Beef Prices keep on climbing

[Lynn Dollar]

Being retired, my wife and I have the luxury to go to Sams on Wednesday mornings, around 8 am to 10 . And our Sams always has meat on sale then. I've bought some choice ribeye for $12 a pound.

I was actually encouraged by prime brisket at $5.50 . A few months ago, or maybe last summer, it was $7 a pound.

We've also found good prices on whole spares and butts.

[surfdog]

That’s a good deal. Around here prime hovers around $20/pound…up or down $2 on any given day.

I don’t eat it every day, and I’m certainly not a 1 percenter…but I’m am fortunate enough not to really care. Picked up a couple of prime NY strips the other day and they were everything we wanted.

[dpearce]

This makes me both sad and happy. Sad I’ll see these prices at my grocery store. Happy I went in with some guys on a whole cow from a local farmer last year. I may be sad when we check back with him. We shall see.

[J-Melt]

I bought a couple of briskets for church a couple weeks ago. They only had 19lb.+ prime briskets at $6.29/lb. They were likely the last ones I’ll cook for this church and we were going to be appreciating volunteers, so it was worth it. I’m also glad I have my 1/4 beef at home.

[Jerod Broussard]

I'm so thankful I converted our church years ago to doing pulled pork sandwiches instead of chopped brisket.

[rlozinak]

I just paid $6.49 for a 20lb prime brisket at the local meat market. I was surprised.

[Huskee]

I'm starting to lose my taste for steak, and I am actually OK with that considering its crazy prices.

[jfmorris]

I think next time I crave steak, I am going to pick up a pack of shoulder cut pork steaks, and make them Malcom Reed style. Much much cheaper.

[cruiseplanner1]

We have been grilling more pork rib chops as of late. Also country ribs and skinless chicken thighs. On the ribs and thighs they make you do more things with them than just grill although that works too. Souvlaki with a pork country rib is quite good.

[bbqLuv]

Beef will be its highest when the cow jumps over the moon

[surfdog]

OMG
Groan LOL

[Troutman]

What a bunch of whiners. You want $1/pound beef again then I have the perfect product for you. No kidding, it's beef and sea salt, that's it. Plus, it has an almost indefinite shelf life. Have at it.....

[SonOfAButcher]

I can vouch for the shelf life. That beef looks exactly like beef that I ate out of a C-ration can in 1975. The can date was 1950.:-)

[bbqLuv]

I went and look this up on the internet. You ca order it on Amazon and other places too.
I'm thinking, this might be good for emergency food supply.

[N227GB]

US Justice Department criminally investigating beef companies, WSJ reports

Posted from my phone.

[Alan Brice]

Everytime I go to Krogers, several per week, I go to the meat department n check for briskie.
Wednesday saw one (1) that I had been looking at for a week and they had reduced the price from $5.99 to $3.59 per pound. Score! $73.16 vs $122.08. Costco is $5.99 per lb.

[texastweeter]

And its got a jump start on the wet aging process.

[surfdog]

Well, they say that patience is a virtue. And in this case it paid off.

[wrgilb]

Since I get most of my meat at Costco, I just got shocked at Safeway today. I usually go by their meat counter just for a good laugh, for example their choice chuck roasts were $17.99/lb., Costco's are $9.99/lb.

The only meat I do buy there is outside choice skirt steak @ what was $12.99/lb. a couple of months ago. I picked up a package and without first looking was going to head to check-out. I then looked at the price and it was marked $21.99/lb., I thought that was a mistake and went back to check the other packages, no they were all that price.

Needless to say, I put it back and walk out, shaking my head.

[Alan Brice]

Just like my purchase on the post before, If they are going to have to eat it, they will get what they can.
As I said earlier, I go thru n check cpl times a week. I have seen a whole packer get cut up and the point n flat get repackaged to be sold for $6-7 per pound. Same meat just repacked. Also the sell by date gets extended by several days.

[N227GB]

I don’t have a Costco membership anymore, but every month or so, I tag along with a friend who does. I’ve noticed their steak usually costs a few dollars more per pound than at Aldi.

:shrug:

[RichieB]

That's crazy for a chuck roast. I picked up this week, regular $8.99/# on sale for $5.99.

[wrgilb]

Here's another one from today at our local Nob Hill, I sent the following message to the store manager and am waiting for a response before posting on our local social networks.

I'm hoping this is a mistake and not store policy. I wanted to bring this to your store manager's attention before posting anything on social media. I was in the S.V. store 2 weeks ago and as an old meat cutter and grill master, I always cruise the meat dept. I noticed you had whole choice packer briskets, which consist of the flat and the point but they were labeled just as flats for $14.99/lb.

These are mis-label and is deceptive labeling. At Costco you can get PRIME whole briskets in the $5 to $6/ lb. range. Flats only are always way more expensive per pound than whole briskets. I pointed out the mislabeling to the butcher on duty, he said the meat manager prices them this way to keep the price down. That doesn't make any sense at all because flats alone are always more costly per pound than whole ones.

After he said this, I realized he didn't know anything about brisket pricing, he then said that the meat manager knew what he was doing and my response was either he didn't know or if he did he was purposely misleading customers with the wrong description on the label and over charging them. Fast forwarding to today, A new batch of whole briskets were in the counter, labeled as flats and priced at $12.99/lb. Please let me know if you are going to label and price these correctly. If I don't hear back, I'll have to post on local social sites to make the public aware of your mislabeling practices. Thanks, Bill Gilbert

[realdocBBQ]

I'd think they'd have a whole case full of packer briskets that wouldn't sell under any circumstances, right? I mean how many people are looking to buy a whole 12-18lb hunk of brisket but don't realize that it shouldn't be $14.99 per pound? Oh well... store policy, dumb meat manager, poorly run store. Sounds like a recipe for closure before long, but what do I know?

[wrgilb]

Here's the response I got from the store.

5/3/2026

Dear Bill,

Thank you for taking the time to contact Raley’s with your inquiry.

We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. We will be escalating this to the Store Manager and District Manager for further resolution.

Thank you for caring enough to contact us, and thank you for your
patronage.

Sincerely,
Maryann
RSC

Case # 03245994

[surfdog]

Yes they replied…but will anything actually be done..?

[fzxdoc]

Sounds like a hard pass for a savvy brisket buyer.

Kathryn

[Michael_in_TX]

Today was the first time I actually "noped" out of buying beef. I mean....its Cinco de Mayo and Taco Tuesday! But skirt and flank were both $12/lb, that's $3 over what they've been for awhile.

That's not crazy, but with everything else being so expensive.....I elected to go for the thick bone-in pork chops at $3/lb instead. :/

[Andrrr]

That's a good point too. There are still some ok beef prices out there but with every other cost of life high as well, ya gotta make choices.

[Jerod Broussard]

Ladies on dayshift have me doing 3 racks of ribs for the morning. Almost $50 for da meat.

[Lynn Dollar]

Made our Wednesday morning Sams run .......... picked up baby backs marked down to $2.60 from $3.50. And splurged on prime ribeye marked down to $15 from $23. Reg price for choice ribeye was $17.

I normally find choice ribeye to be more than adequate, but these prime were really nice. Had great spinalis.

[Uncle Bob]

Costco ran a special recently on ribeye subprimal, I wonder if that's Sam's reacting in kind.

[Lynn Dollar]

Uncle Bob ....... no , this is just the usual Wednesday morning at Sams. I'm guessing that the meat they don't sell over the weekend gets marked down and put out on Wednesday. We like to go between 8 am and 9 am on Wednesday. And there's not a lot of people there at that time.

I don't think I've paid full price for a ribeye in at least a couple years.

[randy.56]

Been doing the same as you for a few years also. also note Friday's are another mark down day. Getting dangerously low, heading to Sams.

[fzxdoc]

That is so smart, Lynn Dollar . One of these Wednesday mornings I'll have to bust a move to Sam's. Sounds like a best kept secret waiting for me to get in on.

Kathryn

[Lynn Dollar]

Further thought, they could put the marked down meats out on Tuesday morning also.

Store wide, Mondays are picked over from the weekend. We go on Wednesday to give them ample time to restock.