page_title: Butcher
section_title: Butcher shop
hierarchical_section_title: Butcher / Butcher shop
caption_attribution_description: English: Boucherie du Bac, 82 Rue du Bac, 75007 Paris, France. Français&#160;: Boucherie du Bac, 82 Rue du Bac, 75007 Paris, France.
context_page_description: A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat, or participate within any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat and poultry for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments. A butcher may be employed by supermarkets, grocery stores, butcher shops and fish markets, slaughter houses, or may be self-employed.
  Butchery is an ancient trade, whose duties may date back to the domestication of livestock; its practitioners formed guilds in England as far back as 1272. Today, many jurisdictions offer trade certifications for butchers. Trade qualification is earned through a three to four year apprenticeship although some training organisations qualify their students sooner, depending on their competency. In some countries, once a butcher is trade qualified, they can learn to become a master butcher.
context_section_description: Butchers sell their goods in specialized stores, commonly termed a butcher shop (American English), butchery (South African English) or butcher's shop (British English). Butchers at a butcher shop may perform primary butchery, but will typically perform secondary butchery to prepare fresh cuts of meat for sale. These shops may also sell related products, such as hot food (using their own meat products), food preparation supplies, baked goods and grocery items. Butcher shops can have a wider variety of animal types, meat cuts and quality of cuts. Additionally, butcher shops may focus on a particular culture, or nationality, of meat production. Some butcher shops, termed "meat delis", may also include a delicatessen.
  In the United States and Canada, butcher shops have become less common because of the increasing popularity of supermarkets and warehouse clubs. Many remaining ones are aimed at Hispanic and other immigrants or, more recently, those looking for organic offerings. Supermarkets employ butchers for secondary butchery, but in the United States even that role is diminished with the advent of "case-ready" meat, where the product is packaged for retail sale at the packinghouse or specialized central processing plants.
caption: Boucherie du Bac, 82 Rue du Bac, Paris.
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