Deshi Bazar — Local services in Gaithersburg

Walked in to get some fresh, locally slaughtered lamb for a dinner party. First of all I thought it was like a professional butcher shop with a nice clean glass display maybe some meat hanging up in a walk in freezer. Instead I walked into a convienence store that just so happen to have a makeshift butcher shop.

The store was messy. I mean MESSSYYYY! And not just in the "grocery side" where I wouldve tolerated it was behind the "butcher counter" Trash, random boxes and dirty mops and cleaning supplies just within inches of the butcher's work area.

That wasnt the worst part of my visit. While waiting to be served I observed the Butcher and a customer negotiating the price of what looked like a goat carcass. The customer was wishy washy and I dont think he was sold on the idea of purchasing half a goat, it looked tough and there was barely any meat on the scrawny carcass. The customer wasnt buying, but he (as in the CUSTOMER) had his grubby paws all over the raw meat! The butcher didnt try to shew him away or intervene in this clear violation of health standards.

As soon as I saw that, plus the dirty butch workstation, the smell and the deep freezers they had instead of walk in I LEFT. No...

I traveled 45 mins from Hagerstown to buy goat chops at Deshi Bazar (always buy from them). I asked for 3 lbs but I was turned down because they dont want to cut off whole lamb chops of 6-7 lbs for me and said that they will sell only if I take the whole 7 lbs or wait till someone comes to buy along with me. It was ridiculous and rude, this is not the way to run business!!!

With lot of disappointment, I googled halal meat store, lot of nearby butcher shops came up and drove another 5-10 miles to a place in Rockville. This place in Rockville was clean, less meat smell, employees behaved very prefessionally. Moreover, the meat was very nice, no fat on them compared to Deshi Bazar (which is usually full of fat, and resist to remove fat without weighing first).

Also, another time same month, I called the store and spoke to the owner like 6pm on a Friday asking for meat availability and he said to come over, I was there at 7:50pm, the "Open" sign was not lit but the store hours was till 9pm (per hours displayed on the window), so went inside the shop hesitatingly, but the owner said they are closed and asked to come at 10am.

Never...

I am (rather was ) a long time customer to avail good quality chicken and goat meat, and most of the time I used to end up with a big purchase of at least 15-20 pounds altogether... since I am a kind of guy who hates going to grocery frequently. One fine day while coming back from nearby Costco, I stopped by to purchase 20 pounds of chicken. After they handed over I suddenly realized something was wrong.. really wrong...went on to weigh again on their machine. OMG! My concern was just right, it was merely a 13 pounds instead of 20. Would you believe, this is happening in US. this is even unthinkable in India and any other countries where most of us (customers) came from. They even started yelling at me with their nonsense justification. So beware of these people with no business ethics. Wish I could take the...