Inside Saylors & Co in Hellertown

Saylors is named after owner and third-generation butcher Tim Mease’s mother, whose last name was Saylor. His family previously ran a farm store and a stand at the Allentown Fairgrounds Farmers Market, selling a variety of meats. When Mease married Maria Verzino (a former banker and Italian specialty store owner), they merged their businesses together and added “and Co,” dubbing Saylors a unique specialty food market.

Explain the importance of shopping locally, versus in big-box grocery stores.

Supporting your local businesses is vitally important to the health of the community you live in. When you support a local business, you are supporting local jobs, local schools and, by doing so, you’re directly putting money back into your own community. A customer [of ours] once put it best: “Amazon will never care to support your child’s Little League team.”

Tell us a little bit about how your business has adjusted during COVID-19.

COVID-19 has been a very challenging time for everyone. We were deemed essential by Governor Wolf’s mandate and remained open throughout the [pandemic] to serve our community as best as possible. Because of the influx of customers inside our store, we switched over to curbside to keep our employees and customers safe. We take orders over the phone and via email and deliver them to our customers as safely as possible.