Traditional butcher Schmidt in Frankfurt has to close – customers hoard meat products
In addition to bakeries, butcher shops are also having to give up time and again. In a Frankfurt shop, customers are particularly desperate.
The energy crisis and EU regulations are forcing the next traditional business to its knees: Stefan Schmidt’s butcher’s shop in Frankfurt am Main has to close after 24 years, as the “Frankfurter Neue Presse” (FNP) reports. “In order to still be able to produce ourselves, we would have to rebuild the shop according to EU guidelines. That would cost me thousands. I could maybe manage that, but we also lack the staff,” says Schmidt.
The master butcher and his wife Nicole have been running the business since 1999, which was opened by his grandfather more than 90 years ago. According to the report, they have been struggling with the shortage of skilled workers, poor energy security and rising commodity prices for years. In this year’s test, deficiencies were found and they could no longer withstand the stricter regulations without investment.
Shocked customers hamster meat products
The Schmidt family produces around 95 percent of the slaughtered goods themselves, and customers come from all over Frankfurt to the rural district of Harheim. And some are so shocked by the announced closure at the end of the year that they have started stockpiling. Because: Most customers only want to buy their meat from the butcher shop instead of in the supermarket, explains Nicole Schmidt.
“‘Beim Schmidt’ is still slaughtered directly behind the house. Slaughter on Mondays, processing on Tuesdays, on sale from Wednesday. Almost all delicacies come from our own production,” wrote an enthusiastic customer more than a year ago on the Internet. “We are almost inspired,” is how she sums up the taste of the products.
Especially in the more rural region, shops like this are important for the residents. According to “FNP”, Schmidt’s butcher shop was one of the last three companies in Frankfurt to slaughter and sell in their own shop. Now that too is coming to an end.