Has anyone else noticed a recent grocery store trend involving hamburger? Ads saying something like "$2 per lb for hamburger" and, elsewhere in the same ad, "$3 per lb for unseasoned hamburger"? !!!! I now have to pay more just to get plain ground meat more or less like it came out of the grinder without some sort of undefined adulterants?

Maybe they're adding soylent green to it and keeping it quiet!

lol I haven't noticed that, but that's silly if that's happening.

I've never run across that myself.

But based on what you described, it sounds like their butcher must have made a big batch of pre-seasoned hamburger meat, expecting it to sell better that it did, and now they're trying to sell the seasoned meat at a discount before it goes bad.

Or maybe they're doing a test run of seasoned hamburger meat as a new product, and are trying to use the discount as an incentive to get more people to try it.

Either way, pre-seasoned hamburger meat isn't exactly common, and I don't imagine there's very much demand for it. High supply + Low demand = Lower price.

Local Safeway now carries like ten different varieties of ground beef. Angus, prime rib, Kobe (I'll call BS on that one), multiple others, plus seasoned beef. I don't need your boutique beef, please give me some 80/20 chuck and I'm cool.

They season the stuff that's about to go bad. Add a bunch of salt and it'll keep for a few more days. Then they lower the price to sell it off. You don't want that crap. Pay full price and get good beef.

Even better wait till round or chuck roasts are on sale and grind it yourself. Then you know what you are getting.

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They season the stuff that's about to go bad.

This is it exactly. Never buy preseasoned meat, poultry, or fish.

$2/lb for hamburger?!? Where?

I think the 80/20 stuff is about $4 - $4.50/lb but does the wife want that? Noooo. Gotta get at least 90/10. 93/7 is even better. Friggin $6/lb

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Originally posted by KShooter:
$2/lb for hamburger?!? Where?

I think the 80/20 stuff is about $4 - $4.50/lb but does the wife want that? Noooo. Gotta get at least 90/10. 93/7 is even better. Friggin $6/lb

Meijer grocery stores in NE Indiana had the ad. And try to explain to the wife that 70/30 or 73/27 lean-to-fat makes much juicier burgers than hers. Took years but I finally got through to mine on that subject (an extremely rare event, I assure you)!

It's all for the Millennials.

The seasonings hide the 20% rat that's blended in.

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Originally posted by Skins2881:
Kobe (I'll call BS on that one)

Their "Kobe" is simply intentionally incorrectly-labeled American Wagyu, an exceedingly common thing. It's been slang-ified here in the states, like calling all sodas Coke.

All Kobe is Wagyu, not all Wagyu is (from) Kobe, and American Wagyu is a derivative that's certainly similar but definitely not the same, plus Wagyu comes in 5 grades of quality anyway and when people pay big bucks for a steak it's usually Grade A5 and from Kobe.

That said, using any variety of Wagyu for burgers is pretty pointless, and certainly nothing like real Kobe A5 in steak form. The "Kobe" burger trend is pure hype, but generally harmless. A real Kobe A5 burger - say a 1/2 pound one - would have to sell for about $60+.