WICHITA — Only one week ago, Yoder Meats owner Alan Waggoner called YB Meats owner Eric Kauffman to see if he might be interested in selling his store.
Kauffman was, and now the longtime store at 798 N. West St. will operate as Yoder Meats. It officially opens Wednesday (though there may have been a sale or two in the last day or so) and the deal will close in January.
“He was motivated to be done, and I was motivated to take over,” says Waggoner, who owns a meat plant and retail shop in Yoder with his wife, Carol.
If a one-week turnaround seems like a crazy kind of time frame, Waggoner agrees.
“Yeah, way crazy.”
Yoder Meats has been a supplier to YB Meats.
“We were interested in coming to Wichita,” Waggoner says.
He’d even looked at a couple of sites but was happy to take over YB Meats instead.
“It just made sense for us to own it,” Waggoner says. “It’s a good fit for us.”
He says he’ll sell the same locally raised beef that he previously supplied. He’s also looking at some grass-fed options.
YB Meats previously had a second store at Normandie Center at Central and Woodlawn. It closed in September after two years in business. Waggoner says he isn’t interested in a second store at this time. He’s content with what he has.
“We’re excited to be to Wichita. . . . YB just has a tremendous history in Wichita, a lot of longevity. It’s something that needs to stay in Wichita.”
6 Comments
We love Yoder Meats–I didn’t even realize they supplied YB Meats, but we’ll definitely patronize the newly named store.
YB Meats has been a great place to shop for meat. They had quality meat and great customer service.
Yoder does the same thing so it should be a good change we will not notice too much.
Much better meat than you get from Dillons, Sam’s or Wal Mart which supply Mexican beef now.
YB Meats is awesome. I shop there frequently and always get friendly, expert service and incredible quality.
In response to ColtDucksnort, I think the beef at Dillon’s has actually improved lately. Sad to say, but Mexico is producing higher quality foodstuffs than America these days.
Regardless of the country of origin, and the corniness of the TV ads, the significance of the no-water-addedness is pretty, well, significant. To me, anyway. The difference in marinating a flank steak from YB versus one that basically is pre-marinated with water is huge.
Plus, I am just nerdy enough that I did the math and figured out that in a lot of cuts the actual per-pound cost is darn close when you deduct the artificial increase of the water weight.
Of course, I have to admit that probably the breaking point for YB was when we got our own side of beef (from a family member) this fall. That was a big hit on the bottom line right there. I know, I know, way to treat a local business where they know me by name. Mea culpa.
(Seriously, though, we buy a lot more than beef there. Hoping the new owners will still carry Wiebe Dairy cheese, for one thing.)
I have to agree with Karen… their prices “seem” higher, but when you work out the math, its pretty close to a wash and the quality is SO MUCH better!