Area meat markets say demand for their products is skyrocketing as customers look to stock their freezers during the covid-19 pandemic.

How long that boom will last could depend on whether predictions of widespread meat shortages come true.

Because of health-related constraints on social gatherings, Marylou Miller is resigned to a low-key May celebration of the 25th anniversary of her family’s business near New Stanton.

She said Miller’s Meat Market is “doing probably twice as much business in half the time,” as it adjusts to pandemic-related operational shifts.

Miller explained the market cut its retail hours in half, to 2 to 6 p.m., to help limit the number of staff and customers in the building at any time. Workers come in each morning to cut and process meat while the parking lot starts filling up with customers who will file through the shop one at a time in the afternoon.

“They come in droves every day,” Miller said, with ground beef and boneless chicken breasts among the most popular orders. On Tuesday, she said, “We had a line for probably the first 20 minutes.”

On some busier days, she noted, the shop limits the quantities of meat each customer can purchase. This week, she said, she hasn’t been taking advance orders because of the uncertainty of future meat supplies.

“We’re figuring it out as we go along,” she said.

Co-owner Gary Bardine said there’s no shortage of meat at Bardine’s Country Smokehouse in Crabtree. But, he said, because meat-cutting is a labor-intensive skill, customers may have to wait for larger orders.

“We’re not running out of meat,” he said. “I don’t know why people are panicking. There is no shortage.

“I only have so much staff here, and I need skilled labor. We’re doing the best we can.”

He said he has 10 workers processing meat that is slaughtered elsewhere and has been putting in 12-hour days himself to keep up with an increased demand that resembles the rush he normally experiences for the Christmas holiday.

Bardine has confidence in his beef supply because he sources it locally, including cattle he’s raised on his own and others from area providers. “I don’t deal with those big plants as much,” he said. “I’ve got 16 sides of beef coming tomorrow.”

Because of social distancing, customers often have to wait when they arrive at Bardine’s store, since just 10 are allowed in at a time. More than 20 were lined up waiting their turn to enter Wednesday afternoon.

Hoffer’s Ligonier Valley Packing responded to demand by introducing delivery service on Thursdays to customers in the Ligonier and Latrobe areas. Last week, the 46-year-old Ligonier Township business completed 35 deliveries.

Co-owner Mark Zimmerman believes the shop increased its trade because patrons are eager to buy local while steering clear of crowds in larger stores during the pandemic.

“The interest has been up, and our sales have definitely been up,” he said, noting his staff is making jerky twice a week, up from once a week. In addition to ground beef and vacuum-packed chicken, he said, customers have been snapping up sides of beef and whole hogs.

“They’re going directly into home freezers,” he said. “Some families are splitting a side of beef among themselves.”

Pittsburgh’s Strip District Meats has seen a substantial drop in sales to restaurants since the pandemic began and sit-down dining was suspended, but owner Ray Turkas said that’s been offset by a jump in retail sales to individual customers. Retail trade, he said, has increased by as much as 25%.

“We’ve been very busy since this all started,” he said of the covid-19 crisis. “They’re buying the whole gamut, a lot of poultry, beef and pork, and we have exotic meats. Everything is moving.”

More patrons have been opting for curbside pickup of their orders. “We always have a line out in front of the store,” Turkas said.

The pandemic has affected the store’s hours and left Turkas temporarily short-staffed. He noted he now closes for an hour at midday to thoroughly sanitize the premises.

He said he’s providing bonus pay to employees who show up every day and promised job security for a handful of workers who decided it’s better to stay at home during the health crisis.

While Turkas is able to keep his shop stocked with meat, he said overall supply chain issues have affected prices.

“Prices used to be weekly,” he said. “When times get tough, the distributors price you day to day. Right now, the pricing is hour to hour.”

Some meat prices went up as much as $2 per pound over the space of a few days this week, he said.

Kistaco Farm Market near Apollo, known primarily for produce, began several years ago selling pork products and chicken from animals that owners Suzanne Boyce and husband Tim Hileman raise on their farm and have butchered at a USDA-approved facility. The couple also sells ground beef obtained from a local provider.

Once the covid-19 pandemic hit, customers made a run on the market’s meat products, Boyce said. The market sold about 75% of the pork that resulted from piglets raised last year.

“We still have pork chops, ham slices and a little bit of hot sausage,” she said Wednesday.

Ground beef sells even more quickly.

“We saw people grabbing five packs of ground beef at a time,” she said. “I keep thinking it’s going to slow down, but we haven’t really seen it slow down yet.”

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