Re:No thank you – I age them myself…

[Scott Mark]

I’m having a sympathetic moment. I’m sure it will pass, but please let me work through it.

Starting with the “haughty” attendant. Let’s assume for the moment that the attendant doesn’t truly understand the chemistry and so forth. Let’s assume that the attendant was given the “party line” for making a sale and was struggling to do what was asked, without really understanding the issues.

As for the pricing of the beef – I’ve got at least a few questions. The place was selling 3/4″ ribeye that was cut after aging? Or aged after cutting? Ribeye has quite a lot of extramuscular fat, and I trim it after aging but before packaging. But for specialty items, the cost of the item doesn’t always drive the retail price of that item. If they are moving their product at $33/lb, then they probably have a receptive market for it. This is certainly a specialty item and aimed at a customer who cares more about quality and availability than price. Running a store is a tricky business and managers are always juggling between the items that bring in the profit and the items that bring in the customers.

There are no bargains to be had at the Farmers’ Market. The products might be great, and for natural and organic products the prices might be great. But stuff at the Farmers’ Market always seems quite expensive compared to the stuff at the grocery store.

However – as my possible experiment #5 I might buy some kind of buffalo sub-primal and see how it ages.