The Wild Fork

[Jenise]

While in L.A., my friend took me to a new store that had just opened in her area, Wild Fork Meats and Seafood. It's a new national chain and there are 5 or 6 in the greater L.A. area already. Here's a link if you're curious:

https://wildforkfoods.com/

It's a store that sells nothing but frozen meat and seafood. Well, along with a lot of bottle sauces and I also saw some frozen desserts. The one we went to was about a third or fourth the size of an average supermarket and it fit into the footprint of a former fast food restaurant.

Considering what's happening in supermarkets--that there are fewer fresh ingredients and more hot and cold ready-to-eat meals for people who can't or don't want to cook--the concept of all-frozen aimed at carnivores in particular surprises me. It's 180 degrees opposite that other trend.

If someone showed me a business plan for this I'd tell them it's a terrible idea. But then I'd have said that about the Subway chain, so what do I know.

Wild Fork has been around for a while as an online source. I've found pretty good quality for harder to find items (lamb neck, shanks, rabbit, duck legs, etc) that I'd likely freeze anyway

[Jenise]

Dale, this is sounding familiar. Didn't you recommend them to me once for something I had trouble finding in my area? Sounds familiar now. Capons, maybe? Annabelle and I eyed one--she was unfamiliar where I commented that if one would fit in my suitcase I'd take it home.

Like you, Jenise, I'm a little surprised at the business model but it sounds like they're having some success. I took a look at the website and was a little surprised that the prices aren't lower. For fish, anyway, the prices they list are very close to what we'd pay here at a high-end grocery store. I did see beef cheeks, though, and I haven't been able to find them around here for some time now. I can see your point, Dale, regarding it being a source for some hard-to-find items.

[Jenise]

We bought scallops there. They had several sizes including U10's, something I never see here at home.

I've often wondered why no one in North America has sought to replicate the frozen-food retail concept of Picard in Paris. Now sounds like someone has. https://www.picard.fr/

[Jenise]

You're right, lot of similarities there, Bob. You live in Quebec, right? Nothing like that there?

Your post made me go back to look at what else The Wild Fork had. I didn't spend a lot of time in the one I visited and saw almost nothing but meat, but the website has a lot of curious items, like bags of ice-cube sized blobs of frozen herbs--I saw parsley, basil, cilantro, dill and caramelized onions. So who buys that stuff? The average home, or even small restaurant, wouldn't (I hope) be a customer, but schools and prisons? Who else would have the freezer space, for one?

I've really only looked at meats.
I'm thinking the frozen herbs etc might be good for people who live in remote places (ranches, islands, etc) . My brother has I think 3 huge chest freezers on his place in the Bahamas. It's a 20 minute boat ride to the very limited grocery on Harbour Island. When they go they carry huge cooler bags with groceries from Atlanta.

[Jenise]

Makes perfect sense for your BIL, Dale. I didn't even think about people who live in remote locations, especially since my introduction was in white-bread, suburban Thousand Oaks California. Given the mail-order business they have, locations like the TO store probably act as fulfillment centers for internet purchasing beyond just in-person retail.