Best place to find good affordable meat ( online, Local ? )

[EaOutlaw1969]

Hi guys it seems I have no good source for meats I want to buy all the good " Butcher shops" closed down. now we are just stuck with Chain grocery stores that seem to be out of their mind with their price per pound and the size cuts they have in the cooler for sale.
To make it worse many of the things we buy on a weekly basis lets say ribeye steaks, pork chops etc are cut apparently by a blind guy that is in a rush.
For example we pick out a nice pack of ribeyes and get them home to find out it looks like they rushed it through the saw where it starts out 11/2 inch thick on one end and down to 3/4 of an inch on the other making it impossible to get a good even cook.
Other cheaper brand stores resort to stacking their cuts of meat so you only see the top lets say nice pork chop at a decent price but the bottom two or three chops you cannot see are not fit for my dogs to eat.
The worse is ground beef my main go to chain store is pretty good at providing good a quality product yet I am sure we all of experienced this to some degree getting the odd bit of bone or other debris in ground beef which will cause me to spit out what i am eating and not finish the meal.
It is so frustrating it is tempting me to become a veggie eater exclusively.
So is there a place online that provides consistent quality meats at a reasonable price?
Any takers on this one? Thanks for any help.

 

[Mengland89]

Some may kill me for saying it and some may applaud me for saying this but, I have had really good luck with places like COSTCO, Sam's club, and BJ's for bigger cuts of meat like brisket, pork shoulder, pork ribs (baby back/spare/st.Louis) and a few other things. For my "burger meat" and pork chops I don't used the big box discount chains. The Publix that is close to me has 3 professionally trained butchers with 15 years of experience and more near me. I see your in Florida and I am pretty sure there are quite a few Publix there but I am sure the butches can be hit or miss.

 

[fivetricks]

I also have very good luck with Costco. I'm also in an area with no "artesian butchers". Also check and see if you have any GFS stores near you. They will have a limited selection but generally what they do have is good.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

That is pretty much where we shop I just did not want to mention names since I have less than high opinion of them.
We used to love Sams but they closed the store we frequented and now would have to travel further to continue with Sams.
It seems that Publix thinks everyone is rich and wants a massive ribeye that cost 20 bucks or more to drag home only to find it has been mangled by Freddy Krueger. We end up waiting for our meats to go on sale and buying our fill then we have to freeze them. I would much prefer pay a little more per pound get the even thickness and quality we want and buy it as we need it. I hate freezing any meat. ( even with our Vacuum bags )
When every nutritional chart known to man shows a portion of beef should be no bigger than your fist , why in the heck do they insist on cutting up these ribeyes like it is a serving for a damn giant? it is all about the bottom line and not the customer. I think it is simple cut the meat in normal portions for normal size humans and for the weekend warrior that wants a massive Texas size monster have the the damn butcher cut it for them.

 

[gmc2003]

Most of our local grocers have at least one butcher on site in the meat dept. Unless they super busy they don't normally have an issue cutting a rib eye or <insert name of steak here> to order.

Chris

 

[jcam222]

I see there is a store near you called Western Beef Supermarket. Says they will cut beef for you there. Is that something you have already tried?

 

[chef jimmyj]

You are in Florida, there has to be some Cuban or Mexican Markets by you. I have always been happy with the meat and almost always cut to order.
When we can afford them, we buy Rib Eye Steaks cut 1 1/2" thick. They cook better, heavy sear outside, med/rare inside, then Bev and I Split it...JJ

 

[texomakid]

Very subjective but finding a source for good meat is important. I'm lucky that the local Brookshires has good meat at a fair price. They run the occasional special or items that's also good. Most of what I cook is Choice & Select but we always enjoy good Prime when we do purchase it.

I've seen $5.99 Select grade rib eye that were hands down better than $12.99 Choice (for tenderness)

I'm always on the hunt for good meat at a fair price - on sale is even better!

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Most of our local grocers have at least one butcher on site in the meat dept. Unless they super busy they don't normally have an issue cutting a rib eye or <insert name of steak here> to order.

Chris

That seems to be the issue, they butcher everything they have, like the pork belly I wanted I could only find pre cut into 1 inch strips or odd shape and size chunks with the skin still stuck on it. no slab of pork belly was available.
No Full brisket with the point is available at the store or their warehouse.
They used to be able to do like you say and cut whatever we wanted but now every time we ask ,it is sorry what we have is in the coolers already. I think they store less meat at our stores until the end of Hurricane season ( they were nailed too many times with power outages and loss ) I think since then they have generator power but not enough to power all the refrigeration equipment.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

I see there is a store near you called Western Beef Supermarket. Says they will cut beef for you there. Is that something you have already tried?

When I was still working they had a Western beef open up and they had great prices at first on some items to make it worthwhile to check them out.
Oddly enough for a store to be called Western Beef you would think they would have great beef ( not so much ) at least not at the Boca location. I stopped going to them when on a Thursday all the guys from work including myself went to their precooked deli counter for food they had prepared, you just had to heat it up. everyone got their food brought it back to work heated it up and all was good. it was a long holiday weekend we came back on Tuesday the next week and the same exact trays of food with food dried up on to the old crusty looking spoons still in place the same exact way they were on Thursday!!! everything was nasty looking Thursdays left overs they tried to say was fresh. It is like they only served us those bunch of lunches and no one else ordered anything it looked like they never covered it washed the spoon anything. it like they dropped the spoons in place and went on vacation themselves.
In all fairness I have never tried the location closest to me and never considered it a option but I may go in and test the waters to see if they are any better because my options are limited.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

You are in Florida, there has to be some Cuban or Mexican Markets by you. I have always been happy with the meat and almost always cut to order.
When we can afford them, we buy Rib Eye Steaks cut 1 1/2" thick. They cook better, heavy sear outside, med/rare inside, then Bev and I Split it...JJ

I have tried a few Cuban bakeries with lots of success when I can go in with an interpreter. going in alone as a white man that does not speak the language leaves me to point and say "uno por favor" meaning the ones I have tried either do not speak English or do not want to serve non Hispanic so they play dumb.
I have not gone into any of the Spanish grocery stores at all because of the experience I have gotten with the local Spanish speaking - Cuban bakeries.
none of their advertisements signs etc are in English which leaves my Wife and I feeling intentionally left out.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Very subjective but finding a source for good meat is important. I'm lucky that the local Brookshires has good meat at a fair price. They run the occasional special or items that's also good. Most of what I cook is Choice & Select but we always enjoy good Prime when we do purchase it.

I've seen $5.99 Select grade rib eye that were hands down better than $12.99 Choice (for tenderness)

I'm always on the hunt for good meat at a fair price - on sale is even better!

LOL Even on sale Ribeyes at any level choice prime etc have not been seen here at 5.99 a pound in a long time. Everything went up in price here since the multiple mass power outages and has never come back down in price. The one exception is fuel for cars.
It seems companies seen what people were willing to spend when fuel was at its peak and everything went up in price supposedly because of the fuel price increase but when fuel went down in price nothing else did.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

Right now Publix has Bone in Ribeye for sale 9.99 a pound but I would bet if you bought one at my Publix it would be 11/2 thick at the bone and 1/2 to 3/4 thick at the end of the cut. making it impossible to cook evenly.
Not to mention it one steak would be 11/2 to 2 pounds LOL
The Thin cut Bone in Ribeyes are on sale as well at 10.19 a pound ad those are never available when they have the Thick cut. The whole system here is a scam if you ask me.

 

[S-met]

I seem to recall Publix was a good store, but 15+ since I've been to one. But problem is that stores are both butcher dependent as well as regional/socioeconomics of the community and supply/demand.

I second chef jimmyj at the call to a ethnic market. Don't discount Asian orJewish/Halal friendly butchers either (but no pork at the latter).

But most importantly, you should talk first with the local store head butcher and possibly the store manager and voice your concerns. I have a local Albertson's that is willing to order most cuts with advanced notice. I might be using wrong terminology, but most stores with butchers in my area only break down primals to subs. For any specialty cut, they have to special request as they don't have whole sections on site.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

I

I seem to recall Publix was a good store, but 15+ since I've been to one. But problem is that stores are both butcher dependent as well as regional/socioeconomics of the community and supply/demand.

I second chef jimmyj at the call to a ethnic market. Don't discount Asian orJewish/Halal friendly butchers either (but no pork at the latter).

But most importantly, you should talk first with the local store head butcher and possibly the store manager and voice your concerns. I have a local Albertson's that is willing to order most cuts with advanced notice. I might be using wrong terminology, but most stores with butchers in my area only break down primals to subs. For any specialty cut, they have to special request as they don't have whole sections on site.

I used to love Albertson's and shopped there exclusively when i was young and single. They have moved away from our area a long time ago ( Sad Face Here )
The food I smoked this week end came from Publix after talking with Two butchers at publix one older guy and a younger guy Who knows if any were the head butcher. but the younger guy asked the older guy every time he couldn't answer a question.
They are the ones that told me everything I wanted to buy was not available even as a special order from the warehouse.
I did complain once when my wife came home with 60 dollars worth of Rib Eyes that were speed cut too thick on one end and very thin on the other.
I sent them pictures of each steak the price tag and label plus a picture of the receipt. The manager was great he refunded our money apologized but they still keep up with the same horrible cuts and now we cannot even order the cuts we want. it is their way or the highway. And yes they used to be great but a little more expensive than other stores now it seems like they just do not care. Next time I am there I will take a pictures of what they are offering and post some of them. I have not discounted other stores there just are not many to choose from if you type butcher then 33467 on google you will see what I am talking about. some of the ones that show up are no longer there others have a staff that just flat out does not speak English or do not have a meat department but show up under a search as having one . Which is why I was hoping to find something I could order online pay a little more and get what we wanted and paid for.

 

[sandyut]

I will throw a third on Costco. the Smiths there (Kroger) is ok, but highly inconsistent and unreliable. I used to go to a butcher - he is still there, but their prices are just too high and the quality was not worth the costs.

Costco smokes both Kroger and the butcher here by a large margin.

 

[Mengland89]

Agreed

I will throw a third on Costco. the Smiths there (Kroger) is ok, but highly inconsistent and unreliable. I used to go to a butcher - he is still there, but their prices are just too high and the quality was not worth the costs.

Costco smokes both Kroger and the butcher here by a large margin.

 

[EaOutlaw1969]

I will throw a third on Costco. the Smiths there (Kroger) is ok, but highly inconsistent and unreliable. I used to go to a butcher - he is still there, but their prices are just too high and the quality was not worth the costs.

Costco smokes both Kroger and the butcher here by a large margin.

Thanks we just signed up for another year with BJ's But the closest Kroger to my house is nearly 300 miles away so that is out. LOL

I miss Sams club Perhaps I will just sign up with them again and load down a cooler with ice and make the trip there once a month and just freeze the food we want. Costco down here did not compare to Sams we tried them once and were not pleased with their selection. But perhaps they changed for the better lately.
I guess we need a poll Costco sams or Bjs and see who come out on top.

 

[jcam222]

It looks like there is a GFS near you about 6 miles away. I buy bulk meat there a lot of times.

 

[S-met]

guess we need a poll Costco sams or Bjs and see who come out on top.

I actually think I saw that poll here recently, though possibly on another forum

Problem being, your club is not my club. I have both Sam's and Costco and live in the middle of 5 each. Selection and quality vary by location. They stock based on the bulk of their shoppers needs. One store has a the tiniest meat and produce section but a massive frozen/processed food section. I don't frequent that store.