LSJ, where did you find that belly? Could you tell from looking through the plastic that it was that exceptional? That's outrageous!
Only place I've ever really been able to find belly... my local Costco. They sell what I believe are full pork bellies, or at least maybe one side of a belly
they usually are about 9 pounds... roughly 12" wide and maybe 20 to 24" long, and about 1.5 to 2.5" thick, all in a cryovac package. I usually pick through every one they have in the display case, mostly looking for relatively uniform thickness, and a little about looking at the side for clues on how lean they might be... but really I mostly look for a uniform thickness of at least 2 inches. I don't like bellies that are not mostly the same thickness because then curing and even cooking times will vary, which just makes it more complicated than I like it to be.
Anyway, to some degree I guess I'm just lucky... I don't know exactly why, but suspect it has something to do with a fairly large population of Asian people in my area, but my Costco sometimes will have like 30 or more pork bellies in the meat area... with another dozen or so that have already been sliced... I don't know exactly how much of it they sell, but as far as I know, it's a very popular item at this particular Costco ( Ann Arbor , Michigan )