Do most Americans buy frozen meat or are there affordable shops for fresh stuff?

39 comments

1. Pretty much all grocery stores have affordable fresh meat.

2. It’s probably a combination for most of us. I go to a specialty butcher for nicer cuts of meat, but I also buy like 20 chuck roasts when they go on sale and stick them in my chest freezer. I’m not paying $12/lb for fucking chuck roast, that’s ridiculous.

3. There’s plenty of shops around for fresh stuff. The closer you are to the farm, the better the comparison between fresh and frozen.

4. Fresh stuff..

   it’s at all the grocery stores.. you don’t have to go to a specialty shop / dedicated butcher for not-frozen meat.

5. I will buy some frozen meat like frozen burger patties, but every grocery store has fresh meat.

6. Frozen meat as in steaks… ?? I will make an EXCEPTION for this.. Omaha Steaks, this I will purchase…. it has been great always.. I thaw, season throw on grill…

   I will purchase FRESH MEATS ie: steaks *if it some super super duper deal.*.. I got some 3/pk NY Strip from a local grocery on promo for ~$22 or so a pack.. the price on them was ~$60 each. I *will purchase these as many as I can and freeze..*

   *IF I get deals* that I can not pass up on fresh, I will freeze it to save the money… I make sure to use realatively soon, so not to ruin it…

   *I prefer FRESH MEAT*S but will as above for deals, and Omaha Steaks.

7. Fresh is widely available and more commonly purchased I think. Sometimes people buy frozen for convenience of shopping less often or to take advantage of a bulk discount.

   I would generally buy fish frozen though, and I think that’s the norm for a lot of the country. I don’t live near the coast so the flash frozen on the boat stuff is higher quality then the “fresh” fish that my grocery store sells.

8. I buy both. I buy fresh meat for stuff I’m cooking that night. I buy frozen for stuff I put in the freezer and eat sometime later.

   I have a butcher shop across the street and two grocery stores within 5 minutes with a butcher department.

9. It’s a combination. Most places you can find affordable fresh meat. Many people buy in bulk while there is a sale and then freeze it at home. Most large grocery stores also have freezers with discounted meat. This is meat that came to the “use or freeze by” date before they could sell it. They freeze it and mark the price down as an incentive for people to buy it so it doesn’t pile up. It’s also common in rural areas for people to buy a portion of a cow/pig or several chickens directly from a farm. The meat is usually delivered to you frozen and you’d freeze it because it’s a very large amount.

10. We have plenty of grocery stores. I buy fresh meat, vegetables and fruits weekly.

11. This post makes me crave the Costco Ribeyes!

12. The only meats I really buy frozen are processed meats (breakfast sausage patties, popcorn chicken, etc).

13. I always buy it fresh

14. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a grocery store that didn’t have a butcher.

15. Both are readily available. If I’m buying meat in bulk, I get frozen. If I’m buying for something tonight/tomorrow, I’ll get fresh.

16. We have fresh and frozen meat at most supermarkets.

17. I can buy fresh for about the same price as frozen. Which is cheaper will depend on the exact sales going on, but I think not frozen is probably cheaper most of the time.

    Both are sold in any grocery store.

18. Most meat is sold fresh. It’s available in every local grocery store/supermarket, discount store like Wal-Mart and Target, warehouse clubs like Costco and Sam’s Club as well as specialty butcher shops (where you tend to find higher quality, higher priced, less common types of meat, etc).

19. There are meat wholesellers, we have butcheries like anyone else. The meat I buy from the supermarket isn’t generally frozen though.

20. Fresh or frozen are both easily accessible.

    Even if its not frozen at the store, its not uncommon for us to buy meat that’s on sale and freeze it for later.

    And I love fish, but most fish will be frozen at some point given our distance from the ocean.

21. I buy all of my meat fresh and freeze it at home, with the exception of ground turkey. It’s either pay $2 for pound that’s already frozen or pay $5 for a non frozen pound of ground turkey. I buy it almost in bulk so I save a bit of money doing it this way.

22. 99% of the meat I buy is fresh. I get it from the good ol’ grocery store, a butcher shop, and sometimes from the farmer’s market.

23. Living in the rural Midwest I just call family members and local farmers to buy a whole or half an animal, and pay a processing fee.

    The local Mennonite butcher does a whole beef, cut, processed, packed and frozen, for less than a $0.95 a pound.

    Usually get a whole hog and half a beef a year.

24. When I’m living with someone and have help with the grocery budget, I get my meat from the butcher and farmers market. When I’m on my own I usually have to resort to cheap grocery store meat, but I still try to get it fresh from the meat counter vs the frozen aisle. I’d love to have enough freezer space to split an 1/8th of a side if beef with someone.

25. Yeah, fresh is usually standard and as easily available as frozen, either from a butcher or your standard grocery store.

26. Every grocery store I’ve ever seen (not to be confused with convenience stores or corner shops) has had a dedicated butcher for fresh meat, as well as a baker for fresh bread.

27. Personally we have frozen chicken patties, but steaks, sausages, chicken breast, pork cutlets/chops are ways fresh.
    Any local supermarket has a butcher, and there are plenty of specialty shops near me.

28. I buy fresh meat from a local butcher.

29. Fresh

30. Every major super market will have a full Butcher section with fresh meat. Small grocery stores will also have fresh meat though they may have it brought in every day or every few days as they will likely not have space for a full butcher.

    Fresh meat is purchased more often that frozen.

31. The vast majority of people I know buy fresh meat. The only thing that is bought frozen with any regularity is chicken-related products like chicken tenders or nuggets.

    The US has the largest beef and pork markets in the world, and we’re the #1 consumer of beef in the world. Getting fresh meat is very easy and there are options for all price points. When you look at all the major US stockyards and slaughterhouses, nearly every American in the continental US is within 1 day of a beef distribution location. This is excluding farm-to-table and local butcher operations, which are closer and even faster.

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    Pretty much everyone I know will not buy frozen meat unless they’re buying a whole side or quarter of a cow or pig from a butcher for their freezer.

32. The most commonly used cuts are affordable at normal grocery stores. Less common cuts are available at butchers.

33. My town has a couple of butcher shops where I can buy fresh meat raised by local ranchers, so I like to go there every now and then. What’s usually more affordable are the supermarkets. I only buy frozen meat if they’re sold out of the fresh version (such as chicken thighs).

34. Most if not all grocery stores have fresh meat. 9 times out of 10 you can find fresh meat on sale cheaper than frozen and freeze it yourself. That’s what I tend to do.

35. You can buy fresh meat at some places, but most Americans go shopping for groceries about once a week or so, and so we buy frozen meats to thaw before cooking. The place you’ll really find a difference between fresh and frozen is stuff like sea food, which is fresh on the coast and frozen inland. A lot of our beef, pork, and chicken products are prepared through large, centralized slaughterhouses and packing houses and then distributed to sellers. So, there’s not a thriving industry of local butchers selling cuts they hacked off a carcass earlier today. We had one like that in my little midwestern hometown, but it’s not the norm. We have nothing like that in the city I live in now.

36. If I buy frozen meat, it would mainly be because I’m not planning to eat it right away, not because it’s less expensive

37. I rarely buy frozen meat except for shrimp.

38. I usually stock up on McDonalds frozen beef patties at Wal-Mart by the pallet. It usually lasts us about a month. Does meat actually come fresher than that elsewhere in the Rest of the World?

39. most stores have fresh meat available; there isn’t really all that much frozen in the store.

    In my general area, there’s enough sales and good deals occasionally that more people will buy the meat fresh, and then freeze it at home, cuz they can get it on a good deal (relatively speaking).