SALEM, N.H. - Melanie Davis of Derry was there for the meat.

Lunch meats, seafood, roast beef and pork chops to name just a sampling of the products in her shopping cart at McKinnon's on Route 28 in Salem.

"I usually buy three weeks' worth," the 33-year-old mother of three said.

It was only her second visit to the store - but that's pretty good for someone who has "no brand loyalty."

"I go where the sales are," Davis said.

Plus, she's looking for good quality.

"I had heard from people in Massachusetts - some Italian friends - who had shopped at McKinnon's in Danvers," she said. "I take their cooking advice."

So when she heard McKinnon's was opening up locally, she couldn't wait.

"When my sister and I came here for the first time, we were like kids in a candy shop," Davis said. "We had to walk around for a while. Every time you turned a corner, you'd find more and more stuff."

Such praise is music to the ears of co-owners Ed and Carl Penta, who held the grand opening for their 23,000-square-foot grocery store in September.

"We are one of the best kept secrets in the business," said Carl Penta, 45, who focuses much of his energy on stocking the Angus beef shelves and fine-tuning display cases. "People had heard we were opening a small butcher shop. Little did they know."

The company's stores in Danvers and Everett are much smaller than the new one in New Hampshire, and do offer fine cuts of beef, along with a variety of other foods. But the Salem store goes even further, the brothers said, and is a "one-stop shop."

"We have everything," said Carl.

The result is that the supermarket hasn't just gained the attention of shoppers: The competition is noticing, too.

"I call this the DeMoulas board room," Carl said, motioning around him to in one of the numerous meat aisles.

He said the representative from the competition come in frequently to check out McKinnon's prices.

"They price stuff right," he said. "So if they are in here looking at our prices, we must be doing something right."

Ed Penta, 46, who focuses on the business and marketing end of the stores, noted that in many ways opening McKinnon's on a busy highway that already has a lot of supermarkets is akin to a David-and-Goliath fight. They are up against food retail giants including Stop & Shop and Wal-Mart, along with DeMoulas.

"There's a lot of competition," Ed said. "We try to differentiate ourselves. We are not trying to go upscale, but at the same time, most people think that a butcher shop consists of a guy behind the counter with a bloody apron."

The Pentas have worked hard to dispel that myth.

In fact, from the moment shoppers enter the store, they are treated to what the brothers have sought to create: a shopping experience.

Soft light emanates from Angus beef displays. Someone is almost always standing near the entrance to greet shoppers and hand them sale flyers. Polished cement floors shine with earth tones that vary from department to department.

The aisles are wide open, with room for two or three passing carts.

Many of the shelves are made of an assortment of wood. And everywhere, white-smocked helpers are busy preparing food or helping customers.

In fact, Ed said, the new store doubled the company's payroll by adding 150 new employees.

One of them is Ruthie Varga of Salem, N.H., who works in the butcher department. She said the response from customers since the opening has been terrific.

"People have been waiting for something like this for ages," said Varga, whose husband is a butcher for another supermarket but buys his meat at McKinnon's.

Ed said the store is true to its name: McKinnon's Market & Super Butcher Shop.

"It's wall-to-wall meat," he said during a recent tour of the store which features 149 linear feet of self-serve meat shelves.

"This is what our customers have come to expect," he said.

But Larry True, the seafood manager, said it's not all about the beef.

"The owners made a commitment to the community that they wanted to be in the seafood business, too," he said.

The market buys fresh fish daily from North Coast Seafoods in Boston. True said that the store provides different types of fish for different types of buyers.

Fish caught by small boats on a hook and line in Cape Cod, for example, is sold at premium prices - $9.49 a pound for haddock, because it's of the highest quality.

Fish caught by larger commercial draggers - in nets that drag the ocean floor - is priced a little differently, because the quality isn't quite as high, he said. It goes for $6.99 a pound.

"How it's caught determines the quality," he said.

But the seafood display also has fresh lobsters, a sushi bar, Alaskan king crab legs, lobster tails and a variety of other products, all situated in front of a wall of multi-colored tiles reminiscent of a sparkling ocean. Dozens of metal sculptures of fish and shellfish made by a pair of Rockport artists hang on the wall.

Jeanette Sheehan of Newton, N.H., was in the store one day last week with her 2-year-old-daughter Emma and a friend, also from Newton.

"This is my first time here," she said, noting that she had been to the Danvers store many times. "I'm so happy there's one up here. This one is a lot bigger and has more to offer. I love it. Now that I know it's here, I'll be coming back."