BELTON, Texas — Cheezy's Meat Market in Belton is bouncing back after a few months of slow business, and it all started with a Facebook post.
"I know it had been slow, and I looked at my account and everything," owner Kevin "Cheezy" Stewart told 25 News.
"The payroll taxes and all that stuff hit at one time and put us negative in our bank account, so I just put out a plea."
Cheezy said he was hopeful a few customers would come out, but was blown away by what happened after the post was shared more than 900 times.
"People have showed up, it's been awesome," Cheezy said.
"We have so many new customers coming in seeing our cry, customers are sharing our posts."
The community showed up in droves. Stewart posted the next day saying they were slammed and a few days later that many of their items had sold out.
"People are just coming out of the woodwork. I am so proud of my fellow Texans," Cheezy said.
"I can keep paying my crew and paying my bills. I'm not worried about me for a little bit, but as long as I can pay the bills and pay them, we're going to continue as long as I can. We just need people to keep supporting local businesses."
He said his business is not the only one struggling right now. After seeing the power of social media, he used his page to encourage people to shop at other small businesses as well.
Big Krumknow's Crumbdoughs was one of the pages shared, and Owner Jason Krumknow said it's made a huge difference.
"The last week and a half, two weeks, we've seen a big increase in traffic," Krumknow said.
"It's definitely helped out and everything is starting to pick back up."
Krumknow operates a family owned breakfast shop in Holland that opened just before the pandemic started.
Krumknow said each year business slows down when school gets out of session.
"Summer times are really, really slow."
"Especially this summer. I think a lot more people were going on vacation so we saw a big decline in business."
Both Krumknow and Stewart hope to see the support continue, because money spent locally stays in the community and helps keep the economy healthy.
