Retail Meat Manager
What will I be doing?
No two days are the same for a Retail Meat Manager. Always changing, fast paced, and full of variety, a Retail Meat Manager’s duties include:
- Supervising the day-to-day operations of the meat department
- Supervising department staff, set up work schedules and assign duties
- Determining staffing requirements, hire or oversee the hiring of staff and, when necessary, dismiss employees
- Training new employees or arrange for training
- Monitoring product inventories and trends in consumer buying to anticipate which products will be in demand
- Ordering meat products as required
- Providing assistance when employees are unusually busy
- Dealing with customer complaints and recommendations
- Organizing staff safety programs and department sanitation procedures
- Monitoring food safety requirements for meat storage and handling
- Understanding profit principles, retail pricing and analysis
- Meeting with manufacturers’ sales representatives to discuss product lines
- Deciding how merchandise should be displayed
What training do I need?
Most Retail Meat Managers have some sort of formalized meat cutting training, as well as at least three to five years of retail meat experience. Consider enrolling at one of Canada’s post secondary meat training programs to gain a meat cutting certificate; helping you move up more quickly on your path to becoming a Meat Manager. A combination of experience, education, training and seniority is the most common equation for Retail Meat Management.
What kind of salary and working conditions can I expect?
Depending on your level of experience, and your provincial standards, Retail Meat Managers can typically earn up to (or in some cases, more than) $50,000 (est.) per year.
Retail Meat Managers work in retail and specialty meat outlets, often doing both hands-on and administrative tasks. These managers will often work in shifts.
What are my career options?
Retail Meat Managers are in high demand, and can move quite easily throughout the retail sector. Once experienced, these managers may attempt to start their own specialty meat shops, processing firms, or other meat-sector related entrepreneurial efforts