Meet the owners of Breeden’s Quality Meats
Breeden’s Quality Meats has been serving up nostalgia and hand-cut meats since 1926.
The landmark downtown Bennettsville butcher shop on Broad Street was handed over to current owner Cam Stone, who started working part-time at the shop while he was in high school. After Cam graduated from Western Carolina, he purchased the store in 1988 from his maternal grandfather, John Thompson. The Thompson family bought the store from the original Breeden family owners sometime in the 1940s.
“People will walk in and say, ‘Oh my God,’ this reminds me of the store I grew up with as a kid, with our old-fashioned floors, old-fashioned counters, you know, antiques everywhere,” says Cindy, Cam’s wife, who does everything from cutting meat to bookkeeping at Breeden’s.
Some things have remained the same, and some things have evolved and changed since Cam and his wife, Cindy, took over. Breeden’s has always been known for their fresh-made, in-house Certified South Carolina pork sausage, hand-cut Angus steaks, Corriher country ham, chicken, plus locally sourced jams, marinades, raw honey from hives in the Stones’ backyard, sauces and spice rubs, as well as Stanton’s Barbecue and Mr. B’s biscuits, mac and cheese and casseroles to heat and serve.
And about 16 years ago, the couple expanded the retail business into providing wholesale service to more than 50 clients (restaurants and independently owned grocery stores) throughout the area; they also earned their HACCP certification.
“About 20 years ago, we also amped up our product line to include Angus rib-eyes and seafood, like salmon,” says Cindy.
Breeden’s is also known to only provide top-notch customer service, with all orders custom-made and packed fresh. In fact, folks consistently travel from all over – from Richmond, Scotland, Chesterfield and Darlington counties – for their hand-cut meats. Even through the pandemic, the couple never closed their doors; in fact, business has surged.
“We’re very grateful and humbled by that,” says Cindy. “People know that everything’s cut to order, so they get what they ask for – especially nowadays, when people are more in tune with where their food is coming from. Honest to goodness, when you walk in the door, I’m behind the meat counter, where there’s the original butcher block, and I pull out a rib-eye loin, rip off a sheet of butcher paper laid on that block, and I hold a knife on it.”
Cindy and Cam, who works more on the wholesale side of Breeden’s, have been married 28 years. Their son practically grew up working at the butcher shop from the age of 5, carting out groceries to cars. He’ll be 26 this summer, lives in Hartsville, and works in the timber and real estate industry.
Cindy says the couple likes to cook, spend time on the water, fish and hunt, when they’re not behind the deli counter. Sometimes they’ll sneak off to their second home in Little River’s Coquina Harbor on a Saturday night after they’ve closed.
“Other than that, we’re just country people,” says Cindy. “We live out in the sticks and we like our privacy and our quiet.”
Breeden’s is located at 133 Broad St. in Bennettsville. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more info, call 843-479-3481 or visit them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Breedens-Quality-Meats-261456533101/.
