Today we’d like to introduce you to Antonio Holloway.
Antonio, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’m originally from Spencer, Oklahoma where I graduated second in my high school class as Salutatorian. I worked hard to overcome some real hurdles to learning, and I even had perfect attendance in grades K-12, so that was a proud moment for me. Then, I went to college in Las Cruces, New Mexico at New Mexico State on a football scholarship, where I played football as a wide receiver and punt returner. I earned a degree in Computer Science there and wound up working in the aerospace industry as an Engineer for over 18 years before going full-time into our family meat business. Yet, the story of how we started a meat business here in Texas actually begins before me.
After retiring from a successful 31-year butchering career with a large meat company, my dad, Albert “Pops” Holloway, and my mom, his wife Kathryn, founded the first Meat By The Case Meat Market (called MBC Meat Market, for short) in Hugo, Oklahoma. Pops is a second-generation butcher. He wanted to help people in his community have access to quality meats and be able to buy those meats in bulk to save money for their families. Over the last ten years, MBC Meat Market in Hugo has become a well-known staple business in the community, providing friendly service and community goodwill since its opening.
My brother, Andre, and I wanted to follow in Pops’ footsteps to help the community at large in Dallas, Texas have access to quality meats in bulk at competitive prices. So, with our wives in agreement and giving their full support, we opened the second MBC Meat Market store in Oak Cliff in 2016.
After three years on location as a brick-and-mortar business, we decided to close our retail store and change to a click-and-order business model with a delivery-only service. By doing so, we were able to meet the growing and trending needs of our customers for added convenience. We’re now actually able to service a larger area of need all over the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex.
We deliver high-quality meat products at competitive pricing, as well as offer ongoing discounts to seniors and military. We’re just as committed as Pops to the #1 goal of Meat By The Case, which is to provide quality products, great prices, and excellent service to customers and businesses. And in 2019, we were honored to receive a “Community Favorite Award” in the grocery store category from Dallas Awards Program. Serving others well is something I take seriously, as does my father and his father before him. I love what I do.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road to success is often not a smooth one, and we did face a few struggles, but we kept going. Transitioning to delivery-only, at first, was a challenge because we’d built up a solid customer base for our physical store. And, when we closed our doors in March 2019, we received so many phone calls and emails from customers who were looking for us. We had to quickly navigate the new waters of marketing a delivery-based business and still service our customers, whom we call MBC VIP.
In the first few months, it was rocky, but we just kept communicating with our customers, moving forward, and making adjustments. We’re now delivering to a great many of those same customers and plenty of new ones as well. The most recent challenge is actually happening now with the COVID-19 pandemic. Early on when this virus hit and things shut down, we discovered just how essential our business is in that we were able to help people get the meats they needed for their families when the larger grocery store chains had empty shelves.
We’ve had customers, new and old, reach out to us with story after story of how grateful they are to know about Meat By The Case, and that really means a lot. These stories impact me personally because, at the end of the day, that’s what it’s about for me – helping people. We’re doing all we can to ensure their safety and ours while we get through this, and are utilizing contactless payment and contactless delivery to get them what they need.
My family is a great source of support, especially my wife, Tracee, who helps manage the ins and outs of our business, as well as our online presence. In the Fall of 2019, I began working in our business full-time, and she and I have fun while working and problem-solving challenges. When we work in our home office together, I jokingly call her my coworker (or my boss.) She’s my right hand. We’ve also got four beautiful children ages 4 to 18. I couldn’t do what I do without all of their support. We are committed to working on ways to expand how we can help even more people. We’re very excited about the future of Meat By The Case Meat Market and Delivery in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Meat By The Case Meat Market – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
At the core, we are a quality meat delivery service specializing in selling meats in bulk to the communities we serve here in Texas. We are a minority-owned, family-owned, and local-operated business with two locations – one in Hugo, Oklahoma (for in-store shopping), and the other here in Dallas, Texas (for delivery only). The meats we offer are of high quality and sold fresh-frozen. Our slogan is: We’re Here to MEAT Your Needs!
We love helping people and families save money by buying in bulk. And, several of our customers are food-business owners (caterers, food trucks, and restaurants) and non-profit organizations (churches, community groups, etc.). We love our B2B MBC VIP, too. We’re proud of the success brought about by our hard work and customer connections. We were recognized at the end of 2019 as a Community Favorite, which made us happy to know that the seeds we planted were fruitful.
We love to have fun and we love to help people. Just as Pops does with his store in Hugo, we used our physical store in Oak Cliff as a hub for community outreach and donation drives for organizations like The Giving Project, Cancer Support Community North Texas, and Single Hand Foundation. We were blessed to host our first business anniversary celebration in the parking lot for the community with live music, a bounce house for the kids, and free meat giveaways. We also had the privilege to be a community sponsor for DeDe’s Backyard Barbecue by K104FM and KGGR 1040AM’s community appreciation event in 2018. Connecting like this with the community is something we love to do.
Now, that we’re delivery-only, we’ve started a fundraiser program using one of our top-selling items – turkey legs – and through this program, we’re able to provide a way for groups, churches, and organizations to “raise funds with turkey drums”, as we call it. Fundraisers we offer can include different meat options or even Philadelphia Water Ice, which is a favorite for events. Fundraising is one area that we’re constantly working on to develop more options for our MBC VIP.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Dallas is amazing, and it’s fertile ground for growth. No doubt, there are some well-established areas here, but at the same time, there are areas that need more support. There are certain areas considered to be food deserts, which is a challenge that can be solved. My chief aim as a food supplier is to continue to grow Meat By The Case Meat Market and Delivery to help more and more businesses, families, and communities in need by doing what we do with a heart to help people. We are dedicated to being part of a solution to problems in the areas we serve throughout Dallas and Ft. Worth, as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mbcmeatmarket.com
- Phone: 817-482-6221
- Email: info@mbcmeatmarket.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/meatbythecase
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/meatbythecase
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/meatbythecase
- Yelp: https://bit.ly/Yelp_MeatByTheCase
- Other: https://g.page/MeatByTheCase?we
Image Credit:
IG @alejandrotakesphotos
IG @j_mcclure
IG @meatbythecase
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