BBQ paradox: Don’t eat the good stuff
A popular Kansas City barbecue joint is urging customers not to buy beef. “First, try another of our smoked meats like turkey, ham, pork, pulled pork, sausage or ribs.”*
The Kansas City Star quotes the owner, Jerry Rauschelbach* as saying he hates the prices he’s forced to charge customers. What four months ago was a $10.95 brisket sandwich is now $17.95.
“I’m embarrassed by our brisket pricing,” he told the Star. “But everybody’s doing it. It’s either that or you close your doors.
“Order anything besides brisket or burnt ends.”
Then: “We need to send the message that we’re not going to eat brisket, we’re not going to eat beef products,” he said. “And if you don’t eat beef products, prices will plummet immediately. It’s simply a supply and demand issue.
“If everybody went to a barbecue place and ordered pork for a week, beef prices would come down real damn quick.”**
Who else is remembering how beef got treated in the 70’s round of inflation? In 1971, with “just” 5.6 percent inflation, we had a beef boycott. It was all over the 6 o’clock news every night. What were called “housewives” in those times were carrying picket signs. And then the president decreed a wage and price freeze and when he lifted it on most goods, he left it on beef because we were all holding our cattle and there was a—surprise Mr. Government-I’m-here-to-help—beef shortage.
Led to the nastiest cattle market in history.
Why pick on us? I mean all the lesser meats are higher, too. Broilers increased 21 percent between Nov. 1 and Feb. 2.
I guess because beef is America’s favorite food. So there’s that. People notice.
But I think maybe this time its’s because of that stupid Covid market. The packing plants had to slow down, so there wasn’t as much beef. The restaurants had to shut down, so people had to eat at home. Shortages of toilet paper and such gave people the hoarding urge. And the government passed out money. So a slowdown in supply up against a boom in demand. Everything went up, but beef went up faster.
Cattle, of course, didn’t. But beef shoppers don’t care about that and I’ve never been sure it was wise for us to scream “they’re ripping you off!” to people buying our product. (But don’t some of our spokesmen like to scream it. It’s like General Motors taking out ads saying “car dealers are charging too much.”)
These latest inflation figures have everybody’s attention and we should hope the government decides to help consumers somewhere else. Remember when I mentioned the Bronteroc, that bird everybody knew was coming but nobody knew what it was until it ate Merle Streep in “Don’t Look Up?” I wonder if this whole war nightmare might not be that bird. Recessions are NOT good for high diamond rings or beef. And beef is already the highest priced of the meats and is poised to be a lot more so when we get this herd whittled down a little more.
It’s about to be our turn. Depending on grain prices, of course. And whether people have enough money to pay $80 for a brisket to make a $17 sandwich.
Not to borrow trouble, but Biden Is looking for ways to placate inflation fears and he already has his eyes on packers. Because they are ripping people off!
For cattle people, this inflation is different than the 70’s. That caught the beef industry at the peak of a cycle. One that was being camouflaged by the historic demand for calves to fill the expanding commercial feedlots and packing plants on the Great Plains. Americans were beef crazy and spent a larger share of their disposable income on beef. Per capita consumption of beef jumped from 63 pounds a year in 1960 to 84 pounds in 1971 (Per capita consumption of poultry in 1971 was just 48 pounds.**
So beef was the staple protein. And a popular target for Nixon’s Cost of Living Council. It’s a lot different this time. And surely, surely, the Biden folks have read the history of the Nixon debacle.
I brought all this up because there are those among us who believe it is the duty of the packers and barbecue joints and grocery stores--not that $1 beef checkoff—to sell beef. These are largely the same folks who tell consumers they’re being ripped off when they buy beef. And who tried to get the beef checkoff repealed.
“I don’t sell beef. I sell cattle,” say these folks.
Well, yeah. Bu the people who buy cattle only buy cattle because people buy beef. That seems pretty clear to me. Jerry would just as soon—in fact would rather, apparently—sell turkey. Packers and purveyors all have other options. They would just as soon sell turkey or tofu as beef. It’s our job to make sure people prefer beef. Prefer it enough to pay more—a lot more lately-- to offset the much higher prices.
*I’m assuming a fellow with such a name is accustomed to people saying, “do you mind if I call you Jerry?" And he says “of course not.” So I did. That thing is hard to spell.
** Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article259475144.html#storylink=cpy
