A nearly 100-year-old business in New Westminster will be closing up shop this weekend.
Peter Corbeil, owner of Queens Park Meat Market, will be shutting his doors on Saturday, June 4, marking 18 years since his predecessor Eric Davies handed him the keys.
Corbeil told the Record he made the decision about a month ago and that he needed “a change of lifestyle.” Asked if he could expand on that, he said “it’s kind of personal.”
The father-of-two said once he ties up loose ends in a month’s time, he intends to travel east and find a permanent, new home.
“I don’t know where. We’re going to check them all out,” he said of the provinces. “I could end up in Drumheller, I could end up in Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Dryden. My thought is East Coast, but who knows what happens along the way.”
Corbeil added he couldn’t find a buyer to sell the business to.
The 500-square-foot, off-white stucco building at 402 Second St. has operated in the Royal City since 1924. It is the last remnant of what that block used to look like. Across the street was a grocery store, a bakery and a shoemaker.
Corbeil took over the local business in 1998 after working for large supermarkets for 15 years. He was 21 years old when he first got into butchering. He had left the navy and started working for a master butcher in Burnaby.
Queens Park Meat Market was known for its “old-fashioned” service – everything from hand selecting all the meats to be hung and aged by Corbeil himself, to cutting it to the customer’s liking. Orders were wrapped in butcher paper and tape, with payment coming either in the form of cash or a tab.
Corbeil will place a letter to customers in the shop window when he closes the doors.
“It’s all about the appreciation of the customers and how much I’ve enjoyed serving them,” he said.
