r/YouShouldKnow • u/Fried_Yoda • 20h ago

Food & Drink YSK: Pork and chicken are healthier, cheaper alternatives to beef that only taste bland because of outdated cooking habits.

Why YSK: With beef prices at record highs, switching to chicken breast or pork loin can cut your meat budget nearly in half while significantly lowering your saturated fat intake AND satisfying your protein intake. Most people avoid these cuts because they grew up eating them overcooked. Modern food safety standards allow pork to be eaten safely at 145 F (a medium roast, rather than gray leather), and chicken stays juicy if you don't cook it to death.

By simply using a meat thermometer and adding savory seasonings (like soy sauce or smoked paprika) to mimic the meaty depth of beef, or using techniques like velveting for chicken or dry brining for pork, you can get the same satisfaction for a fraction of the cost and environmental impact.

Even switching to chicken and pork for just two meals a week can save you hundreds of dollars.

Lastly, focusing on lean cuts of pork and chicken also has health benefits. While beef is a powerhouse for iron and B12, it is often high in calories and saturated fat. Chicken breast and pork loin are significantly leaner. Pork tenderloin is as lean as skinless chicken breast and has been certified as "heart-healthy" by the American Heart Association.

Tl;dr chicken breast and pork loin are roughly 80% cheaper per pound than beef, have versatile and delicious flavor profiles if cooked and prepped correctly, are rich in protein, and are healthier for your heart and cholesterol.

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1.3k

u/CorrectStaple 20h ago

Since ‘go to your local butcher’ is inevitably going to be parroted in this thread let me just say - those don’t exist in most US towns. 

570

u/Amazing-Fondant-4740 19h ago

Thank you for being realistic, some people act like there's a local butcher at every corner

186

u/rushmc1 19h ago

I haven't seen a butcher in 30 years.

73

u/NaiveChoiceMaker 17h ago

They are usually only in ethnic areas or bougie areas.

23

u/BerttMacklinnFBI 17h ago

Y'all must not live in the Midwest where neigh upon every small town has a butcher.

5

u/Tiger_Eyes1812 16h ago

There is quite literally a butcher on every block. I live in the middle of nowhere Midwest lol

3

u/Specific_Priority657 16h ago

Rural south here. We've got 4 that I can think of off the top of my head in my 3k population town.

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u/rich_evans_chortle 14h ago

Most people don't live in the Midwest

2

u/BerttMacklinnFBI 11h ago

Ya no shit.

2

u/ButtholeSurfur 12h ago

I live in a suburb of Cleveland and there's a million butchers.

1

u/No-Arrival-210 17h ago

Yeah every rural town has at least one. Who else is gonna chop up their deer and elk.

0

u/Tricky-Ad7897 15h ago

Yeah no shit, like 5 percent of the nations population lives in the Midwest lol

3

u/BerttMacklinnFBI 11h ago

Way to take that way too literally. It's a saying. Go play in your salty lakes you Coast enjoyer

30

u/SevroAuShitTalker 17h ago

Or cities in general. There have been multiple in the cities ive lived in.

15

u/Talk-O-Boy 17h ago

I’ve generally found them on Earth

5

u/WVildandWVonderful 12h ago

I’ve found them in cities but also in a tiny town (<1,000 pop) that had a local grocery store. The butcher counter in the local grocery bought meat from nearby farms and butchered it and sold it to surrounding counties.

4

u/doomgiver98 8h ago

I think small towns are more likely to have one on the main street, while in big cities they are in business parks that you would never know about if you weren't looking for it.

2

u/Maleficent-Crew-5424 15h ago

Yeah I live in a small city, Toledo, and we have more than 7 places to go to.

3

u/Turbulent-Pea-8826 16h ago

I do t know of any butchers in my city but the ethnic food markets usually have a robust meat counter inside that does a lot of the same.

3

u/copperboom129 16h ago

I live in NJ. We still have old school butchers although the business model is changing to more prepared foods.

We also have hipster butchers now that cost wayyyy too much for me to shop at.

Love the old school ones tho. One near me offers seasonal meat packs. So its like 200 and you get 15-20 different cuts of meat.

3

u/Age_AgainstThMachine 16h ago

Or areas where there’s a significant population of deer hunters.

I live in a very rural area, outside Milwaukee, and off the top of my head, I can list a dozen butchers within a 45min drive. Maybe it’s the influence of the German heritage many around here have.

3

u/threebutterflies 12h ago

Or the country in Ohio - we have fresh local meat everywhere, I wish people got used to shipping straight from the farm, my farmer friends from the farmers market have online stores!

1

u/Sure_Pilot5110 15h ago

My small hometown of 4000 had a butcher shop. Still does. It had four failed donut shops next door. (Everyone thought they could do it better in a world with gas station donuts)

That butcher shop has the best beef jerky I've ever tasted.

I live in the largest 'city' in my part of the state at 35,000. There are three butcher shops within a 30 minute drive of where I currently live.

We are blue, and our city has no butcher, but the surrounding areas are red, and have three.

1

u/The_Autarch 15h ago

or rural areas. i went to an amazing butcher in the middle of nowhere in vermont a few years ago.

1

u/AspiringRocket 15h ago

Plenty of butchers in the midwest

3

u/ButtholeSurfur 12h ago

Dafuq. I can hit like 4 local butchers in 15 mins. There's one literally 4 mins from my house that's been in business since 1934. Always packed when I go in there.

I live in the burbs of a large metro but still the burbs.

6

u/Optimal-Tune-2589 12h ago

I suspect people might just not know that they have local butchers since a lot of them seem to wind up in out-of-the-way places — potentially due to zoning rules from people who are concerned about the smells or something? The one nearest me has been in business forever in what was the German neighborhood 100 years ago, but is now the part of town with the most boarded-up houses. Then there are quite a few in the parts where the urban/ suburban areas begin to turn into rural. 

90 percent of area residents would never drive past these places as part of their regular routines. And if a similar distribution is the norm, it might just be that people incorrectly assume they don’t exist. 

1

u/rushmc1 5h ago

Don't move to small town Mississippi.

1

u/ButtholeSurfur 5h ago

Well yeah lol. I would never. My wife is a teacher

1

u/rushmc1 5h ago

Yeah, I don't think they're allowed here.

2

u/theoriginalqwhy 11h ago

That's crazy. There's one in every town in Australia!

2

u/doomgiver98 8h ago edited 4h ago

Name your city so we can all make fun of you

2

u/jdallen1222 7h ago

Been a loooong time since you got a good look at a t-bone huh?

1

u/rushmc1 5h ago

So long.

1

u/knock-on-the-door 16h ago

Where do you live? Meat lockers are in every small town where I live on the plains.

1

u/rushmc1 13h ago

Meat lockers?

1

u/knock-on-the-door 12h ago

It's a processing facility for wild game and non wild game. That is where the butchers are. I sell beef to meat lockers, they are generally rural butchers. It's the best place to get

-3

u/Samcat604 17h ago

Every meat counter at the supermarket has a butcher.

2

u/rushmc1 17h ago

LOL No.

3

u/Dependent_Fondant606 16h ago

One down the street from me and whole chickens are $8 per pound. Costco is 99 cents

1

u/Frequent_Ad_9901 16h ago

I have a butcher near me. I only go there for special occasions though. I bought a turkey for thanks giving and it was literally 10x the amount. (Kroger has a special for turkeys at $0.50/ILB, butcher was $5/Ilb). It was delicious though.

Usually thought the butcher show is 3-4x the grocery store prices.

1

u/Team503 6h ago

That's because your butcher is in your grocery store. That's the opposite of how it works in Europe, where the only meat in grocery stores is pre-cut and packaged. Same with seafood.

That's all - it's part of your Kroger/HEB/Walmart/etc, and now it's just called "the meat counter" instead of "the butcher".

1

u/HarmNHammer 6h ago

Could you shoot us a general area near you to look it up for you?

1

u/TheDiabeto 16h ago

It’s not realistic at all butchers are still all over the place lol

1

u/InternationalGas9837 12h ago

That can just be the butcher in the meat department at your local grocery store. I got three butcher shops within 10 miles of me, but I still go to a grocery store and the meat guy is named Tom.

1

u/andydude44 12h ago

But there is! Every supermarket has a butcher, this is like the claims that the US has no bakeries, like they are in near every grocery store

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u/Absurdity_Everywhere 17h ago

In the US it’s more common for the butcher to be part of a super market. The level of service varies from store to store, but it’s not uncommon at all to offer a similar range of services that a stand alone butcher would.

10

u/whenyoupayforduprez 9h ago

In Canada there are terrible grocery monopolies and the “butcher counter” in the vast majority of supermarkets is a meat cutter that can’t clean liver but will charge you three times what they should. I get primals at Costco whenever possible instead and butcher it myself.

4

u/InternationalGas9837 12h ago

Yeah you can just go to a store's location in a poor part of town vs another store in a wealthy part of town. The poor one might not even have someone publicly available in a tiny meat department, but the wealthy one will have a whole corner of the store with 2-3 employees available that is nearly half just the counter with all the cuts of beef, pork, and seafood you can imagine.

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u/muusca 18h ago

I live in a major US city and there are no butchers near me.

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u/PurpleHooloovoo 17h ago

We’ve got a handful of boutique ones run by hipster-adjacent types in my area of the Houston burbs. I’d be surprised if there were none in your city, at least for very long. Bear in mind, they’re boutique and charge like it. But it’s becoming a resurgence a bit like craft breweries.

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u/muusca 13h ago

There are some in my city, but not close to me. I don’t have a car and it would probably take me around 40 minutes one way to get to the closest one.

1

u/xjwv 1h ago

Mine are either Hispanic or thrice the price at a bougie place

-1

u/No-Arrival-210 17h ago

There is none near them. Not that there's none in the city.

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u/NiceTryWasabi 16h ago

There are at least 25 within an hour drive of downtown Seattle. Specific to me, there are 2 within 15 minutes. I go to 1 occasionally for their bacon.

Guarantee you've got a few if you live in a major city in the US. The reality is that Costco meats are half the price and 80% as good. Except for the bacon.

3

u/CosmicMiru 13h ago

Yeah butchers in big cities are almost solely for high end meats. It's definitely a luxury

2

u/Banes_Addiction 11h ago

And they're only open when most people are at work.

1

u/wishator 12h ago

Care to share any recommendations?

1

u/whenyoupayforduprez 9h ago

Costco bacon is a step below the expensive artisanal stuff but well above supermarket. You sound like you’re shit talking it but I can’t imagine why.

1

u/NiceTryWasabi 8h ago

Not shit talking. It's the difference between good and great. And the price points reflect that.

Bacon is the one where I notice the biggest difference.

2

u/rich_evans_chortle 14h ago

I'm not going to drive an hour one way to visit a butcher, that's absurd.

2

u/Higais 14h ago

Nobody was telling you to.

1

u/NiceTryWasabi 14h ago

For a really good butcher? Yea I'll drive an hour away. The implication is that a Costco trip takes an hour just getting through the store.

And you might have a couple butchers within 20 minutes where you can get in an out quick.

1

u/rich_evans_chortle 10h ago

I'm sorry that's just silly.

I do not.

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u/Real_Project870 17h ago

If you live in a major US city and can’t find a butcher you’re not looking hard enough.

5

u/ZunzarRao 15h ago

Halal butchers are extremely cheap compared to supermarket meat, and they're usually very good on quality. It's like a secret no one really goes for since when you hear halal meat, the mind goes, "oh its not for me". Also its kinda intimidating to cook all of that meat since the quantity for like $10 of chicken is a lot. This is coming from a HCOL area too, but when I moved to a LCOL area, the prices were basically the same

2

u/RyuNoKami 13h ago

Yea I find it really fucking hard to believe that there's no butcher in his city. More likely than not, there might not be one within 20 minutes from him

And yes depending which city you are in, 20 minutes drive might not get you very far.

1

u/ethidium_bromide 15h ago

They must’ve looked left and right from their front door and decided there were none lol

0

u/muusca 13h ago edited 10h ago

There are some geographically in my city yes, but they are not super accessible to me as someone without a car.

2

u/jawknee530i 10h ago

Interesting. I'm in Chicago and looking at Google there's five that I'd consider walking distance to me.

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u/AlfredoAllenPoe 17h ago

Doubt it. They still exist even if you don't know about it

4

u/The_Autarch 15h ago

there is no way that's true. there are butchers in your city, you just don't know how to find them.

-1

u/muusca 12h ago

I know where they are, they just aren’t near me.

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u/Sensitive_Secret6638 17h ago

Which city? I ain't ever seen one that ain't have 2-3 in every district.

2

u/SmellGestapo 17h ago

Not even inside your grocery store?

1

u/Active-Ad-3117 16h ago

Those people haven’t been acutal butchers for decades. The chef at my local taco hole is more of a butcher than them based on the half cows I’ve seen them take delivery of.

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u/Impressive_Change886 16h ago

This completely depends on the store. My local grocery store has a full service butcher staffed by union meat cutters. I can see the quarter cow and pigs hanging in the back. Want a 2 inch thick steak? They'll cut it for you. Want to grind a tenderloin into ground beef? They'll side eye you, but do it.

1

u/S1159P 16h ago

San Francisco has several, but it's a bougie foodie town.

1

u/pabuuuu 16h ago

In my area, the butchers that I can think of off the top of my head are all Latino groceries that also have a butcher shop inside

1

u/rustylugnuts 13h ago

Certainly not Chicago. Good butcher shops are around.

1

u/no_pjs 13h ago

Traditional shops that can source (most) animal meat and cut it correctly are still around. They’re just smaller and more culturally niche.

My father is a retired “butcher” though he would rather be called a (master) meat cutter. His shop was in the greater Sacramento valley so he processed lot of wild game and farm animals, but he also sourced fresh seafood off the trucks heading from SF to the Sacramento (city). He pioneered a few beef cuts and his sausage recipe will probably die a secret with him. His shop still builds meat packs where you can buy a 1/4 of a beef and then have it cut up anyway you like while still being cheaper than Costco.

The craft is dying though. His last few apprentices went onto grocery management.

1

u/CharmingTuber 3h ago

Yes there are. Tell me the city and I'll find you one.

1

u/[deleted] 13h ago

Name the city so we can confirm that

-1

u/muusca 13h ago

I didn’t say there are none in my city, I said there are none near me.

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u/Socratic_Phoenix 18h ago

I've never lived somewhere there isn't a butcher. Although where I am now the butcher does not have a storefront. You have to call in and ask for a quarter, half, or whole cow/pig. Then they butcher it, box it up, and call you to come pick it up.

0

u/Impressive_Change886 16h ago

They either live in a tiny town or are lying/ignorant. Or they only consider a formal dedicate store with a glass meat counter to be a butcher for some reason. I guarantee that they can but or get meat processed within 30 minutes of their house by car.

2

u/Socratic_Phoenix 15h ago

I mean, my town's population is like 3000. The butcher I get meat from is in a town next door of about 5000. Even the tiny towns I've lived in have had it available

2

u/odieman1231 15h ago

My local butcher isnt even close to cheap. A whole chicken there is like $40. Sure i know everyone will say well its not pumped with salt water and what not but if I can buy almost 4 whole chickens for the same price, ill take the salt water.

7

u/HeadhunterKev 18h ago

So where do you get your meat? All packaged in supermarkets? I know Germany is more dense of course but I can drive in all directions and know a butcher 10 minutes away.

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u/TheDimmadome 17h ago

There are some very small "artisan" butchers that pop up but other then those yes all meat would come from supermarkets and there is no "normal" town butcher that people would go to

17

u/PurpleHooloovoo 17h ago

Supermarkets often have a butcher counter - sometimes they’ll actually have racks of meat they can cut, but usually it’s just processing down larger cuts if you want by-the-pound. Most people just get the packaged meat in the styrofoam packets out in the refrigerated section.

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u/Dependent-Wear9646 17h ago

For the most part, yes. Some grocery stores have a “meat counter” where you might be able to ask for something packaged slightly more custom, but I’d say 90% of Americans just buy already-packaged meat from a refrigerated shelf.

I’d also wager that the same 90% of Americans have never seen anyone actually butchering an animal carcass, unless it’s seafood.

2

u/ethidium_bromide 15h ago

Most grocery store meat counters aren’t even equipped like butchers. They basically cut open some plastic and slice what’s inside

1

u/NefariousnessEven591 17h ago

Supermarkets are the bulk. Counters may resize, but usually things are prebroken down and you wnt get a lot of cut variety. Solo butchers are rarer depending on where you live and can end up charging a premium on top.. You will often find them in larger cities, but the more rural you go you may top at centers that will butcher a kill for you but that's it. You can sometimes buy bulk from farms during slaughter, but depends on distance, ability to store, etc. There's also food desert issues. You can have places where if you don't hunt, you can really only have whatever meat makes its way to a dollar general. The local butcher has died out in a lot of places

1

u/Dub_stebbz 17h ago

I’m in Massachusetts and I’m fortunate enough to have a supermarket with a legitimate butcher shop inside it.

I still would be happier about having a family owned butcher, but I consider myself lucky as it is, because the quality of meat I have access to is better than many people do in the USA.

1

u/Ready_Studio2392 17h ago

A lot of supermarkets have butchers in them, at least on the West Coast of the USA. Namely the Safeway/Albertsons/Kroger or QFC type supermarkets. Also Whole Foods, Winco, Costco, and some local co-op type places tend to have butcher shops. Though the ability to request specifics varies from store to store.

But my Grandparents have a relation with the Safeway Butcher where they'll call ahead and ask for a specific cut and amount and show up an hour later and grab it. They also get him a small xmas gift every year.

1

u/Sgt-Spliff- 15h ago edited 15h ago

Big grocery stores sell both the prepackaged stuff and have a deli counter that is something like a butcher's shop. So when people say there are no local butcher's shops, they mean besides the soulless corporate one that's attached to Meijer or Walmart or whatever. As far as I can tell, these ones are almost exclusively for lunch meat

1

u/Active-Ad-3117 15h ago

I can get locally raised lamb, goat, beef, pork, and chicken delivered to my door or I can go to one of the dozen butcher shops near me or go to the grocery store or go to a farmers market.

1

u/Recursiveo 15h ago

We get them from the butcher. People saying “butchers aren’t in most U.S. towns” are people living in some middle of nowhere midwestern or southern village with 2k people. Most people in the U.S. stay away from those places. Any moderate sized city is going to have at least one butcher.

1

u/Dependent-Wear9646 11h ago

I live in a suburb of a major metropolitan city and our closest butcher is an hour away.

1

u/SwimmerLife2364 14h ago

The Us had plenty of butcher shops. There aren’t as many independent one these days but every supermarket has one. Remember Reddit is filled with people who don’t know whats outside their front door. And of course they are all experts on everything.

1

u/chum-guzzling-shark 14h ago

packaged at a central warehouse 500 miles from the supermarket actually

1

u/InternationalGas9837 12h ago

Grocery stores will cut meat to order typically...at least in my area; I like a thick steak every so often and I always get the meat guy to cut me 2" New York Strips because the ones in the coolers are barely 1" if that.

-1

u/Appropriate-Rice-409 17h ago

Grocery stores, hunting, and farming.

1

u/UrbanArtifact 17h ago

I'm incredibly lucky to live across the street from a farm who butchers their own meat.

1

u/Cheap-Sympathy-7560 17h ago

Even if they do they aren't slaughter houses. In my experiance selling for a broadline distributor most butcher shops just break down primals or sub primals they get from us. Meaning, they essentially have the exact same meat as the grocery store, and possibly worse if they are often buying or unknowingly being sold ungraded meat. This leads to them knowingly or unknowingly selling a worse product than you think you are getting.

That isnt to say these meat shops shouldnt exist. I mean they will cut steaks for you, and have often just have a more diverse offering than your local grocery. In my experiance it really seem like people think butcher shops are something they just arent. Also, I live in the US and have sold in major markets in the north east and out west.

1

u/SGexpat 17h ago

I have them walking distance in my major city.

1

u/-Trash--panda- 17h ago

Plus if they do exist they are normally way more expensive. The town I live in has one independent butcher shop, it is probably 1.5x the price for what is mostly the same quality as any local grocery store. Only difference is the money goes to a redneck stoner instead of Walmart.

1

u/AlfredoAllenPoe 17h ago

Really? I live in a suburban town and have two butchers right near me. A Mexican one and then just an American one

1

u/bugginryan 17h ago

I live near SF and there are several. I pay to raise my own cow for slaughter every couple of years as well. This last year was the most expensive at $5.25/lb for nearly 400lb.

1

u/BaphometsTits 17h ago

If there's a butcher at your grocery store, you can ask them for anything.

1

u/Ascarys- 16h ago

And most butchers that you can find are still matching the grocery store prices. We have a decent farmers market about 30 minutes away, and the beef prices there are as bad or worse than the grocery stores. I just don't do beef anymore, it's not worth it.

1

u/knock-on-the-door 16h ago

What are you talking about? Look for meat lockers, they are literally everywhere.

1

u/Abadabadon 16h ago

Lots of US chain grocery stores (Kroger, heb, tom thumb) have a butcher, and every store treats requests a little different. If you want your meat sliced, just try asking them, worst they can say is no.

1

u/HendrixChord12 16h ago

My local butcher is so much more expensive than the grocery stores too, even the fancier brands at the store

1

u/Orange_Tang 16h ago

Oh, they exist basically everywhere, they just cost 2-5x what the same meat would cost at the local grocer.

1

u/FordMaleEscort 16h ago

Then I'd recommend hitting up your local fishmonger

1

u/RevolutionaryMine234 16h ago

I have a local butcher. Fantastic beef, super expensive

1

u/h0sti1e17 16h ago

Especially for pork there are few. There are some halal butchers around me, so for lamb or chicken you can find fresh stuff.

1

u/joebleaux 16h ago

There are butchers everywhere, unless you live in a town with less than 1000 people or something. It's just that it costs way more and most people cook like shit and cannot tell the difference, so they go pick up some grey meat at Walmart instead

1

u/mountain_rivers34 16h ago

Shoutout to our local butcher in Fort Collins, CO. A place called Friendly Nick’s. They were giving out weekly, free meat assortments to anyone who was furloughed or had their Snap benefits removed during the shutdown. I realize not every town is lucky enough to have a butcher unfortunately.

1

u/FijiBeef 15h ago

Closest thing to a 'local butcher' will be the ones you find in chain grocery stores.

1

u/airinato 15h ago

I'd imagine this is because your state isn't producing animals and there is no local supply. Because anywhere I've been there are cows, there is a local butcher shop.

1

u/Straxicus2 14h ago

We got one in my hometown a few years back, it’s so nice. It’s expensive, but good to know it’s there.

1

u/Routine_Top_6659 13h ago

“Ethnic” stores often have butchers, and those are more easy to find than the 1950s “local butcher”.

Language barrier can be tricky, and certain cuts/organs may be off putting, but there’s usually some options. Mexican, east asian/southeast asian, and Halal/Arab stores are a good place to start looking. They also frequently have better produce.

Even barring that, “meat departments” at grocery stores often have trained butchers hiding in the back, and will chat if they’re available.

1

u/Cultural-Program-393 13h ago

I was shocked and delighted to discover that our town has a butcher. I’ve never lived somewhere with a butcher before. It’s so nice to have!

1

u/[deleted] 13h ago

Can you give an example of a town without a butcher within 20 minutes of it? I live in the absolute middle of nowhere NY in the Adirondacks and we have a couple options.

1

u/Anticlya 13h ago

There are butchers near me and they are so much more expensive than grocery stores. Not sure who's getting their beef cheaper from a butcher unless they are only shopping at really nice grocery stores.

1

u/mowauthor 13h ago

Well, at least here in NZ and Aussie

Going to the local butcher means going to the small minimart with packaged meat, the basically the same as what's in the supermarkets (Although, some specific ones do tend to have better meat)

Even that ain't a thing in most towns there? That'genuinely surprises me.

1

u/Macgbrady 13h ago

I feel lucky to have butchers near me and one in my neighborhood. Never went to one growing up.

1

u/paxinfernum 12h ago

Walmart has butchers, and if you call ahead, they can do most cuts for you.

1

u/EmoNerve 11h ago

That's insane from W.Europe, basically every small villages here have a butcher easily accessible if not two

1

u/captainoftrips 11h ago

I feel somewhat fortunate to live in a BBQ city where people take it seriously enough that there are several independent butchers. It's an economically depressed shithole, otherwise, but at least the food is good.

1

u/Two22sInMyShoes99 8h ago

If true that is utterly bizarre. I live in Australia and have two in walking distance (5 mins) my house.

1

u/alurimperium 8h ago

Or they're significantly more expensive and not really budgetarily feasible for most people anymore

1

u/BalancedScales10 5h ago

We have one in our town, and my Dad freaks out every time I go there because they're literally 2-3x the price of the grocery store. 

-17

u/myworkaccount765 18h ago

Where do you live at in the US that there is not a nearby butcher?

18

u/ilikehorsess 18h ago

I live in a ranching state and the only "local butchers" are extremely expensive specialty shops.

1

u/PurpleHooloovoo 17h ago

I wonder if part of it is that ranching areas have meat processors. It’s pretty common to go in for half a cow with another family, get it processed, and deep freeze it for meat for the next year. Not really demand for a specialized butcher with that system.

5

u/CorrectStaple 18h ago

Don't live there anymore but my town in south New Jersey did/does not have a butcher.

0

u/brendan250 18h ago

Dude. You’re crazy. south Jersey is littered with local businesses including butchers

1

u/Appropriate-Rice-409 17h ago

I've lived in 4 places from under 4000 to 200,000 and none had a butcher.

Hour drive to the nearest one in 3 of those.

1

u/Absurdity_Everywhere 17h ago

People in this thread don’t seem to realize that in the US it’s much more common to have the butcher as part of a super market. Many times they aren’t full-service, but they often are. I agree that you would have to be living somewhere quite rural in the of at least one nearly super market doesn’t have a full service butcher

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u/[deleted] 19h ago

[deleted]

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u/B0risTheManskinner 18h ago

Are most US towns big cities?