Stopped by Restaurant Depot yesterday (Raleigh, NC) and the beef and pork selection was pretty sparse, but had a few of the staples.

Brisket was $7.07/LB for choice and $7.17/LB for select (I may have that backwards). That’s more than double what I typically saw there pre-pandemic.

Bone-in Boston butts were $2.24/LB, about a dollar or so higher than normal.

I assume supply chain issues and restaurant closures are influencing prices greatly. But my local grocery chains are competitive with those brisket prices and beat those Boston butt prices everyday.

I’m not familiar with RD’s poultry prices. The seafood prices were good. 

Our grocery store has prime briskets for $4.99 per pound and packers for $3.99.  The local meat market has T-bones for $11.49 (I think) and chuck roasts are just a few pennies cheaper.  Pork and chicken are still reasonable and that is what we're eating now.  I'm trying to keep the meat we have in the freezer in there just in case things get rougher. 

Stopped by Restaurant Depot yesterday (Raleigh, NC) and the beef and pork selection was pretty sparse, but had a few of the staples.

Brisket was $7.07/LB for choice and $7.17/LB for select (I may have that backwards). That’s more than double what I typically saw there pre-pandemic.

WOW I haven't been to the RD here in Charlotte in about a month. These prices are crazy. I did purchase a case the Chef Store and I believe I paid right at $3.00 for choice.

Prices have been that high for about a month or so.  My brother is no longer selling beef at his BBQ trailer until the prices come back to normal.  He can't justify charging $15-$20 for a sandwich in order for him to make a decent profit from it so pork, chicken, and side dishes are part of his limited menu offering and sometimes he can't purchase all of those things due to limited supply from multiple sources.

I just looked at Sam's Club and their Prim Brisket is $6.48 a pound. You can get a case at $6.24 a pound. 

I just looked at Sam's Club and their Prim Brisket is $6.48 a pound. You can get a case at $6.24 a pound. 

Our Sam's will let you only buy one of each cut of meat and are not selling case quantities now.

I just looked at Sam's Club and their Prim Brisket is $6.48 a pound. You can get a case at $6.24 a pound. 

Our Sam's will let you only buy one of each cut of meat and are not selling case quantities now.

Yes the one here in Charlotte changes what you can buy almost daily. For example I ordered a case of Plate Beef Ribs a couple of months or so ago and then they were sold out for a couple of weeks. Now you can't purchase a case online. I guess you can go into the store. The Briskets are still available to order online for pickup by the case. Now toilet paper is a different story 

Yeah seems beef prices are inflated.  Don't know the cause except its all BS.  Hopefully is gets normalized quickly!

Yeah seems beef prices are inflated.  Don't know the cause except its all BS.  Hopefully is gets normalized quickly!

Supposedly COVID impact on processing plants being shut down and running at less than half capacity when open.  Add to that hysteria of everyone stocking their freezers.  And, apparently they haven't figured out how to get commercial packaging lines converted to consumer packaging lines to use the extra capacity from lower demand from restaurants.  It seems like someone is pulling one over on us consumers along the way but I don't have any facts to support that.  However, the government did just indite several execs from chicken processing plants for price fixing so maybe the beef execs are next on the list.

Yeah seems beef prices are inflated.  Don't know the cause except its all BS.  Hopefully is gets normalized quickly!

I'm not convinced that the high prices are artificial.

A while back a Nebraska farmer/rancher who gives me hunting privileges said the the slaughterhouses he normally sells to are closed.  The buyer told him that even if they were open there aren't enough trucks operating to haul the beef they need.  He told me that he'd cut a deal with a local custom butcher to slaughter, cut and wrap a heifer if I wanted one.

I tried to find a Facebook post on a friends feed where a rancher in CA said this was coming.  He claimed that the "growers" were getting the lowest prices in 70 years ( .91 cents/lb ) and then the "middle man" was gouging the consumer.  I do not like to paraphrase in situations like this, but I can not find the post anymore!

I tried to find a Facebook post on a friends feed where a rancher in CA said this was coming.  He claimed that the "growers" were getting the lowest prices in 70 years ( .91 cents/lb ) and then the "middle man" was gouging the consumer.  I do not like to paraphrase in situations like this, but I can not find the post anymore!

We sold a lot of cattle for less than $0.25 per pound on the hoof in South Texas when I was a kid in the late 70's.  The market changed for some reason.  I was 10 or 12 at the time.  Hence the reason my folks got out of the cow business.

I probably got the 70 years wrong!  Although .25 cents in 1978 would be $1.03 into days money...

Prime brisket was going for $5.79/lb two Fridays ago at Costco in Livermore, CA.  It was $5.99/lb last Friday. 

My brother said the Angus brisket he typically uses is now less than $4/# when it was running close to $8/# for the last few months.