Having worked in agriculture my entire life, and especially the livestock sector, and being a bachelor doing my own grocery shopping, these threads catch my attention.
The USDA quality grades for beef are Prime (the highest, there is no grade that is better than Prime), Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter, and Canner.
Prime is typically bought by the restaurant trade or specialty high end meat shops, particularly ones that prepare their own cuts. It is unusual, rare even, to fine USDA Prime in a supermarket. If someone invites you to a home dinner and says they are serving “prime rib”, it probable Choice Rib, and still very tasty at that. The typical consumer likely couldn’t tell the difference by either appearance or taste.
Choice and Select are the grades sold through the retail trade as packaged beef cuts (steaks and roasts). Standard / Commercial / Utility / Cutter / Canner (think old dairy and beef cows) are used for ground beef and processed meat products (think of something like Dinty More Beef Stew or canned Chile Con Carne).
Whoever filmed that focused on the price and panned the camera so quickly it was difficult to read the labels or really look at the cuts … one wonders if they were being intentionally deceptive. I could not see a USDA Quality Grade sticker (stores don’t have to include that information, every shop I’m familiar does, they would want consumers to know they are purchasing a quality product). The only sticker I could see was “Premium Beef”, whatever that means, it’s just something the store stuck on. “Grass Fed” and “Organic” will be more expensive but I don’t see that information on the label. Dairy and meat products are more expensive in the south. Cows don’t like the hot, humid temperature, it’s difficult to grow quality forages in that environment, and these products are often imported from the north and west, adding to their cost. As an example, in 1999 I interviewed for the dairy manager position at Clemson University (I opted not to leave Washington State). They were having to send their raw milk to Virginia for processing.
Still, the video prices seem off the hook. Last week at Fred Meyer (Kroger) I purchased a 3 lb. chub of 93% lean hamburger for $3.49 / lb. on sale (normally $5.99; the standard 80% lean is regularly priced between $3.99 and $4.99 per pound). Looking at this weeks Safeway (Albertson’s) newspaper ad (their beef and pork are hand cut in each store): USDA Choice boneless Chuck Cross Rib and Sirloin Tip Roasts $5.99 / lb; Open Nature brand Grass Fed Angus Top Sirloin Steak $10.99 per lb. As a side note, grass fed is typically more expensive to produce than feedlot grain fed because of the slower growth rate. Yesterday I was at my local Winco (an employee owned supermarket headquartered in Boise, ID) and got a ½ bone in spiral ham with natural juices but no added water: $0.98 per pound. Whole milk was $3.06 per gallon regular price. The Safeway ad I mentioned has a coupon for regular or chocolate milk at $1.77 per gallon.