63% of PA Deer Processors Have No Website or Facebook Page
Deer processing in Pennsylvania is still a word-of-mouth business. Of 306 processors, 194 (63%) have neither a website nor a Facebook page. The dedicated deer shops are the least connected: 71% of businesses that exist mainly to process deer have no web presence, against 50% of butcher shops that also take deer.
Only 22% list an email address, 12 post a per-deer price, and for 38% we couldn't find posted hours anywhere. For hunters, the phone is still the only reliable way to know whether a shop is open, has room and what it charges.
Online presence of 306 PA deer processors
| Measure | Processors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Has a website | 97 | 32% |
| Has a Facebook page | 69 | 23% |
| Website or Facebook | 112 | 37% |
| Neither | 194 | 63% |
| Lists an email address | 67 | 22% |
| Posted hours found | 191 | 62% |
| Posts a per-deer price | 12 | 4% |
| Has at least one Google review | 225 | 74% |
By type of business
| Type | Total | No website or Facebook |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated deer / wild game processor | 192 | 137 (71%) |
| Butcher shop that also processes deer | 114 | 57 (50%) |
By region
| Region | Processors | No website or Facebook |
|---|---|---|
| Northcentral | 29 | 20 (69%) |
| Northwest | 49 | 33 (67%) |
| Southwest | 51 | 34 (67%) |
| Southeast | 69 | 43 (62%) |
| Southcentral | 68 | 41 (60%) |
| Northeast | 40 | 23 (57%) |
Crawford County, one of the state's largest processor markets, is the extreme: 9 of its 10 processors have no website or Facebook page. Hunters Sharing the Harvest participants are mostly offline too: 75 of 110 (68%), so a donor often finds those shops only through the HSH list or by asking around.
Why so many shops stay offline
- Many processors run a few weeks a year out of a garage or farm building. A website isn't worth it to them.
- Capacity is the constraint, not marketing. Busy shops fill up on opening weekend and don't need more customers. The hunter's problem is finding a shop with room.
- Program lists from the Game Commission and Hunters Sharing the Harvest are often the only public record of a shop.