Wine'ing Butcher "Sticker Shock"
 

We have always been big fans of Wine'ing Butcher and have always been willing to pay the extra $ for their meats, as they are definitely better quality than the supermarkets.

Today I popped in to get some NY Sirloins for the fam for tonight's Father's Day dinner. The price card for the Sirloins read, "$24.99/ib". I thought, "gee, that must be mis-labeled...they're usually somewhere in the mid-teens per pound...that must be the price for the Prime Sirloins". Then I looked at the Prime Sirloin price and that was $29.99/lb. Then I looked at the steak tips, and they were all $19.99/lb. What the hell? Are they price-gouging for Bike Week or something? It was $85 for 3 steaks!

I then noticed on the top of the meat case a sign they had put up that was entitled, "Sticker Shock", and it explained that they have had to raise their prices due to national labor shortages, increases in transportation costs, meat-plants being understaffed, etc, etc

I want them to make money so they can stay in business, but a 40% or so price increase all at once is huge. I'm not sure I can justify spending that kind of dough for meats unless it is a special occasion.

Market Basket, Plymouth NH via Rt 175 through Holderness and Ashland is worth a visit. Just watch out for the Holderness cops staked out along that 30-mph stretch of Rt 25 running along Little Squam Lake from the Holderness Fire/PD building to the right turn onto Rt 175. Go 40-mph or faster in this 30-mph zone and you will get a speeding violation from the Holderness Police.

Google "Market Basket, Plymouth NH" and look at the inside photos for this store.

In addition to everything else, which is one heck of a lot of choices, the M.B. in Plymouth also has 2" x 56" high quality foam swim noodles for $1.99.

Market Basket...
 

...We have a pretty new Market Basket about 5 minutes from our house in Bedford and I will say that their NY sirloins are pretty good, and very reasonably priced.

Everything we buy will be going up… a lot!

Even with politicians… talk is no longer cheap.

Agree. Fantastic tips at $15.99. At $19.99 not so much. Have shop a BJ’s for my steak and tips. Bit of a drop off in quality, better on the wallet. Keep one eye on Shaws. Their sale prices are great


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

$1.99 for a regular noodle is ok, but finding good quality and fair price super size noodles is not as easy.

You really havent enjoyed a noodle until you try a super noodle,,,

As for speeding through Holderness, well my old and tired throttle leg/foot are happy for slower roads and I enjoy the scenery enough to not worry about getting anywhere faster. So hopefully I wont have any legal problems, well but for the cops watching for MA plates at the fireworks stores ;-)

My wife bought sirloin at Hanafords on Thursday at $19.99 and they were just OK. We would have gone to Market Basket but just didn't feel like battling the traffic. Meat has really spiked recently. Must be a shortage of cows, like everything else.[emoji1787]

Sent from my SM-G991U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

$16, $25, $30 a pound?! That's crazy talk. At >$9, I'm moving to another meat!

Sent from my SM-G950U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

You know for just 99-cents down at the M.B. day old baked goods shelf, you can find a $4.49 one pound loaf of Swiss muesli bread. whole grain w/ fruit, nuts & seeds baked by Market Basket Bakery.

$1.50 will buy you a 5-oz can of Market Basket solid white albacore, tuna in water.

Toss in some mayo and mustard and a sliced tomato and it honestly tastes a whole lot better than the $19.99/lb sirloin steak. Is like no comparison.

Gotta agree. Not bad at all.

Soon squirrels will no longer be safe!

They do make a great stew I have been told.


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

My wife at times gets Prime Angus at MB very inexpensive. She really doesn't like steak, however she will eat a half pound of these easily. While visiting Costco for other items I noticed Extra thick boneless pork chops at 1.89/lb.
Eight chops for anywhere from $9 plus change to $11.03. I could easily slice each lengthwise resulting in 16 normal chops. I picked up a 100 foot contractor hose for $23.99. Tough to beat the price. It is no wonder I spend $300 there.
Today only $100 since last week it was over $300. Green Max fertilizer, covers 14,000 sf for $54.99. Steaks are really reasonable and the frozen kink crab at $32/lb. I am getting fat.

_________________________________

I am a retired workaholic and continuing aquaholic

You can get creative, stretching the meat. I made beef burgundy from a batch of sirloin tips from Hunters…. $7.99/#… it was fantastic, tender, tasty, and it seemed to last forever.

If only Costco wasn't so far away! I look forward to the day when they build one near the lake. They have great deals on quality items from food to furniture. The steak and the cooked whole chickens are excellent.

Many years ago the man ahead of me at the Danvers, MA Costco charged over $48,000. I asked him: What did you buy, a car? He said he had a restaurant and the meat at Costco was better and less expensive than what his wholesaler had. He paid at the register and then drove his small refrigerated truck to the loading dock in the rear of the store to pick up the meat.

Great meal
 

Pork chops come out amazing using a sous vide, then finished in cast iron for 45 seconds a side! Hannaford has bone-in, my preference, for 1.79 often.

Be careful what you wish for… Costco only builds where there is sufficient demand. Enough business to justify a Costco may bring other things you may not like.

There's a BJ's in Tilton. That's there direct competition so you would think they are looking at the area.

I'm with you on MB Plymouth Less, I go to the meat case in the back, just bought some Prime Angus strip steak for $16.99 a pound. It is so good that most restaurant steaks disappoint me now, except for Canoe that is. Good stuff.

I wanted filets for our fathers day dinner.

Hannaford didn’t have anything that looked good. Heaths had filets at $30.99 a pound!?!?

Bought 4, still cheaper than if we went out, and I must say they were cooked to perfection. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...40fa434828.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you stare at this pic you can see it still moving!


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Ha ha.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...2c2760ad60.jpg


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pork Chop Alternative
 

Go that right: my wife and I had two very decent chops. seasoned with McCormick's Montreal, grilled on a Weber. $1.89 from Hannaford. Delicious, and we don't mind paying for $20 steaks: a good meal is a good meal.

If we are all going to pay more for meat, then go local-- Top of the Hill Farm near Lake Wentworth-- you'll pay a dollar or two more, but the quality is fantastic, nice folks, and support a local business: beef, chicken, lamb, sausage, pork; they have it all, Some from the farm, the rest from other local farmers. Never been disappointed.

A short time ago you contributed to a Thread I started about inflation and the price of beer. Those wine-.n-butcher prices for beef will intern affect prices of beer.

https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums...ad.php?t=26697

Among the things I am not savvy is product pricing, relationships, etc. Can you explain how beef prices will affect beer prices?

Also, as best I know, the increase in prices is the result of a series of setbacks—JBS cyberattack, leftover pandemic issues, increased exporting, etc.—combined with increased demand. I don't usually associate those types of events with inflation per se, but rather temporary glitches vs. long-term ratios of production vs. buying costs.

Finally, we saw meats bump in price almost one year ago as well, though most of how people discussed it was a simple recognition that factories closing/slowing down from Covid reduced the amount of product on the market. Why is this moment any different?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

We will see if this spike is transitory or long term over next six months

Just remember folks, good isnt cheap and cheap isnt good, if everyone keeps avoiding the smaller stores owned by local people because of the cheaper prices at the big box stores, when the competition disappears then all we will have left is expensive AND not good...

True, but...
 

I think it depends on the product or service and your personal preferences. Certain things I would never compromise on quality and price...tires for my car; healthcare; Things like this I don't care what it costs to get the best. For me, meat does not fall into this category. I suspect it's different for each person...

A week ago I paid $22.99/lb for marinated tips at Johnsons on Route 11 on the way up. I promised my carnivore 11 year old some steak for dinner.

$105 later.....:eek:

I disagree--you're savvy!

We will not really know for another year or so, but the fundamental debate among economists on inflation today is whether we are seeing temporary hiccups such as you list above or a real underlying inflation driven by The Fed's push for low interest rates and deficit spending by government.

Great piece on this in the Times today. (I know some Republican pen pals do not like Paul Krugman, by he is a Nobel laureate, and this particular column lays out Think's question very clearly)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/21/o...biden-fed.html

Other choices?
 

1 Fake meat? I know a long term vegetarian (not vegan) who says that fake meat is so close to real, she still can't eat it.
2. If transportation expense is a factor, buy local. Farmer's Markets often have locally grown beef/buffalo/Bison. I think there's a butcher shop at the Jct of Rt 106 and 129(?) that specializes in local including Bison.
3. Once the water is boiling a lobster cooks in about the same time as a thick steak, and nobody gripes about cooked enough, not enough, etc.
4. As you move to other meats, beef prices will come down. That pork, above, sounds really good. When the Wine'ing Butcher features turkey, you'll know.

The Wine'ing butcher has turkey tips now, pretty good stuff.

The people who sell the beer will raise their prices so the can buy the expensive beef. This is called a spiral of inflation. It’s not just the beef that is rapidity increasing. Blame what ever you want. This is a perfect storm.

It won't end until prices get so high that people stop spending, then starts the spiral dowmward.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Come on folks this is all because of fake news is leading to fake Meat prices, that eventually spiral into fake Beer prices..... Politicians all say they can make it better, but then they have to raise their fake Salaries, so that they can eat fake meat, and fake beer while watching the fake news.....

Back to the Wine’ing Butcher, was a weekly customer over the past year. At these prices, it’s wait till fall when “those customers leave“ hopefully it’s back to reality prices


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

That's a shame. I am sure they will survive the summer without you though.

There was one politician who did a pretty good job managing gasoline prices, acted when prices started getting too high, acted when prices started getting too low. I marveled at it because I thought it couldn't be done.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Not sure what narrative you're trying to create, but here are the average gas prices for the last whatever years: https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/Le...TE_NUS_DPG&f=M.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

And yet, real estate prices are in the stratosphere, and supply is almost nonexistant. Houses are put up for sale with insane markups and snapped up in a day.

I would agree that at some point a limit might be reached but where that point is ... ?

It's a bad time to HAVE TO buy something; crazy prices and long delays for products. People who are able to will hunker down and let the storm pass.

I'm wondering if home sales have hit the wall—there are two or three in my area that have been on sale for a couple weeks now whereas for a while there you'd never even see a sign because they'd sell before any sales work was really done.

Anyone else seeing this?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Yes it has slowed down a bit. Partially it’s summer and partially some have overpriced trying to cash in on the boom.


Sent from my iPhone using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Yes, i'm seeing this in my neighborhood also. The prices are sky high and I think people are balking now.Sent from my SM-G991U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

Thanks for posting this..... as I said.

Look closer--he's praising Bill Clinton for keeping gas prices almost impossibly flat over 8 years. I had not appreciated this before

No, I didn't look back that far, but Clinton wasn't too bad after he lost congress and was hamstrung.

I'm more interested in the last 10 or so years and that pronounced spike at the end. Hopefully the US producers are able to overcome the pressure to annihilate them and keep us from $4 - $5 or worse gas and heating oil. Time will tell.

I'm done now, if you want to respond more, go back and read my posts on this again for your answer. Take care.

You mean that section where demand skyrocketed at the end of the pandemic, one of the major refineries was cyberattacked, seasonal use increased, and the dollar's value was insecure?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

We'll be driving electric cars in another 10 years, if I'm even still driving by then. Buy electric utilities stock now.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

I know--I was only teasing you on Clinton to illustrate that it's kind of silly to look at the gas price chart and make a political case.

Back to the point of the thread--a huge number of prices are askew due to COVID disruptions--beef, real estate, gasoline, interest rates, stock market. All of these have been unusually disrupted, so it's very difficult to assert a real trend.

Everything has gone up, not just gas. I remains to be seen how long this trend will last.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app

If we are driving electric cars in 10 years I will be disappointed in the human race in our ability to except technology. We should instead be utilizing a drone system that is totally automated. This would be much safer than automobile traffic, much faster, much less expensive, and a tremendous decrease on infrastructure needs. There’s a company in California introducing a taxi service of this nature. it won’t take long to spread because of all the benefits!

We'll the car companies are gearing up to sell electric cars so I don't think they are doing this haphazardly. And oil companies are getting into the business of electric charging stations so it's coming.Sent from my SM-G991U using Winnipesaukee Forum mobile app