Made In Walker
The Made In Walker Podcast connects you to the people, stories, and ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we are diving deep into what makes Walker Michigan a great place to live, work, and grow.
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Made In Walker
Building Resilience and Innovation: Tim Sobie's Journey with Sobie Meats and Community Collaboration
Join us on a captivating journey as we sit down with Tim Sobie, the passionate owner of Sobie Meats in Walker, Michigan. Tim's story is one of resilience and dedication, transitioning from layoffs to launching a thriving butcher shop that champions local farmers and chemical-free products. Discover how Tim and his wife Teresa turned their modest beginnings into a dynamic community hub, attracting a diverse clientele, including the city's own Mayor Gary Carey. With a keen focus on supporting local entrepreneurs, Tim shares the secrets behind their wildly popular meat sticks and their relentless commitment to quality, creating a space where Walker residents feel connected and valued.
In a fascinating twist, we explore the innovative use of indoor drones for emergency services, with a special highlight on the "Sobie" drone's role in enhancing safety during critical situations. This episode uncovers how community collaboration has fueled technological advancements that protect first responders, all while local businesses like Sobie Meats carve out their niche amidst big-box competition. Learn how focusing on hormone-free, antibiotic-free meats has allowed Tim to tap into the growing consumer demand for trustworthy food options. Don't miss out as we express our gratitude to the Walker community and invite you to experience the local charm and dedication that Sobie Meats has to offer.
Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, nicole DiDonato.
Speaker 2:Well, you've probably heard Mayor Gary Carey mention this a time or two that whenever he wants to get a pulse check on the community, he has a couple special places that he likes to go, and one of those is Sobe Meats. Well, today I am joined by the owner of Sobe Meats, the one and only Tim Sobe. Thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 3:Hey, so glad to be here, Nicole. Yes, yes, wonderful.
Speaker 2:Everyone in the community pretty much knows your name, but maybe not how you got your start. We'll kind of get into that a little bit. But why do you think Mayor Carey likes to say that your place is one of those?
Speaker 3:you know, one of those areas where he can go and really get a pulse check on the community. I think because we get so much support from the community and so many different people come in and without even soliciting an opinion, sometimes people will share that with you. So that kind of helps us to have a little bit of a pulse read on what's going on as well.
Speaker 2:I bet and now this wasn't always what you were doing, you and your wife Teresa, who is also very big in helping run the store as well. How did you officially get your start?
Speaker 3:I actually was a meat cutter for 13 years. Things softened at that time and got hired into the wood plant of Steelcase and I was there for 13 years and then, like thousands of others, got laid off. Teresa was at Hartford Insurance for 27 years. She was downsized and we both had nothing to do at that time Three kids at home and the old saying when a door closes, a window opens and we started looking at. I grew up in Martin and worked at the grocery store in Martin and learned to cut meat there. We looked at going into that market and it just wasn't meant to be and ended up, you know, doing our gig in Walker and that was in 2004. So, coming up on 21 years, Wow, wow.
Speaker 2:And this is your technically second location. You had a smaller location just down the road in Remembrance. And according to Mayor Carey, it was pretty tight. It was already popular then, you know, but needed more room to grow, right?
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, as I said, at the old location it was so tight you had to have an employee on your back because there wasn't enough floor space and then the building that we're in it was a family dollar at before that and that closed up and we were able to get this building. So it's been just a great run for us in history ever since.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and you know what is it about kind of like being a butcher shop and I know you're more certainly than a butcher shop, but uh, you know what is it about that type of industry that you really enjoy about it.
Speaker 3:So being a meat. I would, even as a young young kid I was was interested in being a meat. I would even as a young young kid I was was interested in being a meathead, being a meat cutter and then getting our shop going. We all have different things. You want to be a painter, you want to do concrete, want to be an electrician. Mine was meat and it doesn't pay as much as other industries do, but we all have to eat at steady work, so that's a great thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and probably a great reason folks like to come into your place is that food brings people together. So, what a wonderful way to kind of do that for a community.
Speaker 3:Sure, and I actually kind of stumbled upon a couple things. One was my first thoughts were to support other farmers, guys that I went to school with so local beef and produce and things like that and real quickly it became evident people's bigger thing they were worried about was what was in their food. So we're big on meat that doesn't have steroids and hormones, local produce as much as we can, and business is not easy to get into. So other entrepreneurs that are starting. If it's local barbecue sauces, rubs, seasonings, bakery, whatever that is, we love to be the door for somebody to bring their products into our shop. It makes it a little bit more niche-y that way.
Speaker 2:Yes, knowing that that's some place that you, or items that you can't get anywhere else.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Yep. And for a lot of those people, you know, whatever that is. Okay, I got this local jam. Where can I get my start? I can't just get in the door at a Meyers or pick any big box store. So even on a small scale, we'll get one case from them just to get them going.
Speaker 2:That is incredible. So it's great and you kind of know the struggles of being an entrepreneur because you were at one point.
Speaker 3:There's nothing easy about business, even spelling it. Yeah, yeah Well we can try that a little bit later.
Speaker 2:Oh that is awesome and we you know, of course. Maybe you have seen some of these meat sticks that we have on our table right here. Thank you for bringing some.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely it smells amazing.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, we have to finish taping this before we can indulge, so why do you think people love these meat sticks?
Speaker 3:Well, number one, they're a great snack and some of the other markets in town. They had their hot stick and we opened our shop. I'm not saying this braggingly, but we have a bigger selection of meat sticks than anybody else, probably in West Michigan. And, as I've always said, listen to your customer. They'll tell you what they want. And we would try other flavors. And well, hey, do you have something in this flavor? Teriyaki or whatever that was. So the selection kind of grew. So we have everything as sweet and mild, the honey barbecue. Our hottest one is a fire stick. There's a little bit of heat but it won't kill you. It's not like I dare you to eat one of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did you bring them here, is that? So I don't have the fire.
Speaker 3:I might've hid one in there, so surprise.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's, that's incredible. And, um, you know you were mentioning how you like to help entrepreneurs and this, and that it's all about giving back to the community. You're you're really a huge pillar in the Walker community.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's um great to do that. Yeah, and it's great to do that. You can't make a deal with God. All right, but before we got our business going, as we said, if it's meant to be, and we get the business going, we want to do things to do God's work and help back whatever organization or even locally. If somebody has cancer, they're doing a fundraiser, whatever that is Church auction, police fire, all that.
Speaker 1:Blue.
Speaker 3:Star Mothers. We love being part of that and helping out.
Speaker 2:We all need a helping hand right, yes, yes, you and Teresa are just wonderful about that and you've made so many friends out of it as well. And do you have some of those folks and families kind of coming back to you and expressing gratitude? What do they say? Absolutely yeah, it's folks and families kind of coming back to you and expressing gratitude and what's?
Speaker 3:what are they? Absolutely yeah, it's all that. And um, I I think back one that comes to mind, um drew. I believe he was only about 18 months at the time and he had cancer on his tongue. Um, he's still alive today. So I'm guessing, oh man, I'm guessing it's been probably at least 15 years, but the family still comes in and they support us.
Speaker 3:And the other most beautiful thing about that is, okay, what Teresa and I do to help promote or do a gift card donation, whatever, but the community itself and that's one of the things I absolutely love about Walker is we're family, christian-oriented in Walker and people love to help one another out. Right, yes, yes, and it's just so huge, even if it's a last minute. We put a collection can on the counter. People know what it's for, a handful of change and some dollar bills in there, and we just thank all of our customers for being part of helping the community, and we've done that for Walker Police and Fire numerous times and they're right there to pitch in and help out, and God bless all of them.
Speaker 2:I know this community has such a huge heart, so giving and you do bring up your, your public safety support, military support, you support so many groups but, yeah, our public safety.
Speaker 3:You've actually taken some of your anniversary kind of fundraisers that you like to throw every year and you put those towards giving back yeah, so tell us about those yearly so, um, thin blue line of michigan was one that we did a few years and last few, and then we've done that for Police and Fire and Police and Fire works so closely as it is, so there's things that both of them need and it's kind of good, you know, knowing about how much money our customers help us raise, much money our customers help us raise. Let's say it's somewhere in that $3,000 to $6,000 range. Then one of the ones who would like to get is like a side-by-side to go down the trails. We know we don't raise that much at one time, so let's pick something that's manageable, that we have a chance of hitting the goal right.
Speaker 3:And last couple of years. Thanks to their help, we've been able to do that, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, there are some lights at emergency scenes for both police and fire, very huge. Also, drones, an indoor drone which actually, while police do utilize it, they help out fire on fire calls and such, and that's pretty incredible on fire calls and such, and that's pretty incredible, way incredible.
Speaker 3:Do you remember the first call that?
Speaker 3:they had, if I remember right, in the second drone they have. They call it the Sobe drone because everybody helped them raise the money and we had a local 911 call they had to do and it involved chemicals and a fire and everything else and used. They said, hey, let's get the sobi drone, um, and they only test drove it one time before that, so it was indoors and they used that. They flew it in with the cameras on, not only to keep tabs on what was going to happen when they put water on the chemicals, and but then I think it was like seven or eight first responders could watch it on their cell phone, so not only they could see what was going on, not one man or woman had to endanger themselves and sued up to be inside not knowing what was going to happen. So just a phenomenal thing. So that's great. So thank you, walker residents for making that happen. The Sobe drone I love. That's great. So thank you, walker residents for making that happen.
Speaker 2:The Sobe drone. I love that, I love that and, you know, looking forward.
Speaker 3:Where do you, you see you guys going, you know, in the future, I don't know when it's going to happen, but I see us going to retirement. No, but as far as another location, I'm not getting any younger. What we have we have just a phenomenal team that works for us and they do a great job as well. Oil, wonderful people, and so not really looking to expand anywhere. It's manageable, and Teresa and I are able to get out a couple extra weekends here and there, and that's good. Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:And we know you're well. You don't have competition elsewhere, but we know there's a few other meat markets in the area, right, oh sure?
Speaker 3:And there's always competition, and competition is good. But yet since we've opened up, unfortunately there aren't as many meat markets as we used to have 20 years ago in Grand Rapids. But whether you come to us, you go to Lavendusky's, you go to Frank's Market, no matter what that other market is you go to. We don't look at that as hey, how come you're going to the competitor. All us little guys, we're little families and we're fighting to make a living. A big box store I could pick any of of them, but they would love to see us do battle and put one another out of business. Then that little market is gone for good. So, and for people out there watching us support everybody, so we so appreciate that one myers or costco or all these is going to outsell all of us put together, and how do you think you've been able to survive when you do have these larger stores, super chains, coming in?
Speaker 3:I think In the last 20 years. Certainly people are way more in tune of what's in my food, so we don't have hormones and steroids and antibiotics and things in the meats. I want to know where my food comes from. Is it healthy? Along with that, and then, as we mentioned other entrepreneurs, we have those small niche products. So where can I go to get what I know and trust is healthy? And then maybe some of those niche products that I can't get anywhere else. So those are a couple of the biggest things that I think have really helped us out.
Speaker 2:All right, wonderful, and we don't want to keep you too long. I know Teresa's probably running the store while you kind of came over here.
Speaker 3:I'm on the clock, okay. Yes, that's right, but but really quickly.
Speaker 2:For folks who may not have um had the chance to experience sobeys. Where can they find you and when can they find you?
Speaker 3:uh, we're at 3450 remembrance road in walker and um sunday and monday I'm say we're closed then, but that's the weekend for hard-working staff. So we're open tuesday through saturday. Yes, yes we've got a lot so stop in and see us and, and if we're not there, leave a message on the answer machine. We've still got one of those too.
Speaker 2:I'm old and old-fashioned, so approachable though. And where else can you find that? Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Tim. Well, thank you, and thanks for everybody out there for watching and tuning in and everybody in Walker. We love them all. And everybody in Walker.
Speaker 2:We love them all, of course, Thanks, nicole, and we appreciate you and Teresa.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Thank you for tuning in to this Maiden Walker podcast.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Made in Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, michigan. You can find Made in Walker wherever you get your podcasts.
