Schneider’s Quality Meats, located at 1323 N. Illinois Route 3 in Waterloo, celebrated a changing of the guard last week. 

Longtime owner Mark Lengacher handed the keys of the business over to Robert Oerter. 

“We assure you, you’re being left in very good hands,” Mark and Robin Lengacher wrote in a Facebook post. “Robert has been with us for 22 years and has essentially been running the store for the past several. He knows Schneider’s inside and out!”

The Lengachers said the choice of retirement was a bittersweet moment with a range of emotions. 

“When we purchased the store back in July of 2000, we were scared to death,” their post states. “We had just signed our lives away and spent every dollar to our name. Neither of us were from Waterloo, and we were a little nervous. But it didn’t take long for us to realize it was one of the best decisions we ever made.”

The Lengachers said they fell in love with Waterloo, its customers and employees along the way.

“Thank you to every customer who walked through our doors, every organization that allowed us to serve you, every wholesale account that trusted us to provide our products in your establishments, and every family who included us in your holiday dinners and celebrations,” they said. 

They also thanked prior owners Clayton and Jeanette Schneider for entrusting them 25 years ago to carry on the store they had “poured blood, sweat and tears into” for many years. 

“We will treasure every moment forever,” the Lengachers said