Hey folks, I took a few minutes to go to four leading online meat retailers and compile some direct comparisons on meat prices as of yesterday, 25 Feb 2023. I looked at Creekstone Farms, CrowdCow, Porter Road, and Wild Fork, and grabbed prices for a representative range of nine different cuts of beef or pork.
I tried hard to make apples-to-apples comparisons. CrowdCow and Wild Fork present their prices by weight, but the other two charge by the cut, and give a range of typical weights. In those cases I chose whatever was smack in the middle of the range and did the math for the by-weight values, and when there was a choice, always chose the option that made the by-weight price as low as possible (e.g. ordering 8oz instead of 6oz filets).
Basic quality info: At Creekstone, all the beef is Prime and the pork Duroc. CrowdCow lists all cuts as "pasture raised", at least Choice on beef. At Porter Road I polled beef listed as dry aged and pork as pasture raised. At Wild Fork, the beef is either Prime or Angus (except chuck roast at Choice) and the pork designated "Aged Pork". Notably, their whole briskets and tri tips are Prime.
Shipping: All four have some minimum total to enable shipping, not hard to achieve. Creekstone offers free shipping for orders of $150+. Porter Road starts discounting shipping costs at a $125 total: free if you're in most of the eastern US, $15 flat rate for the next tier out, $35 flat for the furthest (western US). CrowdCow ships free for orders over $125, and Wild Fork has a $29/year membership that gives free shipping on all orders (air delivery excluded).
Bottom line up front: Wild Fork blows away the competition on pricing, and in the experience of many Pit members (myself included), the quality is quite excellent typically. Personally I'll be doing all my online meat purchasing from WF going forward except for the occasional special item I can get only elsewhere. (At least at the moment, they seem to also have a wider available selection too.)
Prices are in US dollars per pound.
There you have it...
I tried hard to make apples-to-apples comparisons. CrowdCow and Wild Fork present their prices by weight, but the other two charge by the cut, and give a range of typical weights. In those cases I chose whatever was smack in the middle of the range and did the math for the by-weight values, and when there was a choice, always chose the option that made the by-weight price as low as possible (e.g. ordering 8oz instead of 6oz filets).
Basic quality info: At Creekstone, all the beef is Prime and the pork Duroc. CrowdCow lists all cuts as "pasture raised", at least Choice on beef. At Porter Road I polled beef listed as dry aged and pork as pasture raised. At Wild Fork, the beef is either Prime or Angus (except chuck roast at Choice) and the pork designated "Aged Pork". Notably, their whole briskets and tri tips are Prime.
Shipping: All four have some minimum total to enable shipping, not hard to achieve. Creekstone offers free shipping for orders of $150+. Porter Road starts discounting shipping costs at a $125 total: free if you're in most of the eastern US, $15 flat rate for the next tier out, $35 flat for the furthest (western US). CrowdCow ships free for orders over $125, and Wild Fork has a $29/year membership that gives free shipping on all orders (air delivery excluded).
Bottom line up front: Wild Fork blows away the competition on pricing, and in the experience of many Pit members (myself included), the quality is quite excellent typically. Personally I'll be doing all my online meat purchasing from WF going forward except for the occasional special item I can get only elsewhere. (At least at the moment, they seem to also have a wider available selection too.)
Prices are in US dollars per pound.
Cut | Creekstone | CrowdCow | Porter Road | Wild Fork |
Pork butt | 14.00 | 15.02 | 8.47 | 4.48 |
Baby back ribs | 13.50 | 13.36 | 14.50 | 2.98 |
St. Louis cut ribs | 13.50 | 8.58 | 11.60 | 2.98 |
Choice chuck roast | n/a | 18.94 | 12.80 | 5.48 |
Whole brisket | 12.33 | 19.31 | 11.20 | 4.98 |
Tri tip | 25.55 | 23.14 | 26.30 | 10.98 |
Ribeye | 46.25 | 36.49 | 25.60 | 13.98 |
Filet | 62.00 | 53.98 | 58.00 | 29.98 |
Strip | 62.00 | 31.99 | 42.60 | 11.98 |
There you have it...
Comment