After nearly 25 years, popular Mission Meats in Kelowna closes doors
Mission Meats — the go-to shop for specialty items, pepperoni, smoked sausage, and other groceries in Kelowna — has closed its doors after nearly 25 years in business.
It all started in 1997 when Randy Gray moved to Kelowna and began to purchase equipment and build the business up slowly.
“I did that for years on end,” Gray said.
His wife Sharon did all the paperwork to ensure the business stayed afloat, while Gray did custom cutting, and made specialty sausages from customer recipes.
“I would go in there with my head down and work,” Gray said.
Gray tried to sell the business off and on for about three years, as he wanted to keep it in the community.
“When my wife took ill three years ago, we put the business on hold and wanted to sell the property. I had to work to keep my mind busy until the end of the year.” Gray said.
Gray had planned to close the doors in May of 2022 after his wife passed away but when his son unexpectedly passed away in October, he chose to close the business earlier.
“It was challenging, dealing with one and then dealing with two, I couldn’t continue. I do owe it to my customers,” Gray said. “I know when there’s a tragedy in a family people don’t think about customers, but everybody mourns differently.”
Throughout the two decades Gray operated the business, he always believed in building relationships with customers and giving them a quality product.
“It was a lot of dedication, day after day to keep the business going and get established,” Gray said.
Mission Meats was treated as a specialty store by members of the community coming in for special occasions, but every day Gray looked forward to working with customers to make them the product they wanted.
“I’m going to miss that the most. Service isn’t like that anymore, you go pick it up and leave, and that’s how society is now, people are always in a hurry, or they just don’t eat healthy. I tried to bring in the healthiest foods I could get,” Gray said.
READ MORE: West Kelowna gym's business licence not renewed for violating health orders
When the doors closed, Gray received a lot of feedback from loyal customers who were saddened to see the meat and deli shop close.
“Getting to know people, it’s been very nice to build relationships with customers. Giving quality food to people in Kelowna was my goal, I looked forward to doing that every day of the week, I really did,” Gray said.
Gray had the same customers come into the store on his last day as he did on the day he opened the doors.
“That meant a lot to me. It was hard leaving, it still is hard, but with retiring, I have to take it day by day and see where it goes from there,” Gray said. “It was always about the customers, getting up in the morning and making a quality product for the customers.”
Looking back, one of his favourite memories as a business owner was the annual July 1 barbecue in front of the store.
Now that Gray has closed the business, he is taking this time to get ready and move out of the building.
He is unsure if he is going to stay in Kelowna, but is open to working part-time, helping people, and volunteering to keep busy. For now, he wants to spend time with his daughter and close friends.
“When you go into a business broke and trying to get established in life, it was the hardest 10 years of our lives here, but I always believed in working hard, and achieving things, and I think I’ve done that,” Gray said.
Gray and Sharon were married for over 30 years and raised two children together.
“Everyone says not many people can work with their spouse, you add double to your marriage that way. We always did everything together, but it made our marriage a lot stronger because we appreciated how hard each other worked, even if things were tough,” Gray said.
Going forward, Gray is taking it day by day and is hopeful the next day will be better.
“I’m going to miss it, I really am going to miss this place, but if I don’t move on, there are too many memories,” Gray said.
“Thank you to everybody for the support over the years, it meant a lot to me and Sharon from the bottom of our hearts.”
To contact a reporter for this story, email Emily Rogers or call 250-718-0428 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.
We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above.
