Today at the supermarket I found some prime grade ribeyes, even though this store doesn't typically carry prime beef. I didn't think much of it at the time, but now I'm curious about how those steaks ended up at a retail meat counter. The only thing I can speculate is that the restaurant market has declined during the pandemic and those steaks have to go somewhere.
Has anyone else seen prime beef showing up in unusual places? Does anyone have a better explanation of why?
One of our neighbors is an executive at Sysco, the large nationwide restaurant supplier, and he was talking about them having to get creative moving their perishables. I know their warehouse store down here has some great bargains. I also know some of the restaurants here are taking orders from good customers and purchasing in bulk for them from their normal suppliers. Luckily my next door neighbors owns a very large restaurant and we stocked up through them.
Donw - I thought you might be on the ES when I saw you mention weekly mosquito control sparying, LOL. My vacation home is on Chincoteague. I've been in that Sysco many times.
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Probably the area you are in. I'm in Los Angeles and my local supermarket carries Prime steaks and also Waygu. The best thing for me is that I rarely ever buy it at the given price, but will find these steaks marked down by 50% or more in the "Manager's Special" bin because they are close to their "sell by date". Ribeyes, filets, NY strips, etc. Nobody buys them because they think they are going bad. I buy them whenever I find them and have loaded up my freezer with them and about a month ago I found a beautifully marbled Waygu ribeye, ~ 14oz, for $15.
Hy-Vee and Fareway are the major chains in my area, they mostly sell choice. One of the Sam's in the area sells prime, but not the one close to me. I found these prime steaks at Fareway today.
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My ShopRite supermarket has started carrying prime grade standing rib roasts at the holidays. They have them this week. I haven't noticed any having been cut into steaks at the store, but at Christmas time I bought a second roast and cut it into steaks myself.
I guess I'm spoiled, our local food chain HEB always has prime beef. We also have Costco/Sams and a local butcher who exclusively carries CAB, which usually grades out to prime. It's really about all I ever eat, call me jaded.
You are probably right, that the prime beef has to go somewhere if the restaurants aren't selling it. People are sure cleaning out the meat counter at most grocery stores.
I find it at Costco and my butcher, but generally not the grocery stores. Haven't noticed a change, but then again it's not like I'm spending a lot of time in the store right now.
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