What Your Butcher Wants You To Know About Discounted Meat

Considering it's their whole career, it shouldn't be too surprising that butchers know the ins and the outs of the meat industry, between butchering the animals and having their fingers on the pulse of the market. As such, there's a load of information that butchers possess that might simply fly under your radar. From what underrated cut of short ribs you should buy to even something as simple as whether or not you should tip your butcher, little tidbits of knowledge can be yours if only you venture into your local shop and ask. This logic also applies to discounted meat, which simultaneously raises green and red flags to the uninformed. On the one hand, who doesn't love a discount? But on the other, why exactly is it marked down to begin with?

Don't be intimidated by this conundrum, and don't feel pressured to ask your local butcher — although we've sought out a butcher to crack this nut for you. Chowhound had an exclusive chat with Nathan Abeyta, the founder of Deep Cuts Dallas Custom Butcher Shop (@deepcutdallas on Instagram), who gave us a clear rationale for discounting meat. "Meat at grocery stores is often put on sale for two reasons: either as a loss leader to drive traffic or if it's close to its expiration date," he says, adding, "Small shops like us do it to drive traffic as well." You can rest easy, then, knowing there's nothing amiss when it comes to discounted meat at your butcher — in fact, you might be sitting on quite the deal!

Questioning the freshness of meat is one of those things that you should just never say to your butcher, and in fact, Nathan Abeyta made sure to emphasize the fact that he — as well as other small butchers — prioritizes freshness over pretty much everything else. He says, "At our shop, we never mark items down to get rid of near-expired items, as we feel it cheapens our brand." This is a sentiment shared by other butchers who have gone on record to clear the air about discounted meat, with some citing vendor discounts and others mentioning marketing/publicity reasons. Abeyta mentions the latter category in particular. "Small shops like us are never given price breaks, so whenever we do run sales, it is strictly to drive in traffic at the cost of a margin hit to our bottom line," he says.

As for the quality of the meat, you can reasonably assume that it's going to be of equal quality to what you'd normally get at that butcher, although Abeyta does add a caveat that this depends on each individual store. He does have one last piece of advice for those looking to find the most value for their money when it comes to cuts of meat: "Support your local small shop and start an honest conversation with your butcher about what you're looking for!" Butchers know the meat market better than anyone, so building a rapport with yours can lead to some great deals and underrated cuts for yourself — you've just got to start chatting.