DeMarco’s Meat Market named Business of the Month

By Maralisa Marra

Longtime Shinnston staple, DeMarco’s Meat Market, is dedicated to offering Shinnston fresh, authentic Italian foods and ingredients alongside staying true to their family traditions.

“We enjoy people,” owner Sammy DeMarco said, “There’s a lot of chairs up front and people can come in and sit and talk to any of us that are there. We’re family operated and just trying to keep the Italian traditions up.”

In 1984, the late Sam and Joe Ann DeMarco opened the family business on July 23, and 38 years later, their devoted children are staying true to their parents’ traditions and dreams.

“Dad actually wanted the store all his life,” son Sammy DeMarco said, and when the company his dad was working for went out of business, “he decided to start a family grocery store.”

DeMarco’s is known for their sausage line made in house with freshly sourced ingredients. The recipe for their famous Sam’s Italian Hot Sausage was created by their late father, and they are loyal to that same recipe.

“It’s a family recipe, and dad stressed to us to make sure that we keep fresh ingredients,” DeMarco said, “The sausage needs to be fresh pork butt and try to be consistent on what we produce, and he instilled that into us [himself and all his siblings].”

DeMarco said, “We started out offering a little bit of groceries, and we expanded, and now we started making Spanish sausage about a year ago.”

He said they are seeing a high demand for the Spanish alongside the hot Italian sausage, so they are increasing the availability of the Spanish sausage, as well.

During citywide activities like Frontier Days and parades, DeMarco’s always participates and sells their delicious sausage sandwiches until they run out. “We make sandwiches that people come from all over to get,” DeMarco said.

Alongside their iconic sausage, DeMarco said, “We try to get as much authentic Italian stuff as possible.” They have deliveries that come from the Strip District in Pittsburgh once or twice a week.

“We mix our own olives there at the store,” DeMarco said. They sell small green, large green, and black olives.

DeMarco said their utmost priority is to stay true to what their parents taught them, “Be good to the customers, and they’ll be good to you, and that’s what we try to do. We try to give a good product to the people.”

DeMarco’s Meat Market is located at 417 Pike Street, and they are open from 7 a.m to noon on Sundays, 5:30 a.m to 7 p.m. on Mondays, 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Tuesdays, 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, and 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Saturdays..