Let’s Meat: Stories, Lessons, and Reflections on My Life in the Meat Business

By Anthony Conti

This book is about a life in the meat business. It contains a little about a lot. It has some personal history, an early personal tragedy, it’s a little emotional, contains a lot of frustrations and a lot of honesty. There are a few interesting stories, a lot of valuable lessons and some guidance on how to create worksheets to collect and sort data. It contains an interesting conflict between a subordinate and a superior that doesn’t end well for one of them.
The purpose of this book is to give some insight into a business that most people really don’t know anything about. Until the 1980’s primarily a blue-collar business run by some smart men grinding out profits by the pennies. A business that wasn’t and still isn’t for everyone. Only a select group of people who can get up every day knowing there is no finish line and can withstand an ever-changing environment, vicious competition that doesn’t always play by the rules, ever changing markets that can change in the blink of an eye and the pressure to continually “meat” the bottom line until you say, I had enough.
After reading this book my hope is that you walk away from it with an understanding of the behind the scenes work that goes into getting that steak you see under the glass at your local butcher shop or supermarket and all those delicious deli meats and salads at your favorite deli. That you can takeaway an idea, learn something from one of the lessons that you can use to help with your everyday routine or use to help you work better with your teams and customers.
If nothing else, you enjoyed reading it and it helped you relax and get a few smiles trying to visualize me trying to stick the devils head out the porthole plane window.
Over a 55 plus year career I can break it down by using Jack Welch’s 20-70-10 rule. 20% learning, 70% doing and 10% BS.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665560061

Anthony Conti

Anthony Conti is a lifelong student of the meat & deli business. From his humble beginnings working for his father to helping manage some of the largest meat distributors in the Northeast. His 55 plus years of experience served him to become a leader in the industry. Known as the go to guy in New England for his knowledge in the buying and selling of meat & deli he has grown a loyal following of both customers and suppliers. Anthony is married to his wife Nadine and has two children, Jennifer, and Anthony and two grandchildren, Kimberly, and Cameron. He attended Johnson & Wales business School and is a former member of the Rhode Island Food Dealers Association board of directors. He has attended numerous industry seminars and trade shows across the country. He and his wife currently live in Saint Augustine, Florida. They enjoy spending time with their children and grandchildren. He is a practicing martial artist and enjoys an occasional round of golf. Currently he represents a high-end Angus Beef company located in Kansas.

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© 2022 Anthony Conti. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 05/27/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6007-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-6006-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022909179

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in

this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views

expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the

views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Let’s Meat

Stories, lessons, and reflections on a business

that is only for a select group of people who

can get up every day knowing there is no finish

line and can withstand an ever-changing

environment, vicious competition that doesn’t

always play by the rules, ever changing markets

that change in the blink of an eye, and the

pressure to continually keep going and meat

the bottom line until you say, I had enough.

_________________________

ANTHONY CONTI

with The Pundits of Protein

CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part One

Lessons and Reflections

Chapter 1     Building a Solid Foundation

Chapter 2     Time to Go to Work

Chapter 3     The Glory Days

Chapter 4     The Day the Light Went On

Chapter 5     Putting Ray’s Vision to Work

Chapter 6     Two Lions in a Den

Chapter 7     The Page

Chapter 8     He’s Baaaack, The Saga with the Devil Continues

Chapter 9     The Power of Karma

Chapter 10   Stop Chasing and Take the Lead

Chapter 11   Know Your Numbers

Chapter 12   Be a Detective

Chapter 13   The Fear of Commitment

Chapter 14   Commodity versus Branded

Chapter 15   This Is My NFL!

Chapter 16   The Betsey Effect

Part Two

The Art and Science of Buying Meat

Chapter 17   The Science

Chapter 18   The Art

Chapter 19   Upside and Downside Risks

Chapter 20   All That Time and Hard Work Must Mean Something!

Chapter 21   The Pandemic Era

Chapter 22   I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, thankfully it’s a long tunnel, I have a lot more to learn

PREFACE

For what seems like a lifetime, I have been preaching the importance of knowledge. My father would always say to me, Knowledge is power.

In the voluntary perishable distribution business, or in any business, being in the know means:

• being better prepared to defend against competitors

• knowing new trends in the retail and food service business

• knowing what is driving the trends

• knowing your customers and what they need and expect from you as a distributor to help them continue to be successful

• working with your vendors to help continue your growth and presence in the marketplace

• knowing your numbers, all your numbers (budgets, results against budget, customer sales, product cost, etc.)

Anyone can buy and sell, but to be the best, it takes those special people with the fortitude, commitment, and tenacity to put forth the effort to do the in-depth, behind-the-scenes work.

Some of the things I would say to the team were There is no finish line, Second place is the first to lose, Be a detective, Know your numbers.

Fortunately, in this business, while you might lose today, as with baseball you get to play again tomorrow. Think of the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox—talk about winning brands! Don’t you want to be one? Remember, your company is your brand, and you are your brand!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my parents for giving me a solid foundation to build upon; for putting up with my crazy antics when I was a young boy; for teaching me always to be honest, no matter how people are going to accept it; and for showing me the way to become a good person.

I thank my wife, Nadine, for putting up with my highs and lows and for always believing I could be the best at what I did—and for pushing me to accomplish it. I thank my children, Jennifer, and Anthony for being so loyal and always being there to make me smile. I am so proud to see where you are in life today. I love you all!

Finally, this book would not have been possible without all my mentors who could see beyond what I could see and pushed me to become the person I am today. Without your coaching, challenges, and believing, I would never have achieved the success I did. Thank you! And thank you to all who supported me in my younger years and to those who helped advance my career in my later years.

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

Benjamin Franklin

Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.

Alexander Graham Bell

Knowledge is POWER.

Biagio Conti, my father

Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Winston S. Churchill

Putting a Band-Aid on a problem is like putting lipstick on a pig, the problem is still a problem, and the pig is still a pig.

Alan Bressler

There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.

Henry Ford

PART ONE

LESSONS AND REFLECTIONS

CHAPTER 1

BUILDING A SOLID FOUNDATION

Confidence comes from being prepared.

John Wooden

It was a beautiful summer day in August 1951. My father was out striper fishing on Narragansett Bay with his buddies, I believe at Rocky Point in Warwick, Rhode Island. One of those buddies just happened to be named Anthony. I think he was my father’s best bud back then. They went to a local bar near where they were fishing to call my mother to find out how she was doing.