SPRINGFIELD – 90 Meat Outlet is celebrating an expansion of its business on Avocado Street in more ways than one.

The longtime food business not only expanded its store area by 3,000 square feet, but it has increased its workforce and its hours. To celebrate its official re-opening, owner Jim Vallides plans to offer eight “blockbuster” specials on May 12 to 14.

Vallides explained to Reminder Publications that although the physical expansion happened in November 2015, it has taken the business’s staff a while to “tweak everything.”

The expansion included a larger custom meat cutting area and a 300-foot increase in the refrigerator/frozen display case area, he added.

The custom meat cutting has long been a feature of the business and Vallides said that area of the store has now been doubled. Like an old fashioned butcher shop, customers can have the meat they’ve selected cut and trimmed in front of them, he added.

Vallides started the business in 1998 with the idea if he bought directly from suppliers he could pass the savings along to his customers. Although he has seen “a little more” competition over the years, he noted the service the store provides makes a real difference to his customers.

Although warehouse stores may offer reduced prices on meat, Vallides said that what is packaged is what the consumer gets. “There is no customer service,” he added.

Like the butcher shops that once served ethnic neighborhoods, Vallides said, 90 Meat Outlet offers cuts of meats that are now difficult to find but are still in demand, such as beef tongue, rabbit, ox tail and salted fat back, among others.

Vallides said his business is good because people in the present economy are seeking ways to save money. For more information, go to www.90meat.com.

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