Benny Westcott
The former Chucky’s In Holley-Woods Custom Meat Cutting on Springer Road might have officially changed hands, but some things remain the same.
The newly named Holy Cow Meats, located at 25057 Springer Road, still sells – you guessed it – meat. And longtime local butcher Chuck Smith, who launched Chucky’s in 1995, still cuts two days a week.
But he sold his company in August, ushering in new ownership and fresh faces in Todd and Jessica Carter, who moved to Sweet Home from Boise, Idaho, this past summer.
Todd, whose brother Rick Parrish lives in the area, first visited the region looking to invest in some land.
“My brother was wanting to get a steer butchered, and I told him he should start his own butcher shop,” he said. “We were leaving that weekend, and he called me when I was about an hour out of town and told me Chucky’s was for sale. I was like, ‘You should have told me that earlier.'”
Todd agreed to buy the business, sealing the deal with, as he called it, “a handshake and a promise.”
The venture was a foray into new territory for the Montana native, who attended electronic school at DeVry University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in project management. He became a technician at Intel in Chandler, Ariz. (where he met Jessica through a high school friend), before moving to Boise three years ago for a position at ASM International, which produces semiconductor wafer processing equipment. However, he became somewhat disillusioned during the pandemic and sought a change of scene.
“The last year and a half with COVID has been kind of crazy,” he said. “I only went into the office seven times and was working on Zoom. So I was looking for a change. I kind of figured, working in the corporate world, no matter how much you put into it, you only get so much out.”
So he moved his family to Sweet Home, and so far, he says, Holy Cow Meats has been “going really well. The people in the community have been very supportive.”
Jessica handles online marketing via social media. Despite working in Eugene as a nurse, she “helps quite a bit with the inventory and making sure I don’t forget things,” Todd said, adding that the husband-and-wife business duo “works out well.”
Everything at Holy Cow Meats is sourced from the Willamette Valley Meat Company, which uses livestock from Portland-area farmers and ranchers. Some products come from Carlton Farms, based in the Oregon town of the same name. “We try to use as many local products as possible,” Todd said. “We have used local honey and whiskey.”
He tries to keep everything affordable. “Right now our prices are better than any of the other shops around town,” he said. “And we emphasize customer service. We’re here to serve people.”
Transitioning into owning a small business, Todd was surprised by “how much work it takes to actually run it. That’s why Chuck was looking to retire. He was pretty much working seven days a week.”
While the overall industry is good right now, many small farmers and ranchers are being pushed out of the cattle business.
“Even though prices of meat at retail grocery stores are the highest they’ve ever been, it seems like farmers and ranchers aren’t selling at higher prices,” he said, noting that increased production costs combined with no uptick in price is hurting some smaller meat producers.
Despite such industry challenges, Todd expressed gratitude for helping hands. Two nephews in the area “help with cleaning and stuff like that,” and the Carters’ sons, 12-year-old Logan and 9-year-old Owen, chip in on bagging and pricing.
Holy Cow Meats sells deli-case jerky in multiple flavors, including teriyaki, Polish sticks and apple whiskey sticks made with real apples and Jim Beam apple whiskey. Also sold: summer sausage and “country bacon.” “It’s not a belly bacon,” Todd said of the latter. “It has a lot less fat in it.”
The overall menu includes bacon burgers (patties with seasoning and bacon ends), ground beef, pepperoni, breakfast sausage (spicy, standard and sage salt and pepper), smoked loins, and even Rocky Mountain oysters. Special orders are available upon request.
Todd hopes to open a retail store in Sweet Home’s core, but is struggling to find a place. “We’d like to be able to have the retail in town where we can serve the community better,” he said. “It really depends on finding a location.”
Until then, he’s focused on providing holiday hams and Thanksgiving turkeys in the coming months, which customers can pick up during the store’s hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday.
As is tradition, the meat goes on. Todd credits Smith with helping Holy Cow succeed from the start.
“Without him,” he said of his predecessor, “we wouldn’t be able to do this.”