Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Clueless employees at Costco

Costco beef....oh so AmericanImage by Melosh via Flickr












Yes, the man on the customer side of the meat case said yesterday, I work for Costco. I said I'd like to see more meats without antibiotics sold at the warehouse store in Hackensack. I explained that antibiotic-free pork was especially important, because hogs reportedly receive more drugs than any other animal raised for food.

I'm not sure if he understood me. "The big thing now is kosher," he said, referring to the cases of kosher food that have appeared in the past few months. I replied that even kosher poultry and meat often are raised with antibiotics, which prevent illness in close quarters and speed the growth of animals.

The problem with consuming animals raised with antibiotics is that humans are becoming more resistant to antibiotics prescribed by doctors.

I'm grateful that Costco carries organic ground beef, some organic chicken and free-range, drug-free Australian lamb, but they are far outweighed by the enormous, conventionally raised steaks, slabs of ribs and  large cuts of beef (photo). The source of its 3-pound rotisserie chickens, with many added flavors, is a mystery.

Last night, I enjoyed three of those grass-fed Australian lamb chops, cooked rare in about 12 minutes, with a couple of glasses of under-$4 shiraz from the liquor store next to Costco. Tonight, we're frying fresh, wild-caught Canadian flounder fillets I picked up yesterday at Costco for $8.49 a pound. I also picked up herbicide-free Sunset tomatoes, organic milk, organic salad greens and a new item, organic diced tomatoes, all at low prices.

My trip yesterday had been postponed from Monday, a holiday when lines were unusually long. Yesterday, the snow was still falling when I arrived at 4 in the afternoon. I could park anywhere and the store was relatively empty, with hardly any waiting at check-out. Hooray.

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7 comments:

  1. Last week I purchased a Ribeye Roast that was just over 4 lbs at Shoprite. It was the Australian Free Range Beef and it was on sale for $2.99 a pound. With a butcher knife I cut 7 steaks out of that roast. At $13 for the whole roast, that came to under $2 per steak. We grilled them Saturday night on the Barbecue outdoors. They were phenominal.

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  2. Which ShopRite had that phenomenal bargain? I haven't seen Australian beef for $2.99 a pound for a long time. Glad you enjoyed it.

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  3. Victor, I was at Shoprite in Paramus last Friday night for that deal. I also purchased the ground buffalo which is a little high at $5.99 for the 1 lb package. The Stop & Shop by my work has the identical package for $4.29.

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  4. OK. Sorry for all the questions, but you call it a rib-eye roast. I haven't seen that cut in Australian beef. The one I've seen is a whole tenderloin for filet mignon.

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  5. This was a ribeye roast, I have purchased it a few times before when Shoprite puts various roasts on sale. It is Australian Free Range like the steaks and filet mignon they sell. I have purchased it at Shoprite in Rochelle Park in the past.

    It looks like they refer to it as "Beef Rib Steak" in the ad

    http://s685.photobucket.com/albums/vv212/texwifeinct/Shoprite%20Feb7/?action=view&current=Shopritecurrent007.jpg

    http://s685.photobucket.com/albums/vv212/texwifeinct/Shoprite%20Feb7/?action=view&current=Shopritecurrent022.jpg

    This is what it looks like

    http://edgemontgourmetmeats.com/images/RibEyeRoast2.jpg

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