primitives discuss buying meat in church parking lots

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/115723411

Oh my.

First up, the diet cola primitive, although his comment's out of a news article, not his original work:

Tab (9,096 posts)    Tue Mar 12, 2013, 07:55 PM

Buying Meat Out of a Truck in a Church Parking Lot

Consumers love discounted prices, especially when it comes to staple household purchases. Chicken breasts for $1.79 per pound? Sign us up.
 
Many shoppers are doing just that with an emerging service from a Washington-based company called Zaycon Foods, even as the company requires customers to accept two unusual practices: buying in bulk (those chicken breasts come in 40-pound boxes) and (here’s the really weird part of this) buying out of the back of a truck rather than a typical store.
 
Zaycon’s drive-thru markets have been held in places such as Winston-Salem, N.C., the Tampa Bay region in Florida, and Fresno, Calif. Customers place their orders online, and pickups in area parking lots (outside churches, bowling alleys, roller rinks) are scheduled on specific days. Orders can be made as late as three hours before the pickup time, but no orders are allowed on the spot.
 
The idea of picking up meat out of the back of a truck may seems sketchy, perhaps even illicit. That may actually be part of the attraction—that you’re in on some sneaky, quasi-black market operation. “People have told me, ‘I feel dirty. I just bought a box of chicken out of a truck parked in a bowling alley. But it’s the best chicken I’ve ever had,”’ Mike Conrad, one of the company’s executives, told the Tampa Bay Times.

As for the idea that there’s something unappealing or strange about buying meat out of a truck, that’s silly when you really think about it, Conrad told the Sentinel:
 
“Every chicken you’ve ever gotten came from a truck,” he said. “The butcher made it look nice, put it on a nice tray, covered it with Saran wrap and sold it for $2 a pound more than I’m selling it for.”
 
Look for Zaycon trucks packed with 25,000 pounds of meat—chicken breasts, ham, ground beef, salmon, sausage links, and/or sometimes even Alaskan cod—coming to a church parking lot near you.
 
More: http://business.time.com/2013/03/12/the-new-costco-buying-meat-out-of-a-truck-in-a-church-parking-lot/

Ugly's the only primitive who's showed up so far:

Warpy (67,541 posts)    Tue Mar 12, 2013, 08:47 PM

1. I used to buy my fish and shellfish off pickup trucks next to the highway so it wouldn't be much of a stretch to buy chicken breasts in bulk from a truck in a church parking lot.
 
I can see this sort of thing as really appealing to indie restaurants as well as people with big chest freezers.

<<<wouldn't buy meat out of the back of a truck any more than would buy "antiques" from the grasswire primitive's best pal, the vindictive primitive the notorious re-seller "Vinca."

<<<prefers to buy things from only reputable sources.

[Vagabond]

This isn't particularly strange at all.  The towns in Northern Italy have what are called Market Day once a week when vendors pull up with trucks and set up to sell clothes and food on the sidewalks and streets.  I thought that must be when the locals make a lot of their purchases because the price for things shown in stores was sky high.

[Gina]

Hmmm are these trucks inspected and all that jazz like the stores?  If so, I wouldn't mind it maybe.............but the people I have seen selling the food out of a truck are not the type of people I am going to socialize with if you catch my drift...

[Karin]

Oh, I'm sure they are Gina.  They're reefer trucks, and health dept regulated and inspected. 

The guy from Zaycon is right.  It all comes out of a truck.  I'm in that business. 

Tyson plant ---> our warehouse ---> onto a truck  ---> your store or restaurant.   It's always in a nice clean sealed case.

One would absolutely need a chest freezer, though.   

[GOBUCKS]

I once knew a guy who bought a brand-new set of Ping irons from the trunk of a car in a parking lot for $100.

The seller, who looked like he could be the president's son, explained how they had unfortunately fallen off the back of a truck.

[RobJohnson]

Oh, I'm sure they are Gina.  They're reefer trucks, and health dept regulated and inspected. 

The guy from Zaycon is right.  It all comes out of a truck.  I'm in that business. 

Tyson plant ---> our warehouse ---> onto a truck  ---> your store or restaurant.   It's always in a nice clean sealed case.

One would absolutely need a chest freezer, though.   

Many years ago my Grandparents lived in a small town and there was a seafood truck that would come and sell high quality stuff they could not normally get without a 100 mile drive. It was all really good and my grandfather loved the shrimp. The truck had a set schedule. This was before a lot of the big box stores and warehouse clubs. Years later, I ran into the same brand of shrimp at a deli at a grocery store, it was still good. I think the truck had meat also, but I simply remember my grandfather made sure my grandmother went and picked up the shrimp. I was just a little kid at the time, just a few years ago. 

[longview]

Some areas have the Bookmobile, some have that and the Grocery truck, I guess.

We have Schwann's Food trucks that come through.  The smart drivers stop where they know we are gathered for school activities, work events, etc. and we all load up.  Much easier than driving from remote place to remote place and hoping to catch someone at home.  We also have a gentleman in the area that gets seafood and specialty cuts of beef (even though most of us raise good beef).  He also lets us know when he has a shipment and what is available.  We go to him, or pass the word around and let him know where a group will be and he meets us.

Most of us carry coolers in our vehicles to keep things cold on the way back from town, so buying from these folks when we see them isn't a problem. 

[debk]

A week or so ago, I heard an ad on the car radio for "Nebraska Steaks". They were at the mall parking lot selling out of a truck. Ribeyes were something like $3.99/pound - buying the whole thing you had to cut yourself.

I wondered about it too, if it was safe.

[zeitgeist]

I once knew a guy who bought a brand-new set of Ping irons from the trunk of a car in a parking lot for $100.

The seller, who looked like he could be the president's son, explained how they had unfortunately fallen off the back of a truck.

Years ago I was gifted a nice pair of Nike golf shoes that had, I was assured, suffered the same fate.  I mean what are the chances a whole case of golf shoes in assorted sizes fell off a truck?

We use to have get all sorts of stuff off the back of a truck as a kid.  Meat, fish, bread, and, even milk.

One of the largest sporting good stores around here got it's start out of the back of a station wagon selling gum shoe boots and flannel jackets.  That store is huge today.

[RobJohnson]

Years ago I was gifted a nice pair of Nike golf shoes that had, I was assured, suffered the same fate.  I mean what are the chances a whole case of golf shoes in assorted sizes fell off a truck?

We use to have get all sorts of stuff off the back of a truck as a kid.  Meat, fish, bread, and, even milk.

One of the largest sporting good stores around here got it's start out of the back of a station wagon selling gum shoe boots and flannel jackets.  That store is huge today.

There is a large meat packing house in Illinois that started with the original owner selling meat out of the back of a truck to resturants. Now they are a purveyor to several well known chains and grocery stores. The specialize in fresh Midwest steer meat.