70 Years in the Merrimack Valley: A Family Legacy

From our beginning on a cold and snowy winter day in January of 1955 until now, 70 years later, Butcher Boy has been woven into the fabric of our neighborhoods and surrounding Merrimack Valley communities.

Even before Butcher Boy opened, the Yameen and Maroun families had an established history as a part of the U-Save Market on Broadway and the Thrift on South Union St. in Lawrence. Their first Butcher Boy store was located on a dirt road in Salem, NH, on what is now Route 28. Even back then it was a well-traveled thoroughfare between Boston and New Hampshire. It was a different time when everything in our meat case was priced at under $1/lb and families enjoyed daily homecooked meals. And who could forget our iconic refrigerator “Bake-O-Meter” that would spin to give home cooks the correct oven temperatures and how long to cook each cut of meat? Long before the internet, we were proud to be the go-to for cooking tips in this region!

It wasn’t long before our reputation for customer service and offering the highest quality meats was well established. Many of our customers visited us daily for the freshest ingredients. Others stopped by on their way to the Lakes region or other vacation destinations. As one of the few businesses open on Route 28 in those early days, we welcomed the thousands who passed by on their way to the Rockingham Race track or chose to do their weekly shopping on a Sunday when the Massachusetts stores were all closed due to the blue laws.

As the Merrimack Valley grew and evolved, so did Butcher Boy. We added a second store in a wooden building in North Andover in 1960, replacing what was formerly O’Keefe’s Country Store. At that time, North Andover was more farming than commercial. In fact, this particular neighborhood was almost named Stanleyville, and today you can find a boulder behind our current location with “Stanleyville” etched in it as a permanent reminder.

Did you know that our families also were in the restaurant business? In 1965 we opened the Butcher Boy Steakhouse in North Andover across the street from our store. It was known not just for its delicious steaks, but for its large open hearth and piano bar. Later, we opened a second Butcher Boy Steakhouse in Nashua, NH. After years of running restaurants in addition to our stores, we decided to focus on our core Butcher Boy Market business. Although the restaurants are closed, the good memories are so strong that people in the community still ask us to bring them back.

In the 1980s we made the decision to expand in North Andover. It took nearly a decade to realize that goal, but after over forty years in Salem, we completed our Osgood Street market and plaza project and relocated there in 1996.

Throughout the past seventy years, our story as an independent service business has been one of deep community roots, service, and strong growth. As we look back on how far we’ve come, we look forward to serving our customers’ next generations in the Merrimack Valley and beyond.

Help us celebrate 70 years in the community! Do you remember shopping at Butcher Boy in one of our first locations or did you enjoy dining at one of our steakhouses? We’d love to hear from you – share your Butcher Boy stories as we proudly celebrate seven decades of tradition.

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