Make friends with your butcher....................

[TR6BILL]

I do all the grocery shopping (and cooking) in my home, by choice. My wife has to measure to boil water. The local Winn Dixie is the only grocery store in town and I know how to work the butcher. This week his computer made him order two (2) cases of 8, that would be 16 total, Frenched lamb chop loins and two (2) cases of restaurant quality veal chops (twenty of the most beautiful chops you can imagine). Now, this is a meat and potatoes town, pork and chicken if you will. I told the butcher that you will throw all that exotic meat away, without selling one piece. And he would have. Had I not stepped in and convinced him to discount the whole lot. A total of $540.00 market price of meat, for a whopping $42. Yes, forth two dollars. I was happy, he was happy. Ya gotta know how to shop......

 

[Mickey Richaud]

How DO you sleep at night, Bill?

One of the perks of small-town life. Can't wait to retire, as there's a very nice IGA grocery store where we're headed, and they have some really interesting selections in the deli section.

 

[TR6BILL]

meat

I sleep well, thank you.

The sad thing is the butcher told me they throw away 20% by volume and 30% by price of all their meats. In fact, they will be <span style="font-weight: bold">fired</span> if they sell out-of-date product. How sad, and so many people going hungry or undernourished. Why don't they look at their books (the big chains) and run better computer models of what sells and how much they should sell it for to move it? Walmart is quite adroit at this. I was raised in a small family-owned grocery store and I never ate fresh meat. What didn't sell, we ate. I didn't know what fresh pork or beef or chicken tasted like, we always boiled the sticky stuff and cooked it to taste.

I wonder how much Whole Foods or Fresh Market throws away, at the prices they charge. Gotta be way too much. What a shame...

 

[Gliderman8]

Re: meat

Hummmm.... maybe we can do another deal. I just found out today that I need a root canal at a cost of $920. Can you do it for say $71?
Hey, you probably won't have another patient in the chair anyway

By the way.... Great deal you made!

 

[Guest]

Re: meat

That's like what, -$.15 a pound? Good job Bill.

Winn Dixie here ordered half of a fresh tuna and sold it for $2 a pound. We ate it all and stalked the store for the next month waiting for more. It never happened.


p.s What time is dinner usually served?

 

[JodyFKerr]

Re: meat

I sleep well, thank you.

The sad thing is the butcher told me they throw away 20% by volume and 30% by price of all their meats. In fact, they will be <span style="font-weight: bold">fired</span> if they sell out-of-date product. How sad, and so many people going hungry or undernourished. Why don't they look at their books (the big chains) and run better computer models of what sells and how much they should sell it for to move it? Walmart is quite adroit at this. I was raised in a small family-owned grocery store and I never ate fresh meat. What didn't sell, we ate. I didn't know what fresh pork or beef or chicken tasted like, we always boiled the sticky stuff and cooked it to taste.

I wonder how much Whole Foods or Fresh Market throws away, at the prices they charge. Gotta be way too much. What a shame...

Tesco (and to a lesser extent Fresh & Easy in the US) use dynamic inventory, tracking and ordering systems. I studied it for a while from a computer systems perspective. It turns out it's much more cost effective than the way big stores do it here, but the UK is also a heck of a lot smaller than the US. I wonder how efficiently it could be done here.

 

[Silverghost]

How DO you sleep at night, Bill?

One of the perks of small-town life. Can't wait to retire, as there's a very nice IGA grocery store where we're headed, and they have some really interesting selections in the deli section.

Wait....RETIRE?? You only work one day a week and you want to stop that???!! :wink: LoL Just kidding of course....

 

[Mickey Richaud]

How DO you sleep at night, Bill?

One of the perks of small-town life. Can't wait to retire, as there's a very nice IGA grocery store where we're headed, and they have some really interesting selections in the deli section.

Wait....RETIRE?? You only work one day a week and you want to stop that???!! :wink: LoL Just kidding of course....

Yeah, but that ~one~ day is a killer! :smirk:

 

[PAUL161]

Speaking of throwing away good food, if the military gave away the food that is trashed every day, just from their mess/chow halls, they could feed half, maybe more, of the hungry people in this country. Sorry for the rant, it's just my upbringing. When growing up, we never wasted anything! Pop, an old farm boy, had strict rules about it, plus the fact, if mom was good enough to cook it, you sat there until you ate it! I learned early in the game, eat it while it was hot. :laugh: PJ

 

[JPSmit]

Interestingly, there are a couple of Japanese Sushi buffets in the area where you can eat as much as you want but you get charged extra if you leave food on your plate. I think it's a good idea.

 

[DrEntropy]

I like that, JP!

Growing up, we had the same "clean your plate" rule. Didn't matter what was on it, like it or not. There wasn't much I didn't like, tho. :wink:

Grocery shopping was a twice a month trip to an A&P store, a trip to a family-owned small town Italian market more frequently. Can't say I recall much about the A&P but I can still <span style="font-style: italic">smell and see</span> Linarelli's. A wonderful mix of odors and sights! Olives in a cask, balls of provolone cheese hanging from the ceiling beams, creaky wood floors, bread right from the oven, mortadella and capicola (pronounced: "Cubbagool" by all) in the case, Mrs. Linarelli smiling, yelling: "Josephine!" and rushing to hug mom, then she'd spoon an olive from that cask to give me... sometimes a chunk of freash bread ripped from a loaf on the counter, dipped in olive oil seasoned with fresh herbs. An atmosphere of total friendship and safety. I've missed that for a long time.

 

[PAUL161]

Those times are gone forever Doc, sorry to say. :frown: PJ

 

[70herald]

I like that, JP!

Growing up, we had the same "clean your plate" rule.


Grocery shopping was a twice a month trip to an A&P store, a trip to a family-owned small town Italian market more frequently. Can't say I recall much about the A&P but I can still <span style="font-style: italic">smell and see</span> Linarelli's. A wonderful mix of odors and sights! Olives in a cask, balls of provolone cheese hanging from the ceiling beams, creaky wood floors, bread right from the oven, mortadella and capicola (pronounced: "Cubbagool" by all) in the case, Mrs. Linarelli smiling, yelling: "Josephine!" and rushing to hug mom, then she'd spoon an olive from that cask to give me... sometimes a chunk of freash bread ripped from a loaf on the counter, dipped in olive oil seasoned with fresh herbs. An atmosphere of total friendship and safety. I've missed that for a long time.

Same rule when I was growing up. My picky little eaters make me crazy!

Doc you really need to come over here and try shopping in the open air market (shuk). Very similar experience. Tons of fruits, veggies, barrels of olives in every size / color and flavor, a whole store which just sells olive oil... Huge mounds of spices. Don't think I ever heard anyone yell Josephine though! Makes shopping one of the high points in the week, and we eat much better on weeks when I shop in the shuk.

 

[Scott_Hower]

Those times are gone forever Doc, sorry to say. :frown: PJ

We still have an old indoor farmers market like that. The meat guy/butcher greets me by name and tosses me a beefstick. Place is about 100 years old.

If you go on a Saturday, late in the day, they accept bids for all the meat left in the case, but you have to take it all. Some deals to be had.

 

[apbos]

I can honestly say I have rarely purchased beef in the store. We grow our own! It all goes into the freezer. I do mean all (except for the tripe). Mom makes great sandwich meats from the other internals. Clean your plate . Figure with today's feed prices everything is abour $1.50 per pound (ie good deal Bill). I never understood why the consumer in the US requires the beef to be thawed. What a waste. Think how much food and lives we would save if we gamma irriated our food. Strangely, we do not complain about irradiated surgical supplies and materials that end up in our bodies for the rest of our lives, but we will not protect ourselves from the germs that kill millions every year.

Paul

 

[PC]

Re: meat

....Tesco (and to a lesser extent Fresh & Easy in the US) use dynamic inventory, tracking and ordering systems. I studied it for a while from a computer systems perspective. It turns out it's much more cost effective than the way big stores do it here, but the UK is also a heck of a lot smaller than the US. I wonder how efficiently it could be done here.

Apparently it needs some tweaking.

"The chain's computerized ordering system also had some bugs initially, so even low-turnover stores ran out of stock on everyday items."

Fresh & Easy to close 7 stores in California

 

[PC]

I wish I had a butcher to make friends with.

The closest butcher shop is two cities away. Suburbia doesn't remember what one is. :frown:



pc.

 

[DrEntropy]

I like that, JP!

Growing up, we had the same "clean your plate" rule.


Grocery shopping was a twice a month trip to an A&P store, a trip to a family-owned small town Italian market more frequently. Can't say I recall much about the A&P but I can still <span style="font-style: italic">smell and see</span> Linarelli's. A wonderful mix of odors and sights! Olives in a cask, balls of provolone cheese hanging from the ceiling beams, creaky wood floors, bread right from the oven, mortadella and capicola (pronounced: "Cubbagool" by all) in the case, Mrs. Linarelli smiling, yelling: "Josephine!" and rushing to hug mom, then she'd spoon an olive from that cask to give me... sometimes a chunk of freash bread ripped from a loaf on the counter, dipped in olive oil seasoned with fresh herbs. An atmosphere of total friendship and safety. I've missed that for a long time.

Same rule when I was growing up. My picky little eaters make me crazy!

Doc you really need to come over here and try shopping in the open air market (shuk). Very similar experience. Tons of fruits, veggies, barrels of olives in every size / color and flavor, a whole store which just sells olive oil... Huge mounds of spices. Don't think I ever heard anyone yell Josephine though! Makes shopping one of the high points in the week, and we eat much better on weeks when I shop in the shuk.

Yiz, I'd be like the "mad dog in a meathouse" over there. The likely greeting would be some name like "Sarah!" or "Bina!"

I envy your access to those markets.