I received the weekly batch of grocery store mailers today, and started looking for spare ribs.
One discount store offered them as cheap as $1.50/lb., while the mainstream Vons/Albertson's store was selling for $2.50/lb. Both advertised as 'previously frozen'.
I live up the coast from Los Angeles (no, not Malibu!) What are the current prices of spare ribs where you live? Tell us where, too -- maybe we want to move there!
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I'm not a wise shopper. I rarely have any awareness of the price of meat per lb, I just look at the total price. That said, I'm sure there isn't a great deal of variation in the typical weight of a rack of St. Louis ribs. Right now, at the places I shop, a standard rack is going to cost about $24-$26. It sucks.
They used to be $2.60/# but after that meat plant was hacked they went up and have never come
back down. I buy most of my meat at Costco unless I'm looking for something that is heritage or pastured. Now its almost $5/lb for St Louis and a three pack usually is $40-45 ☹ï¸
Both at my butcher in Wisconsin and Illinois I’ve frequented I paid about $20 a rack for baby back. Spares were a dollar cheaper per pound in Wisconsin and not in stock at my Illinois butcher. I think at Costco they’re $3.99/pound I believe. The local grocery at the lake house has duroc baby back ribs and I picked up 2 racks. $6.99/pound. They’re in the freezer now and they look a little on the skimpy side but I’m excited to try them.
At my local grocery store, for commodity pork, whole spares are going for $2.29/lb (~$14 a rack). St. Louis cut are mysteriously not on the web site at the moment, but baby backs are going for $4.78/lb (also about $14 a rack).
I'm not a wise shopper. I rarely have any awareness of the price of meat per lb, I just look at the total price.
What I've started to do is keep a log on my phone of the price/lb of various cuts of meat over time that I buy. This helps me recognize a good normal price and a good sale price.
Here in the northern Virginia burbs of DC, our local Harris Teeter has center cut SL spares for $4.99/lb currently, which is actually down from $5.49/lb back in April. The high-end grocer, Wegmans, has them for $6.69/lb, up from $5.99 in April. Wegmans also sells a "family pack" of (if memory serves) two racks packaged together, and that is currently $5.99/lb, up from $5.39. Wild Fork has Berkshire spares for $8.88/lb as of this writing, Porter Road goes for $28 for a 2-3lb rack ($9.33 to $14/lb), CrowdCow for $9.28/lb.
Baby backs are currently $7.99/lb at Harris Teeter (and they're the Smithfield "extra meaty, meaning they have loin meat on top of the ribs), a big jump from $3.99/lb at the beginning of June. Meanwhile, Wegmans has babies for $6.89/lb, go figure. This is unchanged from early June and up from $6.49/lb in April. WF and PR have no BBs at the moment, CrowdCow has them for $12.44/lb.
As mentioned above I don’t look at the price per lb either, never have.
If it’s a price I live with it’s in the cart.
According to my Flipp app
fresh ribs 4.49
cryovaced 2.97
are the best prices in my area this week.
I rarely buy cryovaced ribs any more,
prefer fresh.
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