Simpson’s Meats goes retail
The shop also serves as a wholesale distribution facility. Co-owners Jason Parkerson and Jim Simpson opened the store in February, but “we really started fulfilling e-commerce orders in November 2020,” Simpson said.
“Our (beef processing) company was formed in 2012,” he added. “This retail location and the wholesale portion is an expansion to our beef and pork processing plant that we have in Middle Tennessee.
“In response to the whole COVID pandemic, we had a big push of people starting to order online. We needed to have a place to fulfill those orders, so we opened this facility here.”
At the West Knox facility, Simpson said they bring meat from their Middle Tennessee plant and further process them into steaks and roasts and other cuts.
“All of our products are local Tennessee products,” he said. “Jason and I are both cattle farmers. We’re both born and raised in East Tennessee.”
Patterson, a Farragut High School Class of 1985 graduate, started cattle farming 20 years ago in Loudon while Simpson, a Knoxville resident, operates a multi-generation Angus cattle farm, founded in 1888, in Athens (McMinn County).
Simpson said they also use other cattle farms with the same high standards: no antibiotics, no hormones, no feed additives, and “we are also looking for people who are very aware that we need good Angus genetics to try to give the best quality product that we can.”
They also work with Tennessee pork farmers such as Benton’s Bacon, Taylor Farms for whole non-GMO pasture-raised chickens, Sweetwater Valley Farms for cheese and Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop in Turkey Creek, among others.
“We continually try to partner with local Pick Tennessee product-type companies,” Simpson said.
“We started this company (in 2012) with the plan of offering a local, quality Tennessee product into the Southeast Market,” he added.
Customers “can walk in and buy any cuts of beef or pork,” Simpson said. “In addition to that, we have wholesale. This is a (U.S. Department of Agriculture) facility, where we actually cut wholesale here for restaurants, grocery (stores), and we also fulfill our e-commerce orders here.”
“We do a lot of half and whole freezer beef,” he added. “That’s what Jason was really doing when we met. He was selling (beef) to individuals on a half-and-a-whole basis, and we continued to do that.
“So, people can come here or they can call us or go online and place an order for a grass-finished beef, or they can get a grain-finished beef. They can pick it up here frozen.”
Simpson’s Meats store is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and closed Sunday and Monday.
To place an order, call 865-806-1788 or visit online at simpsonsmeats.com
