Mooroolbark’s Terry’s Meats closing down after four decades serving the Yarra Valley
A Mooroolbark butcher says frustrating changes in consumer shopping and eating trends have forced him to shut down after 40 years.
Outer East
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A Mooroolbark butcher says consumers’ “lazy” shopping habits, the rise of UberEats and his father’s cancer battle has forced his family to shut up shop after 40 years serving the outer east.
Terry’s Meats closed on Saturday after 27 years trading at The Terrace shopping centre. The business, owned by Terry Widnall, also previously had shops in Chirnside Park, Healesville, Bayswater and Mitcham.
Mr Widnall is recovering in hospital from recent cancer treatment.
Son Daniel, 46, said competing with major chains and the rise of online shopping and services like UberEats had taken its toll.
“The struggle is real for every small business out there, every bakery, every fruit shop and service station,” he said.
“People are lazy, they don’t want to walk across the road, they go to a one-stop-shop that makes it easy for them.”
Mr Widnall, who first worked for his father at age 7, said the number of customers they got each day had more than halved.
“We can’t survive on 100 people coming through a day as opposed to 250 in past,” he said.
“You need customers to come through the door to make a profit and if you haven’t got them coming through the door, you can’t do it.”
Mr Widnall, who has previously worked as an excavator and a diesel mechanic, said he would find other work but wouldn’t be a butcher again. He said some of the other staff in the shop would retire.
“It’s sad to say goodbye to people who are supportive and have been coming in here and seeing us and following us around for more than 30 years,” he said.
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Meanwhile, another veteran butcher said she’d walk away tomorrow if she was able to sell the business.
North Ringwood Meat Supply’s Jan, who didn’t want her surname used, said the current climate for independent butchers was the worst she’d seen in 34 years.
“The wholesale prices are so high, we can’t put on a decent margin and overheads are so high,” she said.
“There’s so many butchers and small businesses going to the wall because locals won’t support their local shopping centres.”
Jan agreed that convenience and modern shopping trends also had an impact.
“We’re similarly priced to supermarkets and a lot of the time it’s cheaper,” she said.
“I have four kids and if I didn’t own a butcher, I’m sure they’d shop at the supermarket, because they can’t stop at the shop two stores down.”
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