Ralphs rolling shelf ready beef branded "Kroger Mercado"

[ClownLoach]

Yesterday my local Ralphs had an unusually puny selection of beef, no premium cuts at all like ribeye, New York or Filet in the "choice" area. The only meats that appeared to have been cut and packed in the store were some odd looking chuck roasts and other less popular cuts. Then I saw about six rows of uniformly packaged meats that were obviously shelf ready and had been shipped in. The only ribeye there was very thin cut, maybe half an inch with about 8 of these little slivers in the tray. Others were top round, flap meat, etc. which didn't have a USDA grade sticker or indication on the label. All had visible gristle and little to no marbling. And the kicker is all this prepackaged stuff was labeled with a special sticker as well as the price sticker as "Kroger Mercado." To put it politely, I don't think there are very many folks in my neighborhood seeking a "Mercado" brand for anything; this location would be a good candidate for conversion to the Fresh Fare subbrand before they diluted it. More than that the product looked terrible; I'm guessing it is cut by robots or something due to the perfect slice size and complete lack of good trimming.

Our store does have a meat and seafood counter in the corner and selection was also very poor. Ground beef that obviously wasn't ground in house and was probably shipped in a large bag to the store. Out of the premium cuts I described again except for a couple oversized "Tomahawk" cut ribeye with too much bone and not enough beef. Two trays of marinated carne asada in a sickly green looking sauce that reminds me of the green algae slime I scrape off the lid of my aquarium. If this is the beginning of the rumored rollout of shelf ready only meats to Ralphs, they're going to destroy themselves.
I see myself shopping at Stater Bros even more now.

[storewanderer]

Kroger and Safeway/Albertsons don't grind any beef in house anymore, they just get pre-ground stuff and may run it through a grinder to make it look pretty but that is it. It is important to only buy product explicitly labeled by cut that is being ground such as "Ground Chuck" "Ground Round" or "Ground Sirloin."

Some stores may do limited grind of shop trim but not much of that happens anymore. That has to be labeled as "Ground Beef" since it is a variety of cuts going into the trim.

In the old days the stores typically had a Ground Beef that was a 30/70 or a 27/73, a Ground Chuck that was 80/20, Ground Round that was 85/15, and Ground Sirloin that was 90/10 or 93/7. So all of the shop trim went into the cheap 30/70 stuff and the more expensive grinds were assured as being a specific cut ground up.

I am noticing a few purchases lately of Private Selection "Ground Round" at Kroger have had odd quality. I am suspicious what exactly it is I am purchasing but some days at one specific location something is different about that meat (and not in a good way). Other locations no issue with that Ground Round or Ground Sirloin, it continues to be an excellent quality grind.

Kroger Mercado thin meats have been at Smiths for at least a year now. These are odd meats. As you point out there is no grading on the package. The sale prices on these meats doesn't tie to the stuff cut in the store either. When Smiths has low stock of all meats, this Kroger Mercado stuff is still fully stocked, along with their vac-pack Simple Truth Beef. Those seem to be the last things anyone wants. I've bought some of those Simple Truth steaks on significant markdown and they were actually really good. You can kind of tell they'll be good as they are soft as you feel them raw. I'd never pay full price or even 50% of the full price though.

My suspicion is the Kroger Mercado meat is run on a big automatic slicer similar to lunchmeat.

Smiths has been pushing those Tomahawk Cut RIbeyes too (so has Costco), at a slight discount from a normal 14.99/lb Ribeye at 13.99/lb or so. Interesting that Ralphs is pushing those too. Some Smiths I have no clue who is buying those Tomahawks and they are an awfully big price tag to just waste out/reduce, so it is interesting to hear Ralphs is doing those too. Must be some kind of a Kroger directive. Kroger sure thinks of odd items to have multiple divisions push.

[storewanderer]

They also have soda. Pure cane sugar soda at that. Or "real sugar" as their package says. Maybe that's not pure cane.

[retailfanmitchell019]

If this is the beginning of the rumored rollout of shelf ready only meats to Ralphs, they're going to destroy themselves.
I see myself shopping at Stater Bros even more now.

Another reason I'm hoping the merger is stopped...

[Romr123]

They also have soda. Pure cane sugar soda at that. Or "real sugar" as their package says. Maybe that's not pure cane.

I've gotta laugh about the whole "pure cane" thing....you can't tell me that sugar sweetened sodas in the upper Midwest (where there are huge sugar beet farms/refineries) are actually using cane sugar from hundreds/thousands of miles away when the spigot is...right next door to the refinery.

[BillyGr]

They also have soda. Pure cane sugar soda at that. Or "real sugar" as their package says. Maybe that's not pure cane.

I've gotta laugh about the whole "pure cane" thing....you can't tell me that sugar sweetened sodas in the upper Midwest (where there are huge sugar beet farms/refineries) are actually using cane sugar from hundreds/thousands of miles away when the spigot is...right next door to the refinery.

Which might be why it says real sugar (as noted in the original post to which the reply was made)- the beets would still qualify there, and they get the main point of it not having corn syrup as many brands started using.

[ClownLoach]

All the "Kroger Mercado" product was gone when I shopped a few days ago. I'm guessing it was all going from truck to shelf to trash.

[storewanderer]

All the "Kroger Mercado" product was gone when I shopped a few days ago. I'm guessing it was all going from truck to shelf to trash.

Still saw some at Smiths this weekend, Friday night.

Not every Smiths has it every day.

Case ready meat is tough for Smiths due to how far spread apart geographically their stores are. They may only get meat deliveries a couple days a week at a lot of the stores due to how spread out they are. Stores with a successful (??) case ready meat program like King Soopers who is 100% case ready meat from a meat plant in Denver get meat deliveries daily.

[BillyGr]

Still saw some at Smiths this weekend, Friday night.

Not every Smiths has it every day.

Case ready meat is tough for Smiths due to how far spread apart geographically their stores are. They may only get meat deliveries a couple days a week at a lot of the stores due to how spread out they are. Stores with a successful (??) case ready meat program like King Soopers who is 100% case ready meat from a meat plant in Denver get meat deliveries daily.

Though some of those pre-packaged items seem to have a longer sell by date than things done in store, so they may still work even if not brought in daily?

[storewanderer]

Still saw some at Smiths this weekend, Friday night.

Not every Smiths has it every day.

Case ready meat is tough for Smiths due to how far spread apart geographically their stores are. They may only get meat deliveries a couple days a week at a lot of the stores due to how spread out they are. Stores with a successful (??) case ready meat program like King Soopers who is 100% case ready meat from a meat plant in Denver get meat deliveries daily.

Though some of those pre-packaged items seem to have a longer sell by date than things done in store, so they may still work even if not brought in daily?

And with that, taking advantage of the longer shelf life of the prepackaged meat specifically beef, you have the Wal Mart meat program. Beef doesn't come in every day, availability of cuts is spotty from day to day, freshness and meat appearance isn't the best, etc.

Many chains do case ready for pork and chicken already. Longer shelf life. Fewer unique cuts.

Beef is the challenge for a case ready program.

In the case of King Soopers prepackaged beef program the daily deliveries enable the stores to monitor conditions, have fresh product, and react to sudden demand or volume changes. This way if you go to a King Soopers you won't even know the meat is all prepackaged. Unlike Wal Mart where it is so obvious due to product appearance, lack of in stock on cuts from day to day, etc.