Meat vending pioneers fold business, list property

The popular butcher and meat vending pioneer Applestone Meat Co. is selling its Stone Ridge facility after shuttering its retail business.

Popular butcher Applestone Meat Co. has closed its retail locations in the Hudson Valley and put its state-of-the-art butcher shop and retail park up for sale in Stone Ridge.

Applestone began as a meat processing facility for farmers before transitioning to retail and specializing in locally sourced, whole-animal butchery with retail locations in Stone Ridge, Hudson and Eastchester. Founded by Josh Applestone, a third-generation butcher and co-author of "The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat," the company pioneered the 24/7 meat vending machine concept as an innovative way to bring an always-open craft butcher shop to several Hudson Valley towns.

In a 2018 interview with Bloomberg, Josh Applestone estimated that the Stone Ridge vending machines sold about 3,000 pounds of meat per week and represented 70 percent of Applestone's sales.

He also co-founded Fleisher's Craft Butchery and sold that company in 2013; Fleisher's Uptown Kingston location closed in 2017, leaving a neighborhood butcher shop void until the Meat Wagon arrived on the scene this year.

Stefano Diaz, who first got his start at Fleisher's and owns and operates Kingston's Meat Wagon, worries that the Applestone closure will leave customers with fewer choices beyond big box stores, like Hannaford or Shop Rite, for their meat products.

"There are still small stores like mine that are trying to produce a good quality product," said Diaz. "The need for better quality product is out there. It could take time for people to find their sources, but ultimately I think there is a good source for every community."

The 7,000-square-foot butcher shop and retail park facility was listed for $2.95 million on August 23 by Halter Associates Realty.

In July, Applestone Meat Co. announced it was closing its meat business, including all retail locations. Now, its facility is following the same fate.

The 7,000-square-foot butcher shop and retail park was listed for $2.95 million on August 23 by Halter Associates Realty. About 1,300 square feet of that overall site footprint is dedicated to humidity-controlled walk-in refrigeration. The adjacent Picard Building is a fully renovated retail space that also has a professional restaurant kitchen on the ground level and four office suites on the floor above.

Contents, like commercial kitchen equipment, are negotiable.

"In this case, there was an unfinished professional kitchen in one of the buildings with brand-new but never-used equipment, including a 12-burner Garland stove," said Halter Associates Realty broker for the property, Peter Cantine. "It's contents for a professional kitchen and meat-packing facility."

The listing includes a three-bedroom home on the property, as well as 28 parking spaces for staff, and an outdoor common area with grilling stations and a pavilion. Cantine said there has already been interest in the week the property has been listed but wouldn't disclose more details.

Josh Applestone and his company's future remains unknown; he declined to comment to the Times Union: Hudson Valley. However, the Applestone Meat Co.'s website announced the closure of its retail locations, stating: "In the immediate future we’ll be developing and offering products and services to help retailers expand their businesses through innovative technologies. We look forward to sharing more information about this soon."

Applestone's email signature provides a clue: his new title is CEO of Applestone Solutions. That company's website describes its mission as dedicated to building an "automated retail experience" for "24/7, low-touch purchasing" for stores and retail outlets, suggesting he may be replicating and scaling the popular meat vending machine model for other industries and businesses.

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