Canning meat shop owners expand their horizons

The Scott’s Bay couple has been honing their entrepreneurial skills since they purchased a meat market on Main Street in 2001.

“We had no experience in retail,” recalls Nancy.

They decided to run a small business, the Canning Village Meat Market, after Oscar opted to get out of the heavy construction industry. The meat shop was previously owned by Doug Thomas of Sheffield Mills, who subsequently retired after 12 years of running a successful meat shop and sold the business in 2000.

“It was quite a challenge,” said Nancy, adding that she was still working another full-time job and Oscar had to enroll in a community college program to learn how to become a retail butcher.

The family-run business has grown into a profitable meat shop that is now managed by their son, Andrew Huntley.

Nancy believes their success as small business owners boils down to the philosophy that customers deserve quality products, great service and affordable prices. She’s hoping this philosophy will lead to the success of their newest business venture – Big Wigs.

The Huntleys opened the Big Wigs diner out of the former Fireside Café in July 2016.  The building is conveniently located across the street from the meat shop, and the meat shop conveniently supplies the diner with an assortment of fresh meats at wholesale costs.

“We thought that might… be a good marriage of the two businesses,” said Nancy.

With two businesses under their ownership, the Huntleys now have about 13 staff on hand in the busy summer season. Their daughter, Beth Huntley, is managing Big Wigs.

“We put in so many hours in these businesses,” said Nancy, concurring when Beth adds that family time often turns into work talk, but it’s nice to have the constant network of support.

Nancy still shakes her head and laughs when she thinks of how the name Big Wigs came to be. Her children would often jokingly refer to her as the “big wig upstairs” when someone came into the meat shop with an invoice, or paperwork that had to be done. And it didn’t take long for Big Wigs to be pitched as a perfect name for the diner.

“I said, ‘Don’t you dare,” said Nancy.

“Freudian philosophy would have said I should have been smarter and said ‘Sure, you go ahead and call it that.”

The Huntleys noted that the diner saw a huge spike in traffic last summer as people were passing through Canning during trips to places like Cape Split, Kingsport and Blomidon.

“In the summer we’re lucky. We deal with a lot of tourists, and it’s a good place. We’re centrally situated between Halls Harbour (and) New Minas,” said Nancy.

The winter, however, proved to be extremely challenging and the diner was closed for a two-month period.

“It’s a lot of hard work, but you do get people that really enjoy coming here,” said Beth, who designed the diner in a way that people would feel as though they were stepping back in time when they walked through the door.

“It’s rewarding to be able to see what you’ve accomplished.”

Nancy believes it’s the small-town feel that makes Canning’s businesses a destination for locals and tourists alike.

“People want to be called by name. They don’t want to be a number in the big-box stores in most cases, and we can offer that to them.”

Editor's note: This story has been edited to clarify that Doug Thomas ran the meat shop for 12 years before retiring and selling the business in 2000. The original version of the story indicated that the meat shop is located in the former Babe's Market, but it did not mention that Thomas ran a successful meat shop out of that same location after purchasing Babe's.