Butcher
Combining enjoyment in cutting meats into various shapes and sizes with a sense of how to make a small business profitable leads to career satisfaction – in his situation, the opportunity to eat steak 7 days a week. Want to try it? Don’t be a chicken!
CHILDHOOD
Rob Passio (RP) was born and raised in South Philadelphia, where he continues to reside with his family.
EDUCATION
Following his high school graduation, RP’s first adult job was as a delivery boy for a butcher.
‘BUTCHER’ AS A CAREER
A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. A butcher may be employed by supermarkets, grocery stores, butcher shops and fish markets, slaughter houses, or may be self-employed.
Butchery is an ancient trade, whose duties may date back to the domestication of livestock; its practitioners formed guilds (an early form of a union) in England as far back as 1272. Since the 20th century, many countries and local jurisdictions have offered trade certifications for butchers in order to ensure quality, safety and health standards but not all butchers have formal certification or training.
Trade qualification in English-speaking countries if often earned through an apprenticeship although some training organizations also certify their students. (from Wikipedia)
FIRST ADULT JOB IS NEVER A BINDING CAREER COMMITMENT
After his teenage years as a delivery boy, RP began to learn the butcher trade as a butcher’s apprentice – learning by watching and supervised ‘doing.’ Because he showed up for work on a regular basis, steadily improved his skills as a meat cutter and interacted courteously with customers, RP rose quickly through the ranks as a manager for the meat departments of the corporate giants Genuardi’s and Costco.
RP could likely have remained as a butcher department manager for one of the big chain stores until he would eventually decide to retire, presumably in his early to mid 60s.
But, said RP, “I got bored.”
TAKING THE LEAP FROM EMPLOYEE TO BUSINESS OWNER
People working in the same trade, especially those in leadership positions, are usually aware of similar area businesses, including those who work as competitors. These business acquaintances thus form a business ‘network’ who know when one of their ‘community’ mentions leaving the business for many possible reasons such as declining number of customers (see Challenges section of this story) or serious illness or healthy retirement.
Thus, RP learned that the owner of Giunta’s Prime – a butcher’s stall within the Reading Terminal Market (in the central business district of Philadelphia – with a large customer base among the many types of indoor shops, much like a modern mall) was planning to retire. RP approached Mr. Giunta about taking over the business while wisely preserving its well-known name; a price was agreed upon along with an extended schedule for RP to pay that cost.
RP worked as a butcher and shop owner of Giunta’s Prime for the next 10 years. At the same time, he remained a member of the informal, unnamed city network of butchers. It was therefore no surprise when a commercial business broker called RP to gauge his potential interest in taking over another small but locally well patronized butcher shop because its owner was retiring: Lombardi’s, a narrow shop known for its chicken cutlets, meticulously sliced six to a pound. The business’ refrigerators and freezers are stocked with prepared foods and traditional meat products: hamburger meat, steaks in various cuts (flank, prime rib, filet), chicken (legs, breasts, thighs with bones or boneless), pork chops, etc.
RP was immediately interested in adding to his business owner’s portfolio; by then, he also owned an interest in Butcher’s Pantry, a prepared-foods stall that had opened in Reading Terminal Market two years earlier. (‘Owning an interest’ means paying an agreed price – all at once or over time – for a (less than 51%) share of the profits, if any, usually without performing any labor within that business.)
To maintain the loyalty of existing customers plus appeal to potential new customers, any business owner must stay alert for consumers’ buying trends. So, RP decided to add wagyu beef to Lombardi’s meat offerings.
Meanwhile, RP arranged for new management of Giunta’s Prime without selling his entire ownership interest.
RP was lucky that the butcher staff at Lombardi’s decided to remain employed there. However, ‘luck’ usually involves matching experience with opportunity – so RP used his experience in working well with employees at other businesses to understand his new employees’ potential concerns about how they might be treated by a new owner. He wisely asked their advice for continuing business success and making any reasonable improvements; then he listened to their responses. The employees were reassured about the stability of the ongoing business and that they would be fairly treated.
JOINING THE FAMILY BUSINESS – FOR GOOD OR FOR BAD?
One of the employees who decided to remain (none departed) was a 32-year-old-grandson of the Lombardi’s business founder, who had started working there every Saturday since his freshman year in high school. Said he, “My dad wouldn’t let me come right into the family business. He wanted me to justify my college degree, so I worked in supply-chain management for an insurance company for five years but decided the butcher shop was more to my liking.”
CHALLENGE – BIG BUSINESS PUSHING OUT FAMILY BUSINESS
Family-owned butcher shops are an endangered species, as providing meat to customers has mostly shifted to supermarkets and discount clubs. Even delicatessens are offering some meat products for sale, not just packing them into their prepared sandwiches.
RP believes – and continues to prove – that making a personal connection with each customer while providing excellent cuts of their favorite meats – can enable small butcher shops to survive and even thrive in a competitive environment.
CAREER SATISFACTION
Asked what inspired RP to purchase another on-going butcher business, RP thought for a moment: “Challenge, legacy, neighborhood, family name.”
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This career story was based on a news article written by Michael Klein, published by the Philadelphia Inquirer on September 19, 2024 plus internet research including Wikipedia.
