10/31/2025
💔 A Heartfelt Goodbye
After a great deal of thought, I’ve made the difficult decision to permanently close Lakeside Meats effective immediately.
When I took over this shop, my goal was simple — to carry on a long-standing local tradition while building something new and meaningful for our community. For a time, it felt like that dream was becoming real. The shop was busy, the feedback was encouraging, and I truly believed we were building something special together.
But in recent months, everything changed. What many might not realize is that the increased construction and traffic congestion around the plaza had a devastating impact — sales dropped by nearly 75% in just two months. I understand completely why fewer people stopped in; it wasn’t easy to get to us, and life is busy. Still, for a small business, that kind of sudden drop is something you simply can’t recover from.
At the same time, I was battling the rising costs of beef, packaging, and everyday supplies while doing everything I could to keep prices as affordable as possible. The truth is, small independent butcher shops like mine can’t operate the same way large grocery chains do. Big box stores buy thousands of pounds of product at once and receive supplier discounts or subsidies that make those low prices possible. For a shop like mine, every “price match” comes straight out of pocket — and I absorbed those hits for as long as I could, because I wanted people to have access to quality meat at a fair price.
I share this not out of frustration, but so people understand just how thin the margin for survival is for small, local businesses. The combination of soaring costs, construction challenges, and the sharp drop in customer foot traffic created a situation that, despite my best efforts, I simply couldn’t overcome. So this is my ask of you, please continue to support your favourite small local business. Even if its currently inconvenient due to factors outside of their control. I've met a lot of good people in Tecumseh that still need your support!
I want people to know that I gave everything I had to this business. Every decision, every hour, every sacrifice came from a place of wanting to serve this community well. I took pride in every cut, every bundle, and every conversation.
I also want to take a moment to recognize my staff. Through every challenge — from long days to unpredictable weeks — they showed up, gave their best, and treated every customer with care and respect. They stood by me through some of the toughest months of my life, and I couldn’t have asked for a better team. To them, I’m deeply grateful. Their hard work, professionalism, and loyalty never went unnoticed.
More than anything, I ask for compassion — for myself and for my family. This has been an incredibly difficult experience, and while it didn’t end how I hoped, I’ll always be proud of the work, the effort, and the heart that went into Lakeside Meats during my short time as owner. I’ll be leaving comments open for anyone who wants to share kind words or encouragement, but I won’t tolerate negativity, cruelty, or bad faith remarks. Please keep this space respectful. I will leave this post up for a week then this page will be deleted.
To those who continued to support us until the very end — thank you. Your loyalty and kindness meant more than you’ll ever know.
With appreciation and respect,
Chris Laliberte
Lakeside Meats
