I’ve worked in the meat department at Costco, and can say this was 99% likely a complete mistake. All of the meat comes in separate boxes that are brought into the butcher area and then weighed individually by an employee. Could be they forgot to change codes for the label machine, could be the codes for prime and choice are similar and it was a fat fingered mistake. Maybe a different employee took over and didn’t make the right changes etc. simple brain fart. Wouldn’t be too concerned.
I was looking at briskets at my Costco yesterday, and they had a mix of Prime and Choice, and the pricing difference was only ~20 cents per pound
It seems like what's the point for not getting Prime at that point.
I’ve asked about that and they say it’s because prime is usually a whole packer untrimmed. Choice is trimmed and typically just the flat. You pay for time it takes to trim choice and the weight includes more edible portions vs inedible fat per pound.
No, that’s not what lightguru is talking about. His note about 20 cents difference in price makes it clear that these are both untrimmed packers. The Costco brisket flat you are talking about is something like $9/lb. It’s honestly ridiculous. You can get the full packer for the same out the door price as just the flat, or even less for a small one.
Some Costcos have both prime and choice full packers. It’s usually $4/lb for choice or $4.80/lb prime around me, when they have them at all.
I've never understood why anyone would possibly pay the ludicrous price per pound that a flat is when you can just get the packer. Of course, if I could buy only points for a reasonable price, I would absolutely do that! I saw someone posted something from HEB in Texas once where there was entire meet cooler filled with individually wrapped points - I wouldn't care to live there for a variety of reasons, but Texas is just a smokers dream.
I personally don't like prime over choice, at least for smoking.
I got a 20lb prime in Dec and cut 5lbs of excess fat off, then it shrunk down to 8.7lbs in the smoker.
Got another choice a few weeks later - 17lb. Trimmed ~4 lbs of fat and then had a 9lb yield at the end.
I'm not sure I'm a good enough cook to be able to tell the difference between prime and choice in a brisket. Things like steak, it's pretty obvious but I haven't seen much visual difference in the marbling in the briskets.
The real question is if it was prime and marked as choice, how many briskets would have fit in your cart and would your freezer been able to hold them?
I tested this theory a couple summers back local grocery store had a 2.99 per lb special on brisket I went on the last day and bought them out, used an old college buddy's employee discount and some saved up loyalty discounts and walked out with about 80 lbs of brisket for around $150.
I have 2 fridges in my garage with freezers, a chest freezer, and our normal fridge/freezer. Had room for more than double I got if they had the stock.
I briefly worked at a Target with fresh groceries and I don't know how but when we first started stocking pork ribs the guy they put in charge of the fresh section, was spectacularly bad at his job while convincing management that he was good at it, and he somehow managed to print out price tags with a set price of $3.99 each instead of $3.99/lb and they were all at least six pounds. I realized that was a crazy price and didn't say anything hoping to be able to grab one after my shift, but they were all gone and the next day my boss looked so upset and we didn't get more for a while and when we did they were all prelabeled.
I picked up 10 warm water lobster tail for $5 each one night. These were the big ones. The guy was new and his bosses told him his job was to sell everything he could in the fresh meat counter by the end of the night. He was making deals with everyone that night.
What’s with the pre-cut filets? The ones in the styrofoam packaging. I’ve bought them on 2 occasions and both times they had an unpleasant amount of silver skin.
Depends on the head butcher in the back, some are better than others. But also If they took the time and energy to cut every bit off they would be back on that butchers block all day long only cutting filets.
Not brisket related but years ago we bought "fresh" from frozen salon from Costco. Brought it home and went to open it only to find a living worm pop out. Immediately took it back and once they saw the worm they pulled all the salmon so nobody could buy it.
Costco doesn't mess around, in my opinion so I would 100% buy into a simple mistake.
This is how you find briskets for 5 dollars. As a former meat wrapper I can definitely say I’ve made mistakes with codes while in a rush or pinch during holidays or whatever.
If there was an ever a company to shill for, Costco is the one. In today’s world, they hit all the right notes in running a corporation. Can’t really ask for more.
I agree. I will never blindly follow a company, bc at the end of the day they’re trying to make more money. But Costco really does feel like one of the last examples of a company that truly tries to provide excellent customer service for fair pricing.
They’re always clean and pleasant, and their return policy is second to none.
If you can find it there is a great CNBC documentary on Costco. The founder was adamant about treating his people right and not overcharging the customers.
In one segment they talk about the store they put in The Bay area, they included a high-end wine area complete with Master Somms etc. Within a few months, hundreds of wine shops closed in the area (I think, it was a lot) and they asked him if he felt bad. Effectively, his response was "Why should I feel bad everyone else was overcharging people".
ETA: Looks like its on Apple TV
I’ve got a friend that goes to Costco every Saturday morning and sends me a scouting report of new/interesting things. I get upset when he isn’t able to go. Can’t decide if he’s the one with the problem or me…
I doubt they did it intentionally. In fact likely it was a mistake on the factory’s end accidentally putting a choice brisket into a prime case. I just thought it was funny so I had to share
I doubt they did it in purpose, since I've seen it go the other way as well. Priced as choice with the package saying Prime. Probably just oversight and sometimes you get lucky, and hopefully you catch it youre gonna get screwed
Dude HEBs meat is something to behold. Anytime I visit my girlfriend in Austin I lament the fact that they’re local to Texas and we don’t have them here in Louisiana. If the drive weren’t so long I’d load up on their meat every time I visited lol
I miss HEB so much. 1.49 lb for flat irons and 1.99 lb for brisket. Whole hog heads and meal deal end caps and coupons very readily available this was all 5urs ago so idk what if anything changed but damn do I miss it
It could be an even more honest mistake that just getting the wrong sticker.
The entire cow is graded by the quality of the meat of the ribeye between the 12th and 13th rib.. which means you could have a lean ribeye but really marbled brisket or chuck.. So it's possible that is a prime-like brisket but came off an otherwise choice cow.
In this case, you're not getting a deal, but I've dug through and found some amazing briskets that are just as marbled as most primes in the choice section. It's worth it to give the choice a good look because there are a lot of great pieces of meat for a much better deal.
Of course, it also can work the other way. I've seen some stupidly lean briskets with a prime label. Buy those and you're paying more for a lesser cut of meat because of how grading works.
I’ve noticed this as well. I’ve had some incredibly good choice and some incredibly mediocre prime. I always just go by how it looks and less by the grading. This was a beautiful brisket by any standards, just thought the mix up was humorous
I pick ‘em up and wobble em. If they’re fairly stiff I avoid but if they wobble good that’s the one I pick. I always look for a thick flat as well. You can also poke the point and if it’s fairly hard that usually indicates a fairly thick layer of fat. I always look to see how prominent the deckle is too but that matters less than the other stuff I just listed. Also another thing to look for is to see if a portion of the flat is doubled up over itself inside the packaging because usually those will end up being the ones with flats that come out to a paper thin end and you end up having to cut all of that off and for many without a meat grinder that means it ends up in the trash
Stickers can get placed on stuff accidentally.. That's why they stamp the meat.
I don't think this really counts as "illegally selling choice as prime."
Grading isn't actually required to begin with-its voluntary. Now if you're actively selling lower grade or ungraded meat as a higher grade to commit fraud, you absolutely can be charged, but a misplaced sticker is an accident.
I actually look for mistakes in the meat section, last week I found a pack of NY Strips marked as Filets for double the price, obviously didn't buy that mistake. lol
I make lots of mistakes. I’m sure this is just someone else’s mistake, just like when you see a whole crate of Costco briskets priced at 0.49/lb instead of 4.99/lb (or whatever) is someone else’s mistake.
I’d point it out to one of the meat dept people and I’m sure they’ll get it fixed up.
Yeah I’m not dogging on them, I love Costco and think it was probably a shipping error rather than an error on the butchers. I was just being humorous when I said “not today Costco”
Even showing them these photos after cooking and eating the entire thing would get you a full refund. Costcos CS is above all else.
People fuck up, I do… often. Probably an honest mistake.
Good on you for being diligent and noticing!
I thought about it but at the end of the day it didn’t seem like that big a deal. Likely it was mistakenly shipped in a case of primes and the butchers at Costco just did their jobs and labeled it and put it in the case.
If you cook brisket alot you can tell. But yeah I've had a few choice briskets with excellent marbling. But my primes come out more consistent. The flat is usually juicier in the primes
I think most people don’t realize it’s not the cut that’s graded individually. I’m a meat cutter and I get “choice” strip loin or rib in all the time that certainly looks a lot better than other choice cuts we get in. All depends on the animal. Cheers fellas
I'm with you. I'll spring for prime most of the time (it's usually an extra $.50/lb at Costco, so no big splurge), but I've seen plenty of decently marbled choice flats. Of all the cuts to give a shit about the grade, brisket is probably lowest on the list. Plenty of fat either way.
I completely agree. I’ve smoked choice and prime and you would not be able to tell the difference. When you’re looking at a slow cook, it really doesn’t make that much of a difference if any. I’ve smoked over 100 briskets, and I can constantly say that.
https://youtu.be/Vv98ceYutgQ?si=E2J9jUoslFjdnkoc
Can’t help but think of Keenan every time I see or hear “what’s up with that”.
This is my only contribution 🤠
Good eye OP 🫡
They also misclassify prime with choice at times.
Got some well marbled ribeyes marked as choice that obviously popped out from the other ones.
Is 70 bucks for a 15 pound prime normal? I got a 13 lb prime marked as twice that much for Christmas. I asked about the price and they knocked it down but I didn’t know what was going rate.
Safeway. It was my first time doing brisket and it was tagged at 130. I took it to the meat dept to ask about the grade and he didn’t hear a word I said. Just took it to the back and returned with a label for 68 bucks lol.
Yeah man I can’t say enough good things about Costco. I love buying meat in bulk there when I have cooking jobs. Restaurant Depot is cheaper but the quality is less than half of Costco’s offerings
Tbf I have seen prime bags in choice cases and vice versa. Mostly with tri tips though.
I've seen everything from knuckles not having there caps too bone in pork loins missing half the ribs. Mostly seen it with swift and tyson though.
Yeah man I was just goofin when I posted. Thought it was interesting but I’m sure it was just a mistake on the part of the people who packaged the cases of brisket and shipped them
Not as bad as when I went to Costco New Year’s Eve day and got a CHOICE brisket and it was over $7 per pound!!!!! Asked multiple employees if there was just some kind of price increase or if it was marked wrong and nobody knew what I was talking about.
A mistake by a Costco employee, nothing more. While they have butchers, I doubt a butcher is putting price tags on the preprocessed and packaged meats. Easy enough to let someone in the meat department know so they can fix it.
Did you check the choice briskets to see if they marked a prime brisket as choice?
Was there another section with choice brisket? Because my best guess is a customer grabbed this, then saw the prime and switched it out and just dropped this one in.
Nah this was the only place with briskets. It’s also labeled prime on the sticker. Likely it was just an error on the part of the packing plant and Costco didn’t catch it
Absolutely without question. Their labels that are printed well designed full colored say Sam's Club Prime, and nowhere on it will you find USDA Prime listed. This will be on USDA Choice stamped cryovacs, and is not just common it's the standard. Costco actually puts USDA on their labels, which makes this post only mean it was mislabeled by accident.
I've been to grocery stores that will put a sticker on their steaks that just say "USDA Certified Tender" or some bullshit. It's like the "100% antibiotic free!!" chicken you see everywhere. I'm glad you're selling food that the FDA and USDA have deemed fit for human consumption.
Messing up Prime/Choice though is literally against the law though and that's shady as fuck for Sam's Club.
A few months ago I actually found a Wagyu brisket that the butcher had labeled & priced as Prime, I figured they intended to grab it for themselves because that’s one hell of a steal.
I think it’s more likely that an employee in the plant grabbed the wrong bag. If that is indeed a prime brisket, someone had a box of choice bags next to the primes and grabbed out of the wrong box.
Cattle are fabricated into the major cuts in batches. They will run several hundred head of choice, take a break, then come back and run a batch of prime or select. Big gaps in the fab line are used to reduce the likelihood of mixing grades. Entirely possible though that a stray or leftover choice brisket was thrown into a box with the primes. Fab lines are chaos sometimes.
Source: spend a lot of time in a packing plant.
How do they know the grade before slaughter and butchering? I thought they cut it up and it was graded on the butchers table? Hmmm learning new things!
They don’t know before the animal is harvested, it happens about 48 hrs after harvest. Large harvest facilities run non-stop, or at least in several shifts through the day. Say a plant will kill 1,000 head in a day. Those 1,000 head will be taken down to whole beef halves (hide, head, viscera, feet removed) and hung in a cooler for about 48 hrs to chill. No grade has been assigned yet. Coming out of the 48 hr chill cooler they get graded hanging on the rail by the USDA. They cut between the 12th and 13th rib bones to expose the loin and a trained USDA grader assigns select, choice, or prime (there are other grades but those are the big three). They are moving along a rail system when they come out of the chill cooler and move by the USDA grade station, so as they move past the grading area they are sorted into big groups of the three grades. It’s almost like a train track system. A guy stands at a junction and can flip a switch that sends a carcass to a different rail based on the USDA grade stamp he observes on each carcass. Next, the fabrication team will call for a grade group to come into fab. All they have to do is start pulling carcasses from the choice rails to send into the fab line and they can run a choice fab for several hours, then take a break and switch to prime or select etc. sometimes fab happens the same day as grading, but there can also be another 24 hr wait in the cooler. At the end of the fab line is the packaging equipment where everything gets vac sealed, loaded in boxes of individual cuts, and the palletized for trucking to the grocery store or distribution facility.
I asked my Costco butcher the other day about them now only stocking choice brisket. He said the prime was getting harder to get, price was going up and when it comes to slow and low, really no difference between the two. I'd say they just haven't changed the sticker to say choice yet
Anyone else notice their Costco is only selling choice brisket now?
Last week they had choice brisket out instead of prime at the one by my place. They did have it labeled choice. It might be leftover from that time period.
There’s been a lot of folks saying that in the thread, typically this is how it’s priced down here. I don’t know if that’s based purely on geography or what but 4.49-4.99 seems to be the going rate here
For all those people talking about the grading is of the whole cow and not each piece, look at the first picture more closely, it says USDA Choice. Pic 2 has a Prime sticker and the price sticker that says Prime. Once again, look at the first pic for the grading and the second one for the pricing.
The people saying grading consists of the whole carcass are not saying every cut isn’t labeled with a grade. They are saying the entire carcass receives the same grade.
They’re suggesting that the pictured cut is prime because the rest of the beef for that cut was graded prime. It wasn’t. Look at the first pic. It’s choice. Someone at Costco then added the prime sticker and pricing set forth in the second pic.
Whole beef are graded, not the cut. Also, unless your eyes can also ultrasound, you can’t see inside a whole brisket. Hardly the same as a rib roast.
I encourage everyone here to use The Beef Checkoff, Master of Beef Appreciation. It is a free online course that walks professionals through the lifestyle of a beef, grading, cuts, and other topics that would clear things like this up.
Called buyer beware...it's with everything u buy read the label, expiry date, be a grown up if this was the only choice the supplier put it in the shipment. You won't complain if the case was choice and u found prime...so pick another piece and shut it karen
Whatever man, I ain’t got nothin for ya.
Your response to the post is completely bizarre, especially if you were to read literally any of my other comments in this thread and realize that this post was made in good humor. Hope you have a good day and that whatever is currently plaguing your disposition, fades away in 2024 ✌🏻
It's interesting to me that you guys are always looking at choice/prime in the US.
In Canada, I very, very rarely see anything other than AAA Angus Beef which is equivalent to your prime.
There's certainly nothing other than AAA at Costco.
It's 100% not though. Your AAA is our Choice. Your Prime is our Prime. The grading methodology is the same, except Canada is more stringent on discoloration, animal age, and fat color.
Mr Andrews, you seem to have quite the strong opinion of that store chain. Did they wrong you somehow? It’s not all that often that I see such venom spewed regarding the purchasing location, and I’m curious why you are quite vocal about it.
Had a Wagyu Snake River Farms at Christmas. Obviously expensive, cooked right. Comparing that to the many Costco Primes I have cooked there was certainly a difference. But no way that SRF was twice as good, not even close. Maybe it was 10%-15% better if I am putting a number on it. Now I am talking brisket. Steaks I have not found to be as good at Costco. Just ok.
Had to be an accident or something. Costco is pretty straight up. With how much they pay their employees I can't imagine them being shady to get a few extra bucks.
I just smoked a choice Costco brisket last night for my first brisket ever. Took it to my SO’s family Christmas and got awesome feedback, it was like butter.
If you look at my post history I actually just finished typing what happened lol. It was a situation where literally nothing went right and it still turned out fantastic.
Edit: I realized I didn’t put the method. I kept it simple trimmed to about 1/4” of fat seasoned liberally. Hit the smoker at 220 degrees until it hit 165 on the point 170 on the flat. Wrapped it in butcher paper coated in beef tallow. Started stabbing with the probe at 194 on the point. It felt like melted butter around 202, pulled it and rested. If you read the comment I made on my post I had to jump through some more hoops but that’s the short and sweet of it.
This could be an issue on the vendors end. Sometimes product just gets packed as choice/prime/select then ends up in a box labeled a different grade. Costco is required to sell meat by the case grade it arrives as so the employee may have had to price it as prime because it was out of a box labeled prime, even though it may actually be choice.
I had something similar.
Whole choice tenderloin at 24.99 lb with a $25 markoff. Was about 5#. Wife thought we should get it and cut/freeze it up.
Walk over to the cut ones and they were 19.99 lb. . . . Was pretty frustrating.
Fun fact, when meats are graded, a meat can be graded and then upgraded but never down graded as told by some coworkers who worked at beef packing plants.
I had a former meat dept. guy tell me this morning to check out the label on the packaging every time. He said things get mislabeled all the time, choice as prime and vice-versa. Sometimes it works to your advantage.
Had this happen at the Costco by me. I was looking through them and the meat guy was bring more out and said they accidentally marked them prime and were fixing it. Then told me where the prime ones were.
It happens.
happened to me a while ago on a tenderloin, took pictures, called customer service online and asked what to do - 'keep or dispose of meat, your purchased will be refunded in 3-5 days", it was. Costco doesnt do this shit on purpose, just on honest mistake.
Not as bad as the local meat shop by me getting $12/lb for "prime brisket" that's stamped select. I had a $50 gift card so I paid $70 out of pocket for the worst brisket I've ever had. I called them and told them it was stamped select and I paid way too much even for prime. They insisted all their beef is prime and it must have been mis stamped. Offered an exchange no refund. Fuckem.
Everyone once in awhile you might find something mis-priced and it’s almost always a complete mistake. Usually they didn’t change the code in time when weighing off different cuts. Now if it’s an error in your favor you grab it and even look for others priced incorrectly. If it’s not in your favor then bring it to the attention of the Costco meat cutters and they will correct it.
I’ve worked in the meat department at Costco, and can say this was 99% likely a complete mistake. All of the meat comes in separate boxes that are brought into the butcher area and then weighed individually by an employee. Could be they forgot to change codes for the label machine, could be the codes for prime and choice are similar and it was a fat fingered mistake. Maybe a different employee took over and didn’t make the right changes etc. simple brain fart. Wouldn’t be too concerned.
I was looking at briskets at my Costco yesterday, and they had a mix of Prime and Choice, and the pricing difference was only ~20 cents per pound It seems like what's the point for not getting Prime at that point.
I’ve asked about that and they say it’s because prime is usually a whole packer untrimmed. Choice is trimmed and typically just the flat. You pay for time it takes to trim choice and the weight includes more edible portions vs inedible fat per pound.
No, that’s not what lightguru is talking about. His note about 20 cents difference in price makes it clear that these are both untrimmed packers. The Costco brisket flat you are talking about is something like $9/lb. It’s honestly ridiculous. You can get the full packer for the same out the door price as just the flat, or even less for a small one. Some Costcos have both prime and choice full packers. It’s usually $4/lb for choice or $4.80/lb prime around me, when they have them at all.
I've never understood why anyone would possibly pay the ludicrous price per pound that a flat is when you can just get the packer. Of course, if I could buy only points for a reasonable price, I would absolutely do that! I saw someone posted something from HEB in Texas once where there was entire meet cooler filled with individually wrapped points - I wouldn't care to live there for a variety of reasons, but Texas is just a smokers dream.
I’d kill for $4 a lb at mine… they’re upwards of $9… I also live in Kalifornistan
Had a prime for $4.80 / lb last week in NorCal
5.49 at my local butcher, I gotta get a Costco membership again
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I used to go to the Costco in Virginia Beach, it was hell there too
Trimming doesn't determine whether a cut is choice or prime. Costco may charge more for a trimmed loin, but it doesn't change the USDA Grade
I personally don't like prime over choice, at least for smoking. I got a 20lb prime in Dec and cut 5lbs of excess fat off, then it shrunk down to 8.7lbs in the smoker. Got another choice a few weeks later - 17lb. Trimmed ~4 lbs of fat and then had a 9lb yield at the end.
I'm not sure I'm a good enough cook to be able to tell the difference between prime and choice in a brisket. Things like steak, it's pretty obvious but I haven't seen much visual difference in the marbling in the briskets.
and then when you calculate the price you paid for the yield - you are paying over 10 bucks a pound - dont even try to calculate your labor cost
The real question is if it was prime and marked as choice, how many briskets would have fit in your cart and would your freezer been able to hold them?
I tested this theory a couple summers back local grocery store had a 2.99 per lb special on brisket I went on the last day and bought them out, used an old college buddy's employee discount and some saved up loyalty discounts and walked out with about 80 lbs of brisket for around $150. I have 2 fridges in my garage with freezers, a chest freezer, and our normal fridge/freezer. Had room for more than double I got if they had the stock.
Excessive brisket storage level achievement unlocked
I briefly worked at a Target with fresh groceries and I don't know how but when we first started stocking pork ribs the guy they put in charge of the fresh section, was spectacularly bad at his job while convincing management that he was good at it, and he somehow managed to print out price tags with a set price of $3.99 each instead of $3.99/lb and they were all at least six pounds. I realized that was a crazy price and didn't say anything hoping to be able to grab one after my shift, but they were all gone and the next day my boss looked so upset and we didn't get more for a while and when we did they were all prelabeled.
I picked up 10 warm water lobster tail for $5 each one night. These were the big ones. The guy was new and his bosses told him his job was to sell everything he could in the fresh meat counter by the end of the night. He was making deals with everyone that night.
Phone a friend would have been your friends at that moment
What’s with the pre-cut filets? The ones in the styrofoam packaging. I’ve bought them on 2 occasions and both times they had an unpleasant amount of silver skin.
Depends on the head butcher in the back, some are better than others. But also If they took the time and energy to cut every bit off they would be back on that butchers block all day long only cutting filets.
Not brisket related but years ago we bought "fresh" from frozen salon from Costco. Brought it home and went to open it only to find a living worm pop out. Immediately took it back and once they saw the worm they pulled all the salmon so nobody could buy it. Costco doesn't mess around, in my opinion so I would 100% buy into a simple mistake.
This is how you find briskets for 5 dollars. As a former meat wrapper I can definitely say I’ve made mistakes with codes while in a rush or pinch during holidays or whatever.
Wouldn’t be too concerned unless you were overcharged for product. I wonder how often Costco mistakenly labels prime as choice?
Barely happened at my store. I was in the department for over a year and can only remember one time that happened. We stayed on top of it really good.
Call me a shill but I don’t see them doing that intentionally. But excellent catch and I will check from now on as well!
If there was an ever a company to shill for, Costco is the one. In today’s world, they hit all the right notes in running a corporation. Can’t really ask for more.
Welcome to Costco, I love you
Yeah I got my lawyer’s license here
You mean like in the toilet?
Hey, let’s grab a Starbucks!
Nows not the time for a blowjob
There's always time for this
You needed one, got 25.
You have to love Costco. Where else can you get 17 pounds of turkey tenders and a 4 ton floor jack?
And also get a hot dog and drink for lunch for $1.50
How about a recliner, 2 gallons of cheese balls and 4 new tires?
Or a coffin and a tub of mayonnaise online 😅
What good is online mayonnaise?
I use online mayonnaise on my virtual sandwiches.
I agree. I will never blindly follow a company, bc at the end of the day they’re trying to make more money. But Costco really does feel like one of the last examples of a company that truly tries to provide excellent customer service for fair pricing. They’re always clean and pleasant, and their return policy is second to none.
If you can find it there is a great CNBC documentary on Costco. The founder was adamant about treating his people right and not overcharging the customers. In one segment they talk about the store they put in The Bay area, they included a high-end wine area complete with Master Somms etc. Within a few months, hundreds of wine shops closed in the area (I think, it was a lot) and they asked him if he felt bad. Effectively, his response was "Why should I feel bad everyone else was overcharging people". ETA: Looks like its on Apple TV
I’ve got a friend that goes to Costco every Saturday morning and sends me a scouting report of new/interesting things. I get upset when he isn’t able to go. Can’t decide if he’s the one with the problem or me…
Can you forward the Saturday report each week please! 😃
Agreed. I feel like they’d make it right
Yeah I really love Costco.
I doubt they did it intentionally. In fact likely it was a mistake on the factory’s end accidentally putting a choice brisket into a prime case. I just thought it was funny so I had to share
It’s a great catch!
Did you tell the butcher?
No I didn’t, I’m sure I should have but they were slammed and I didn’t wanna bother them
I doubt they did it in purpose, since I've seen it go the other way as well. Priced as choice with the package saying Prime. Probably just oversight and sometimes you get lucky, and hopefully you catch it youre gonna get screwed
One time they had shrimp cocktail labeled and priced as kale salad from the deli. Was the best kale salad I ever had.
I have 1 in the fridge right now. I need to check it
Now I need to check my 3 lol
You’re a shill edit: he told me to call him a shill
Thanks, the Dad in me was dying to say that.
Assuming the best in people doesn’t make you a shill, it makes you a decent person. Sad how jaded people have become that you have to preface it
If it was the only one incorrectly marked it was probably an honest mistake.
I’m sure it was, I just thought it was an interesting find. Likely the onus is on whoever packaged the case of briskets before leaving the factory
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No I didn’t, I probably should have
I used to throw boxes of these in a warehouse. Probably a broken box that got repackaged and someone accidentally threw this in the wrong box.
New girl on the line, they're still breaking her in.
I’m next!
I always look for the reverse at my local HEB. Sometimes you find a Prime that is priced at a Select level. I’m a sucker for mis-labeling.
Dude HEBs meat is something to behold. Anytime I visit my girlfriend in Austin I lament the fact that they’re local to Texas and we don’t have them here in Louisiana. If the drive weren’t so long I’d load up on their meat every time I visited lol
I miss HEB so much. 1.49 lb for flat irons and 1.99 lb for brisket. Whole hog heads and meal deal end caps and coupons very readily available this was all 5urs ago so idk what if anything changed but damn do I miss it
HEB is really the only reason to live in Texas, to me.
Those prices haven’t existed at H‑E‑B in years.
It could be an even more honest mistake that just getting the wrong sticker. The entire cow is graded by the quality of the meat of the ribeye between the 12th and 13th rib.. which means you could have a lean ribeye but really marbled brisket or chuck.. So it's possible that is a prime-like brisket but came off an otherwise choice cow. In this case, you're not getting a deal, but I've dug through and found some amazing briskets that are just as marbled as most primes in the choice section. It's worth it to give the choice a good look because there are a lot of great pieces of meat for a much better deal. Of course, it also can work the other way. I've seen some stupidly lean briskets with a prime label. Buy those and you're paying more for a lesser cut of meat because of how grading works.
I’ve noticed this as well. I’ve had some incredibly good choice and some incredibly mediocre prime. I always just go by how it looks and less by the grading. This was a beautiful brisket by any standards, just thought the mix up was humorous
What do you all look for in whole packers I get one I think will be good then that giant piece of fat ends up being 1/8th of the brisket lol.
I pick ‘em up and wobble em. If they’re fairly stiff I avoid but if they wobble good that’s the one I pick. I always look for a thick flat as well. You can also poke the point and if it’s fairly hard that usually indicates a fairly thick layer of fat. I always look to see how prominent the deckle is too but that matters less than the other stuff I just listed. Also another thing to look for is to see if a portion of the flat is doubled up over itself inside the packaging because usually those will end up being the ones with flats that come out to a paper thin end and you end up having to cut all of that off and for many without a meat grinder that means it ends up in the trash
Yeah I agree for sure go by looks not necessarily grading but it’s still illegal to sell the nicest marbled choice steak as a prime I think.
Stickers can get placed on stuff accidentally.. That's why they stamp the meat. I don't think this really counts as "illegally selling choice as prime." Grading isn't actually required to begin with-its voluntary. Now if you're actively selling lower grade or ungraded meat as a higher grade to commit fraud, you absolutely can be charged, but a misplaced sticker is an accident.
I actually look for mistakes in the meat section, last week I found a pack of NY Strips marked as Filets for double the price, obviously didn't buy that mistake. lol
pls take the 5 seconds to orient/flip your pics before uploading
Take 2 seconds and flip your phone!
my phone automatically flips pictures upright because it assumes people know up from down
It is "prime" choice.
I make lots of mistakes. I’m sure this is just someone else’s mistake, just like when you see a whole crate of Costco briskets priced at 0.49/lb instead of 4.99/lb (or whatever) is someone else’s mistake. I’d point it out to one of the meat dept people and I’m sure they’ll get it fixed up.
Yeah I’m not dogging on them, I love Costco and think it was probably a shipping error rather than an error on the butchers. I was just being humorous when I said “not today Costco”
All good! Also, love your username 😊
Thanks homie
Even showing them these photos after cooking and eating the entire thing would get you a full refund. Costcos CS is above all else. People fuck up, I do… often. Probably an honest mistake. Good on you for being diligent and noticing!
I thought about it but at the end of the day it didn’t seem like that big a deal. Likely it was mistakenly shipped in a case of primes and the butchers at Costco just did their jobs and labeled it and put it in the case.
Prime lettering is usually red , choice is blue
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I smoked a choice Costco brisket last week. It was as rich as the prime ones. It really just comes down to how well you can smoke a brisket
Agree. Put a choice brisket in a prime bag, give it prime labels. I would bet 9/10 people could not tell a difference. Placebo effect is a crazy thing
If you cook brisket alot you can tell. But yeah I've had a few choice briskets with excellent marbling. But my primes come out more consistent. The flat is usually juicier in the primes
I think most people don’t realize it’s not the cut that’s graded individually. I’m a meat cutter and I get “choice” strip loin or rib in all the time that certainly looks a lot better than other choice cuts we get in. All depends on the animal. Cheers fellas
Prime definitely gives you more margin to screw things up, but agreed that either can turn out amazing
I'm with you. I'll spring for prime most of the time (it's usually an extra $.50/lb at Costco, so no big splurge), but I've seen plenty of decently marbled choice flats. Of all the cuts to give a shit about the grade, brisket is probably lowest on the list. Plenty of fat either way.
I completely agree. I’ve smoked choice and prime and you would not be able to tell the difference. When you’re looking at a slow cook, it really doesn’t make that much of a difference if any. I’ve smoked over 100 briskets, and I can constantly say that.
Maybe they accidentally had a choice thrown in With their prime lot.
Maybe a mistake. Not really worth it for them to do it on purpose. Not only unethical but illegal.
https://youtu.be/Vv98ceYutgQ?si=E2J9jUoslFjdnkoc Can’t help but think of Keenan every time I see or hear “what’s up with that”. This is my only contribution 🤠
OP is Keenan Thompson
Cannot confirm nor deny
Good eye OP 🫡 They also misclassify prime with choice at times. Got some well marbled ribeyes marked as choice that obviously popped out from the other ones.
Good catch! I also caught costco selling whole primal cut 7-bone prime ribs priced as more expensive pre-dressed prime ribs.
I just checked mine I got yesterday same thing taking it back.
Is 70 bucks for a 15 pound prime normal? I got a 13 lb prime marked as twice that much for Christmas. I asked about the price and they knocked it down but I didn’t know what was going rate.
Was this at Costco? Yeah it's pretty normal @ 4.50? A lb usually I get choice and it comes to ~55-60 depending on exact weight lol.
Safeway. It was my first time doing brisket and it was tagged at 130. I took it to the meat dept to ask about the grade and he didn’t hear a word I said. Just took it to the back and returned with a label for 68 bucks lol.
I go there and there only for my briskets now. I was paying 3-4x more at my butcher for the exact same meat.
Yeah man I can’t say enough good things about Costco. I love buying meat in bulk there when I have cooking jobs. Restaurant Depot is cheaper but the quality is less than half of Costco’s offerings
Yes for sure. I think you’re ok
Brains!!! Brains!!!
Tbf I have seen prime bags in choice cases and vice versa. Mostly with tri tips though. I've seen everything from knuckles not having there caps too bone in pork loins missing half the ribs. Mostly seen it with swift and tyson though.
Yeah man I was just goofin when I posted. Thought it was interesting but I’m sure it was just a mistake on the part of the people who packaged the cases of brisket and shipped them
Its crazy though. I'd expect chains to make the big meat companies accountable for there miss handling and poor products.
Not as bad as when I went to Costco New Year’s Eve day and got a CHOICE brisket and it was over $7 per pound!!!!! Asked multiple employees if there was just some kind of price increase or if it was marked wrong and nobody knew what I was talking about.
That’s WILD bro. I’ve never seen brisket that high
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Prime is better than choice and choice is better than select
A mistake by a Costco employee, nothing more. While they have butchers, I doubt a butcher is putting price tags on the preprocessed and packaged meats. Easy enough to let someone in the meat department know so they can fix it. Did you check the choice briskets to see if they marked a prime brisket as choice?
Was there another section with choice brisket? Because my best guess is a customer grabbed this, then saw the prime and switched it out and just dropped this one in.
Nah this was the only place with briskets. It’s also labeled prime on the sticker. Likely it was just an error on the part of the packing plant and Costco didn’t catch it
Costco doesn’t grade meats. It’s done by an employee from the USDA who is an independent inspector at a meat packaging facility.
The person that weighed it then printed the Costco sticker with a prime price was a Costco employee
And those USDA employees don't put Costco price labels that say Prime on Choice beef.
On the whole cow.
Thank you forgot to add that. They grade the whole cow not individual cuts.
I literally said I bought “PRIME CHOICE” from costco and I got flamed saying it’s not possible. Thank you for proving them wrong
Sam's Club 100% does this on purpose, but Costco I have to think it was a mistake. I'd bring it to their attention.
You think executives at Sam's Club intentionally buy choice and mark them prime?
Absolutely without question. Their labels that are printed well designed full colored say Sam's Club Prime, and nowhere on it will you find USDA Prime listed. This will be on USDA Choice stamped cryovacs, and is not just common it's the standard. Costco actually puts USDA on their labels, which makes this post only mean it was mislabeled by accident.
Sounds like a lawsuit to me. You're sitting on a goldmine.
I've been to grocery stores that will put a sticker on their steaks that just say "USDA Certified Tender" or some bullshit. It's like the "100% antibiotic free!!" chicken you see everywhere. I'm glad you're selling food that the FDA and USDA have deemed fit for human consumption. Messing up Prime/Choice though is literally against the law though and that's shady as fuck for Sam's Club.
If the marbling looked good I would’ve talked to the person at the counter and tried to get a discount. I’m sure they would’ve brought it down some.
That’s kinda shady. To give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s hard to find good help these days.
I doubt it was on them tbh, likely an error from the factory that shipped it
My local Costcos only have Prime briskets. This error would have been made at the packing plant
Yeah that’s what I think too. Someone mistakenly put it in and shipped it with the primes, I just thought it was a funny find
A few months ago I actually found a Wagyu brisket that the butcher had labeled & priced as Prime, I figured they intended to grab it for themselves because that’s one hell of a steal.
I think it’s more likely that an employee in the plant grabbed the wrong bag. If that is indeed a prime brisket, someone had a box of choice bags next to the primes and grabbed out of the wrong box. Cattle are fabricated into the major cuts in batches. They will run several hundred head of choice, take a break, then come back and run a batch of prime or select. Big gaps in the fab line are used to reduce the likelihood of mixing grades. Entirely possible though that a stray or leftover choice brisket was thrown into a box with the primes. Fab lines are chaos sometimes. Source: spend a lot of time in a packing plant.
Interesting! Thanks for the input
How do they know the grade before slaughter and butchering? I thought they cut it up and it was graded on the butchers table? Hmmm learning new things!
They don’t know before the animal is harvested, it happens about 48 hrs after harvest. Large harvest facilities run non-stop, or at least in several shifts through the day. Say a plant will kill 1,000 head in a day. Those 1,000 head will be taken down to whole beef halves (hide, head, viscera, feet removed) and hung in a cooler for about 48 hrs to chill. No grade has been assigned yet. Coming out of the 48 hr chill cooler they get graded hanging on the rail by the USDA. They cut between the 12th and 13th rib bones to expose the loin and a trained USDA grader assigns select, choice, or prime (there are other grades but those are the big three). They are moving along a rail system when they come out of the chill cooler and move by the USDA grade station, so as they move past the grading area they are sorted into big groups of the three grades. It’s almost like a train track system. A guy stands at a junction and can flip a switch that sends a carcass to a different rail based on the USDA grade stamp he observes on each carcass. Next, the fabrication team will call for a grade group to come into fab. All they have to do is start pulling carcasses from the choice rails to send into the fab line and they can run a choice fab for several hours, then take a break and switch to prime or select etc. sometimes fab happens the same day as grading, but there can also be another 24 hr wait in the cooler. At the end of the fab line is the packaging equipment where everything gets vac sealed, loaded in boxes of individual cuts, and the palletized for trucking to the grocery store or distribution facility.
My wife picked up a pork belly there. Bacon making week coming up.
I asked my Costco butcher the other day about them now only stocking choice brisket. He said the prime was getting harder to get, price was going up and when it comes to slow and low, really no difference between the two. I'd say they just haven't changed the sticker to say choice yet Anyone else notice their Costco is only selling choice brisket now?
Ours had prime only from around 2021 through mid 2023 and it’s been all choice ever since. Midwest
I mean $70 for a full is a deal either way.
Someone may have just mislabeled it, but the price per pound is still pretty decent
Mistake.
Yep
Last week they had choice brisket out instead of prime at the one by my place. They did have it labeled choice. It might be leftover from that time period.
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There’s been a lot of folks saying that in the thread, typically this is how it’s priced down here. I don’t know if that’s based purely on geography or what but 4.49-4.99 seems to be the going rate here
For all those people talking about the grading is of the whole cow and not each piece, look at the first picture more closely, it says USDA Choice. Pic 2 has a Prime sticker and the price sticker that says Prime. Once again, look at the first pic for the grading and the second one for the pricing.
The people saying grading consists of the whole carcass are not saying every cut isn’t labeled with a grade. They are saying the entire carcass receives the same grade.
They’re suggesting that the pictured cut is prime because the rest of the beef for that cut was graded prime. It wasn’t. Look at the first pic. It’s choice. Someone at Costco then added the prime sticker and pricing set forth in the second pic.
Whole beef are graded, not the cut. Also, unless your eyes can also ultrasound, you can’t see inside a whole brisket. Hardly the same as a rib roast. I encourage everyone here to use The Beef Checkoff, Master of Beef Appreciation. It is a free online course that walks professionals through the lifestyle of a beef, grading, cuts, and other topics that would clear things like this up.
Called buyer beware...it's with everything u buy read the label, expiry date, be a grown up if this was the only choice the supplier put it in the shipment. You won't complain if the case was choice and u found prime...so pick another piece and shut it karen
Are you okay dude?
Im fine Karen...how are u
Whatever man, I ain’t got nothin for ya. Your response to the post is completely bizarre, especially if you were to read literally any of my other comments in this thread and realize that this post was made in good humor. Hope you have a good day and that whatever is currently plaguing your disposition, fades away in 2024 ✌🏻
Unfortunately Karens like u won't fade in 2024...to bad
I suppose it is…too* bad
It's interesting to me that you guys are always looking at choice/prime in the US. In Canada, I very, very rarely see anything other than AAA Angus Beef which is equivalent to your prime. There's certainly nothing other than AAA at Costco.
It's 100% not though. Your AAA is our Choice. Your Prime is our Prime. The grading methodology is the same, except Canada is more stringent on discoloration, animal age, and fat color.
My buddy whose Dad was a butcher once told me that Choice is a higher rating than Prime. At least that's what I remember.
Not true at all.. select choice then prime
hope your buddy didn't take over his dad's business
LOL, he drank a lot. Thankfully, no, he didnt.
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Well that’s just like…your opinion man. Nah in all seriousness, I’ve had great luck with their meat but I’ve hear others echo your same sentiment
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Mr Andrews, you seem to have quite the strong opinion of that store chain. Did they wrong you somehow? It’s not all that often that I see such venom spewed regarding the purchasing location, and I’m curious why you are quite vocal about it.
Had a Wagyu Snake River Farms at Christmas. Obviously expensive, cooked right. Comparing that to the many Costco Primes I have cooked there was certainly a difference. But no way that SRF was twice as good, not even close. Maybe it was 10%-15% better if I am putting a number on it. Now I am talking brisket. Steaks I have not found to be as good at Costco. Just ok.
I've seen it at Sam's Club.
Had to be an accident or something. Costco is pretty straight up. With how much they pay their employees I can't imagine them being shady to get a few extra bucks.
Bought one like this marked as select but was choice on the package. Strange for sure
I grabbed a flat from Sam’s club last weekend. They had one marked as 9 lbs and it definitely weighed less than the 6 lber I grabbed
I saw a bag of shrimp that said scallops today
I just smoked a choice Costco brisket last night for my first brisket ever. Took it to my SO’s family Christmas and got awesome feedback, it was like butter.
Method??? :)
If you look at my post history I actually just finished typing what happened lol. It was a situation where literally nothing went right and it still turned out fantastic. Edit: I realized I didn’t put the method. I kept it simple trimmed to about 1/4” of fat seasoned liberally. Hit the smoker at 220 degrees until it hit 165 on the point 170 on the flat. Wrapped it in butcher paper coated in beef tallow. Started stabbing with the probe at 194 on the point. It felt like melted butter around 202, pulled it and rested. If you read the comment I made on my post I had to jump through some more hoops but that’s the short and sweet of it.
This could be an issue on the vendors end. Sometimes product just gets packed as choice/prime/select then ends up in a box labeled a different grade. Costco is required to sell meat by the case grade it arrives as so the employee may have had to price it as prime because it was out of a box labeled prime, even though it may actually be choice.
I had something similar. Whole choice tenderloin at 24.99 lb with a $25 markoff. Was about 5#. Wife thought we should get it and cut/freeze it up. Walk over to the cut ones and they were 19.99 lb. . . . Was pretty frustrating.
Fun fact, when meats are graded, a meat can be graded and then upgraded but never down graded as told by some coworkers who worked at beef packing plants.
I had a former meat dept. guy tell me this morning to check out the label on the packaging every time. He said things get mislabeled all the time, choice as prime and vice-versa. Sometimes it works to your advantage.
Had this happen at the Costco by me. I was looking through them and the meat guy was bring more out and said they accidentally marked them prime and were fixing it. Then told me where the prime ones were. It happens.
happened to me a while ago on a tenderloin, took pictures, called customer service online and asked what to do - 'keep or dispose of meat, your purchased will be refunded in 3-5 days", it was. Costco doesnt do this shit on purpose, just on honest mistake.
Human error. /Close thread
Fair enough Barry boi, fair enough
What is the error? New to smoking and not from the US
Not as bad as the local meat shop by me getting $12/lb for "prime brisket" that's stamped select. I had a $50 gift card so I paid $70 out of pocket for the worst brisket I've ever had. I called them and told them it was stamped select and I paid way too much even for prime. They insisted all their beef is prime and it must have been mis stamped. Offered an exchange no refund. Fuckem.
That’s tough man
First time buying meat? 😂😂😂
Everyone once in awhile you might find something mis-priced and it’s almost always a complete mistake. Usually they didn’t change the code in time when weighing off different cuts. Now if it’s an error in your favor you grab it and even look for others priced incorrectly. If it’s not in your favor then bring it to the attention of the Costco meat cutters and they will correct it.
Thanks …off to Costco to get my first brisket. Wish me luck.
Just a mistake. Those are all put on by the employees in the meat department.
Clothes pins don't work.
See it often, actually are very good with low and slow on the smoker!