Meat lovers save money?

Can buying in bulk trim your budget?

METRO DETROIT – With consumers all over Metro Detroit looking to save money, there could be a different way to trim the fat from your meat budget. A new business model has been growing since 2001.

Mike Conrad is the owner of ZayconFoods.com. His plan to save you money involves ordering meat online, buying in bulk, and using trucks to bring the meat to a drop-off point near your neighborhood. Conrad says his brother, a former meat manager at a grocery store came up with the idea.

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"He gets these forty pound cases as a butcher and he would process it, put it on a nice tray, put cellophane on it and then charge you two dollars more a pound. So his idea was maybe I can sell it in bulk, like I get it and get people a better deal," said Mike Conrad.

How It Works

Here's how it works: ZayconFoods.com schedules a meat event somewhere near your home. Customers place their orders online, and then meat a big truck to pick up their order. Some folks are surprised to be getting their meat from a truck.

"It does. I mean it's funny because a lot of people are like chicken out of a truck? And again, everybody, every chicken you have ever eaten came out of the back of a truck. It's just that your cutting out that brick and mortar so you can get it cheaper."

ZayconFoods.com has been around since 2001 and now schedules meat events in 48 states. Conrad says his company put a premium on safety and quality control

"When we deliver our chicken, we purchase the chicken from a processor that's USDA approved. That chicken goes from the processor to you. We don't touch the chicken, we don't open it, we don't do anything. We hand you what was given to us, right to you. That means no one's touched it,
nobody's opened it. The bags are sealed," he said.

While the meat truck's visits may be infrequent, remember you are buying a lot of meat at one time. For example, the minimum purchase of chicken, for example, is forty pounds.

"It seems like a lot. but it's really not. you'll get the forty pounds, cut it up and put it in your freezer," said Mike Conrad, owner of ZayconFoods.com.

For more detailed information here's a link to the company's website.

There are several events scheduled for Michigan toward the end of May. You will have to register, or sign in, to get the best information.

Here are five of the upcoming cities: Ann Arbor, Plymouth/Canton, Westland all on May 28. Plus, Sterling Heights and Waterford on May 29.


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