processor in thomson done my buddy wrong

i was at my buddies house this evening eating some lowcountry boil and watching outdoor channel, when the phone rings and its happy valley processor in thomson, ga. he dropped a deer this weekend, a nice 10 pt buck. asked that it all be processed as sausage, and he has been going there for years. well they told him his deer was ready to be picked up, and it would cost $48. now that may be a reasonable price, but he skinned the deer and gutted it at the club, and deboned the hams, which along with the front legs, not deboned, were given to them make sausage. he took the backstraps and tenderloins out and took them home. well the owner of this happy valley told him that if his deer meat weighed more than 31 lbs, that the fee was 0.65 cents per pound. he had 29 lbs, and because of that, he was charged an extra $30 just for being off a couple of pounds. well thats a crock, if i ever heard about one. he said he has never paid over $30 total for just getting sausage and this business about 31 lbs or more was never told to him in all the years he has been taking his deer there. well the owner told him he could come get his deer for $28, and he would put him on his blacklist, that he would write his name real big on a board and would not allow him to bring anymore deer to his processor, like that would happen again, and that he didn't need his business, he just turned away 50 deer today, today being thursday, so i guess not only is he a bad business owner, possibly a teller of untruths as well. if he doesn't need the business, well i know why now, and it ain't nothing to do with too many deer brought to him. well my buddy said whatever, and said he wasn't going to get the deer, i told him to call that guy back and give him a piece of his mind and where exactly to put that ole deer, but he wouldn't do it, i tell you what, i can't believe a business owner would treat a client like that, i know i wouldn't be in business if i treated my clients like that. some folks may have had the rosiest, prettiest experience with them, but i tell you what they reared their ugly head this evening. i haven't ever taken any deer to that place, and after tonight, i guarantee all of you, you won't catch me in that place, wherever it is. i am an easy going guy, but this fella at this processor has just about crossed the line treating folks the way he did tonight. they done my buddy wrong, and when they do that, they done me wrong as well

I have never taken a deer to that place but have been in there a million times buying uh.........um........cold drinks and snuff. I usually make an annual pilgrimage to Doodle Hill Hunting Club about 2 or 3 miles down the road from Happy Valley. I have never had a problem there but like I said I haven't taken any deer there!

Yep,it does happen.But if your friend enjoys hunting and eating the meat tell him he might wont to think of quartering up at camp and invest in a grinder and make his own sausage at home.

The equipment is not to expensive and to do it your self adds more value to your meat when you cook it.With the way the costs have gone up I cant afford to take three or 4 deer a year there.Not that I'm saying deer coolers are bad,just I cant afford it.

If he does take this route,have him look in to the "how to's" first. good luck.

Timbo

My wife got me a grinder attachment. Mind posting a few sausage recipes.

All the places in the local area went WAYYYY up this year.

Outback, Happy Valley, McDonald's, Lanier's......I was told that because of over half of the "other places" closing down last year, they had to "raise their prices a little"

The one place that I normally take deer to to have sausage made was $55 last season, and that was for everything....gutting, skinning, hanging, and processing. My brother took a 110 Lb deer in there opening weekend and was called a few days later and given a total of $95!!!

We'll process our own from now on.

The ONE good thing about Happy Valley is that they process wild hogs.

I can't tell all of the circumstances from your post but there should be some kind of sign with the prices clearly stated for the public. Plus your friend should have comfirmed a price before he left the deer. By doing that there would not be any surprises later on. Its probably both of there faults. I would pay the extra but next time find out in advance.

If you think that is high try some like Doug meat shop or
Southland.
One thing I'll say in Happy Valley defense is that They do QUALITY processing. The place is clean and no smell.
I have used them for several years and in my book they are worth the price.

Catfish369 said:

All the places in the local area went WAYYYY up this year.

......I was told that because of over half of the "other places" closing down last year, they had to "raise their prices a little"

Click to expand...

What's the reasoning for them rasing their prices when others go out of business. It seems to me that they would recieve more business because of that and make more money. It seems like by raising their prices they are actually making customers go somewhere else. If they don't watch out they may be the ones that "closed last year".

Not sure what THEIR reasoning behind it is, but MY take on it is that they think they will make make more money since there are less places to take a deer to this season. At least that's what I and a few other's think anyways, but in reality I have no idea. It's like everything else....leases, gas, and only the rich being able to afford it all these days. All I do know is that they lost my business with those kinds of prices and it would seem that they have lost a few more folk's business as well. When my brother dropped of his deer, there were only 4 other's there. Gee.....I wonder why?

Dustin

Let's say you have 6 processers, and 4 close down; leaves you with 2. Those 2 raise their prices. Why? Because they can; where else you gonna take it?

You can either pay an extra $15 to the processor, or to the gas station running back and forth to the next county to get deer cut up. That being said, I've noticed an increase in processer fees also.

Junebug

dustin--that's the free market at work. less competition means higher prices and, many times, worse service.

if you're the only game in town, or one of a handful, you can charge what you want and treat people any way you want to. then, people have no choice except to take business elsewhere. which is also free market working as it should!

here is my example. lets say they charge $35 dollars to do a deer and they do 1,000 per year. Ok less say they raise there price to $70 dollars per deer. Well now they only process 500 deer per year. However they make the same money and do half the work. Simple Economics. You won't hurt them by not going there anymore. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face, pay the extra.

i just don't get the reasoning of the cutoff of the 31 lbs or less thing. what does it matter, same amount of spices are used per pound, sounds like a way to rip people off to me. if they are turning away business because 50 people show up a day, they are running a lot of sausage through that machine, per pound is per pound, not per pound plus $30 dollars cause you brought in an amount less than what we say, and not disclose any of this to the client when he dropped the deer off. saved them all the time of deboning on the rear hams. no skinning, no gutting, just please make me some sausage, and he lives here in augusta, driving 30 minutes for this headache, i'll tell you what, he took it a lot better than i would have. i now know why i process my own deer when i harvest one.

I understand its the free market at work, but If they begin to treat their customers like crap they will find somewhere else to take a deer. And the processors will not be in the free market but the job market.