & God Bless
Pepe Manzanares & the Family of Foodies behind our counters.
