Rant: My favorite meat counter has downgraded! Argh

There is a relatively upscale supermarket near my house and they sell their own line of dry aged "prime" grade beef...Every once in a while I like to splurge and get a great bone-in ribeye that can usually only be found at the better steakhouses....I was there the other night for one such purchase and noticed that the prices seemed a bit lower than they used to....everything in the dry-aged counter has now changed to "choice" grade instead of "prime." So frustrating!

Well, I guess I just need to search out a good old-fashioned butcher shop, but not sure where to look. Oh well. Rant over. Thanks.

Ouch!!!

It's an occasion for mourning when a good meat counter gives up.


Mike

[Jenise]

Steven, that's sad. I hope you made your dismay known.

Finding a place that sells "prime" beef across the counter is rare, and has been for 30 or more years. Finding a place that sells dry aged "prime" is almost unheard of. I hope you let them know that you are in mourning over their downgrading. Maybe they can and will get special orders of "prime" and dry age it for you as needed.

I talked to the butcher today and found out why they stopped carrying "prime" dry-aged beef...He said that the prices had just gone up for their supply and that they were noticing a declining trend by customers to buy their dry-aged cuts in the first place. They made a business decision to stop carrying it altogehter in light of those two reasons and hope that the cheaper price of the "choice" cuts will actually increase overall sales (their "prime" dry-aged bone-in ribeyes were $19.99/lb and were about to increase to $24, he said. The "choice" version they carry now is $16.99/lb).

Well, I completely understand the decision from a business point of view...but I'm still not happy about it.

I even researched a bit for specialty butcher shops in my area and they predominantly use "choice" for their dry-aged lines as well...I guess my days of attempting to emulate the top steakhouses are over!

Steve, I live in Lexington, Ky. and while that is not nearly as large as MSP, but we have exactly one shop that does dry aged beef, and that is choice. I don't even know if he could get prime if he so desired. I know for sure that I couldn't afford it if he did.

I just finished some writing about USDA prime and dry v. wet aging...only 2 to 4 percent of the beef sold is USDA prime...That surprised me...

b

Well, I guess I can always order the new Trump Steaks from The Donald himself, which apparently are not only USDA Prime, but Certified Angus Beef Brand Prime and claimed to represent less than 1% of all beef....but it doesn't appear to be dry aged, so a waste of an incredibly large amount of money, in my opinion.

Well, I guess I can always order the new Trump Steaks from The Donald himself, which apparently are not only USDA Prime, but Certified Angus Beef Brand Prime and claimed to represent less than 1% of all beef....but it doesn't appear to be dry aged, so a waste of an incredibly large amount of money, in my opinion.

Pretty funny Steve. Now if only Rosie would put The Donald out of his (and her) misery, the world could get back to being better. IMO of course.