Moo & Oink's history traces back nearly 150 years through several generations of brothers, uncles, and cousins. Our wholesale division is a direct descent of the original Calumet Meat Company, one of the family's 17 meat businesses which spanned the Chicago area by the 1940s. Calumet Meat, which originally sold meat and wild game to local restaurants, remains as the wholesale operation at Moo & Oink.
In the early 1960s, Calumet Meat moved into a 1500 square-foot space in a converted smokehouse on 38th and Halsted, just a block from the Chicago Stockyards. The company evolved quickly, beginning with a facelift: the old wooden floor was replaced, followed by the cooler and freezers, and so on, panel by panel. Although primarily for local workers, Calumet Meat started offering more products and fuller service in the 1970s, including fish, produce, dairy, groceries, and a quality butcher service.
In 1977, Barry Levy, CEO of Moo & Oink, introduced Calumet Meat to its two future mascots, Moo and Oink. With their warm and likable personalities, the two characters were embraced by the employees and customers alike, and their debut culminated in the following announcement: "Quality meat is why Moo and Oink made Calumet Meat their home." With that, the company name was changed to Moo & Oink, Inc.
Moo & Oink is now a "niche" retail/wholesale meat business based in Chicago; there are three city stores that range from 11,700 to 25,000 square feet, in addition to Moo & Oink and More, a 50,000 square-foot grocery store in Hazel Crest, a south suburb of Chicago. The city stores are essentially refrigerated warehouses; each one offers with a wide selection of fresh beef and pork, poultry, fish, produce, frozen foods, dairy, and other various perishables, size-permitting. The largest of the three also houses and operates our full smokehouse, with our hand-cleaned chitterling operation and much, much more. And, of course, all four stores carry the complete line of Moo & Oink branded products.
Today, the Moo & Oink logo is one of the most recognizable trademarks in Chicago. Our rich heritage is deeply rooted in the communities we serve, and we are privileged to enjoy unusually close ties with our customers. If you didn't know us before, it's great to meat you; if yo're an old friend, welcome back. We hope you enjoy Moo & Oink Online.
