What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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42 WHAT'S UP! DECEMBER 31, 2017-JANUARY 6, 2018 H igh quality and courteous service are at the heart of Richard McGinnis' business philosophy. The 40-plus year veteran meat cutter and entrepreneur worked for large grocery chains for years before deciding to step out on his own and stake a claim in the area's hand-cut meat market business. That was 25 years ago. The market today is a family affair. Richard, his son, his wife and a nephew all pitch in to make Richard's Country Meat Market a local favorite. Richard began his career at the Tontitown Mercantile while still a student at Springdale High School. "I just turned 62," he laughed. "I started when I was 16." Richard's wife makes some sides here and his oldest son is general manager. Richard has a have a nephew in-law that's his son's right hand at work. Richard said he knew that he would need an edge to compete with large grocers. "I knew that a small market couldn't compete with grocery stores on a price level," he explained. "We had to find something that we could be better at then anyone else. We thought that the logical place to go would be quality and service." While the Market's initial focus was providing high quality hand-cut meat to order, about 10 years ago he decided to branch out and get into the ready to go meal game. He installed a full kitchen and started creating a long list of ready to go take home entrees, side dishes and deserts. "We put the kitchen in to compete with restaurants and grocery stores that were giving people an option other than always cooking them selves," he said. "We try to keep them where they are a good price for our customers. We sell a lot of our $5 meals to go and we rotate those around with three different ones available each week. We have about 12 we use and they are really good. Our homemade bread is more popular than just about anything. Our lasagna, chicken Parmesan and eggplant Parmesan are great for full entries. We sell a lot of our buttered corn, green bean casserole and, what we call our fork-style green beans, which are cooked in wine and bacon." feature story Advetorial Feature Get grilling Richard's Country Meat Market offers meals to go, hand cut meats BY DAVE WOODS ADVERTORIAL WRITER DWOODS@NWADG.COM Richard McGinnis and son Chris operate Richard's Country Meat Market, a longtime family owned business in Fayetteville.