I hadn't been to my favorite local butcher shop in about 6 months. I knew the rise was in but was rather gasping in surprise when seeing some of their prices:

Tenerloin steak: $52/#
pepper bacon: $12.95
regular bacon: $7.50
Country ribs (pork) $7.95
Sirloin steak: $12.50
Hamburger: $4.65
Whole chickens : 2.95 each (almost small enough to be quail)

This is a local family operated shop open since before WW2.

Business was brisk, they had a dozen meat handlers from freezers COOLERS to customer packaging. Their sign outside said "hiring meat cutters, bring in your resume"

This message has been edited. Last edited by: signewt,

I was just up in Maine. Lobster meat was going for $65/lb.

quote:

pepper bacon: $12.95
regular bacon: $7.50

Is coarse grain pepper the only difference between pepper bacon and regular bacon? On the surface, $5.45 per pound difference seems insane for a little pepper.

Precisely why I buy my beef direct from the rancher. It lessens those price hikes while ensuring the quality of my grass fed and finished beef.

China has their finger prints on some of this. Their recent purchase of Smithfield pork producers (whoever thought selling our meat production facility's off to China was a good idea...) has effected pork prices. Their Smithfield pork loin back ribs were my go to ribs for years. Always very meaty, trimmed nicely with no bone chips and the membrane already removed. The last few times I purchased them the quality was absolute crap. Asked the meat manager about it and he simply said, China.

Now they have no way of knowing which product is processed and shipped in from China and which was done here in the states. He says the majority seems to come from China processors. As long as the animal is killed here it can carry the label "Product of the USA" even though it may have been sent to China to be processed and packaged and sent back here.

Why would they kill the animal here only to be sent to China to be processed and sent back here you ask? What's the answer to nearly every ass backwards situation in this country? Yes, Covid. Can't keep enough people employed here because of being paid to stay home and having to quarantine half the work force when someone gets the sniffles and they spin the wheel on the test and it happens to stop on positive. So far they haven't figured out how to slaughter and process an animal while working from home.

I was in the grocery store today and looked at their meat. "Choice"...not prime Ribeye steak was $18.95/pound!! I walked right on by. If more people do the same, the prices will come down.

Today's obscene prime will be tomorrow's cheaper ground beef......wait it out.
You must be subsidizing the freeloaders - no where near that costly in Eastern PA.

All of those prices are a LOT cheaper than I'm seeing here.

Beef has tripled in the last year here. Bacon has doubled. Chicken is not quite double, but close. Pork has doubled.

I'm buying a lot of cheap cuts these days...or most often, just not buying anything. I've got stores of meat. I'm not out yet. I can go another 6 months.

That’s amazing. I raise black angus steers and sell beef for $3/pound hanging weight and the buyer pays their butcher fees so they end up around $3.50/pound across the board. They’re about a year old when I take them in to the butcher. I’ve had a lot more people requesting beef this year and I suppose this is part of the reason.

^^ This!

I buy a full pig and a side of beef from a guy down the road. Goes to a local butcher, who processes it and even smoked what needs to be done.

Comes back fully vacuumed sealed and flash frozen for just about $5.50 a pound averaged out.

The last half of steer we bought was awful. The steaks we got went into the trash, extremely tough. Others we had bought were fine.

Have not bought one since.

quote:

Originally posted by Green Highlander:
I was just up in Maine. Lobster meat was going for $65/lb.

We all saw that coming with the new lobster fishing restrictions. Only took a few weeks to spike those prices.

quote:

Originally posted by Hammer1967:
The last half of steer we bought was awful. The steaks we got went into the trash, extremely tough. Others we had bought were fine.

Have not bought one since.

Unless you know who you are buying from and have been able to do some sampling before you buy this can happen. I used to raise my own beef and knew the processor very well. That was years ago and he has long passed. Now it's just the wife and I at home and we could not use a entire half a beef. I have been buying from online retailers when we want good beef. Steaks and briskets in particular come from online retailers like Snake River Farms, Creekstone Farms and Goodstock are some I have used and have been very happy with.

In my area it's difficult to get an appointment with a butcher. They are backed up from six months to a year.

I had posted earlier in the summer about how a pack of pork spareribs at Costco in previous years was $18-$22 depending on weight but this year I paid $55

quote:

Originally posted by Hammer1967:
The last half of steer we bought was awful. The steaks we got went into the trash, extremely tough. Others we had bought were fine.

Have not bought one since.

Why wouldn't you at least grind all that or get it ground???

quote:

Originally posted by Green Highlander:
I was just up in Maine. Lobster meat was going for $65/lb.

Holy crap!

Back when I worked in Maine ~20 years ago, whole lobster was like $5/pound. Literally as cheap as fast food. Folks would have conversations like "I'm a little hungry, wanna grab some McDonalds? Nah, lets get a couple lobsters."

I deal with 2 of the largest meat brokers in the country and have had multiple conversations with both. There's a few things at play here that have been passed on to me.

1st is the labor shortage. It's not that there's no one at these meat plants but when I used to get 10,000 pounds of pork to make sausage, etc. I used to get it in boxes with a bag. I now get it in cardboard combos (as I call it) bulk at about 1500 - 2000 pounds in each one. Think big cardboard hot tub. Reason given to me was that there's no one to box it, strap the box and label each box.

2nd is the trucking industry. Rates are all over the place and have damn near doubled since March of this year. If a trucking company gets a higher price from someone else to pick something up, they'll drop your load for the more expensive one. I've had it happen a few times already. Shipping my product around the country has been an ordeal because as mentioned above, they'll drop a load if someone pays more. Also a shortage of drivers. US Foods in Cleveland is offering a HUGE sign on bonus to get drivers since a lot have left. Same with a lot of trucking companies.

I'm sure there's more to it but that's what I see and hear on a weekly basis.

quote:

Originally posted by armedmd:
That’s amazing. I raise black angus steers and sell beef for $3/pound hanging weight and the buyer pays their butcher fees so they end up around $3.50/pound across the board. They’re about a year old when I take them in to the butcher. I’ve had a lot more people requesting beef this year and I suppose this is part of the reason.

Do you ship? Serious question. I see people "crowd fund" an entire cow, I would love to see you set this up for Sig Forum

I have a friend that's semi-retired, not as "semi" as he wished he was right now, due to the crazy pricing.

His old/current job is travelling from grocery store to grocery store doing price "changes", apparently the local chain stores contract this stuff out.

That was his semi-retired job, which is now his full time job because the number of price "changes" has gone straight crazy. Last week, one of his stores had 450 price increases in one week, week over week. Zero markdowns, zero... He does 12 different stores each week, same story at every one of them.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by Green Highlander:
I was just up in Maine. Lobster meat was going for $65/lb.

Holy crap!

Back when I worked in Maine ~20 years ago, whole lobster was like $5/pound. Literally as cheap as fast food. Folks would have conversations like "I'm a little hungry, wanna grab some McDonalds? Nah, lets get a couple lobsters."

Whole soft shell is about 11.99/lb, it's the picked meat that's gone crazy. Between the lack of processors, the restriction to the fishing area, and shipping (fuel) prices... it's just crazy.