The great Meat Supplier debate

[Diamond D'z]

First off - thanks everyone that has contributed to my posts. I am gaining a wealth of knowledge on the catering side of things.

I am now looking at my meat supplier options. I have 3 local butchers/meat markets and of course Kroger, Sams & GFS (no Costco here )-;

I do want to turn profits and be competitive with other caterers here locally however I do not want to compromise on quality. My last smoke was basically all Hormel products that were #2 grade. I found this out from a well respected German butcher/meat market today. He is going to quote me butt, brisket, BBribs, ground beef, wieners (made on site) and said he will not be able to compete with my last supplier because he gets #2 quality stuff. This German butcher makes all of his sausage and smokes all of his meats and hams etc....

There is also a slaughter house that does pig, beef, & lamb right up the road where I can get good prices and not frozen food. He will sell cuts and no enhancements or preservatives.

So to make a long story short...taking the "quality, not going to be the cheapest but have the best service, freshest and best tasting food" caterer be a good path? Of course I will use this in my marketing campaign.
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[DawgPhan]

depends on what the market will bear...I know that Jim Minion does a lot of catering with superpremium meats and charges for it and he seems to still get parties and what not...I know that around here if I was asking $30/head for BBQ I wouldnt be very busy. Pricing is tricky, you need to get paid for your time and effort, but you cant price yourself outta the market. Many times price is a determining factor, many times surpassing quality...Hell I see if it everyday with child care..folks choose the cheapest care over the accredited care and many times the accredited care cant compete with the low cost child care in that market because staying accredited is more expensive..

[sseige]

Are you sure you want to go with Baby backs?
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[G's BBQ]

Try a meat wholesaler or someone like US foodservice, Sysco and the like...

[marvsbbq]

Unless your butcher gets his meats DIRECTLY from a slaughter house near by, I am betting he gets it boxed just like nearly 90% of all other 'butcher shops'. Most now days do NOT get 'carcas' meats. You might ask him where he gets HIS meats from???

Also, is his beef choice or select?? There again, I think MOST butcher shops try to sell only choice grades. But they also get "choice" price for it.

When it comes to pork, there is no grading system but if a local hog farmer is feeding his hogs 'slop' from where ever, instead of feeding them quality feeds like a feed lot would...you would get a totally different quality of meat.

Me, I DO get my beef from Costco due to the fact that they sell only 'choice' beef and their price is not much more than my reg butcher shop for select. The butcher shop I DO use only sells wholesale (no retail shop). I generally only get my WA grown chickens from him.

Pork I generally get from Costco or my local wholesale Smart & Final.

I tried the Sysco thing where they bring it right to my door, but I had to order off a sheet. Personally I like to SEE what I am buying and pick what I want not what they 'send to me'
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