When is a supermarket special really a special?

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#1049952 20-May-2014 17:44

Fred99:
ahmad:
Geektastic:
Fred99: That's typical - and they all do it.
A trickier trick that they do is with frozen chickens where they actually will have a worthwhile special with a big notice behind the freezer bin stating "Tegal No, 16 Chickens $7.99" . The freezer bin will have a mix of #16 and #14 chickens in it, and the #14 chooks will be about $13.99 each - that price will be displayed on a little tag. If you sit back and watch - many people don't look and bung the first chicken they pull out of the bin in their trolley. This should cause problems at the checkout - if people notice when they get scanned or check their bill. But no - as the type of person who check their receipt and keep an eye open as goods are being scanned, are also very careful about checking prices of things before they out them in the trolley.

Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

We don't use antibiotics in their rearing

That might seem to be the official policy, but it's far from the reality.
They do use zinc bacitracin in NZ, routinely, for pigs as well as chickens.
Here's the poultry industry statement - you need to read this twice - because it's so ambiguously worded, some people might think it's saying "no - we don't use this stuff".
Bottom line is of course they use it, it increases feed conversion ratios significantly, even if there's no outbreak of acute disease in the flock it's used as a "prophylactic". So when is prophylaxis "needed"? Well all of the time if you want to turn a profit.
Argument for it's use is that it's not an antibiotic commonly used in humans, and it stays in the gut of the animal.

Interesting. I'm not surprised though.

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TwoSeven

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#1049969 20-May-2014 18:03

MurrayM:
TwoSeven: A trick I use, when reading product labels (which I do being on an additive free diet), read the "price per unit" when comparing prices - this will tell you which one is actually cheaper. Then the end price can be used to select the product.

My preference is to shop at a dedicated butcher/grocer etc. rather than a supermarket - mainly for range of product and savings.

I often find that the specials labels don't have the price per amount on them, which makes it hard to compare prices (at least in Countdown). I've switched to Pak n Save and I've noticed my weekly shop is cheaper.

It will be on the product label, or on the shelf label (if they have stickered it for the sale price). If the product is just marked down, then you have to do a bit of math using the weight of the product and the final price.

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TwoSeven

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#1049971 20-May-2014 18:05

Geektastic:
Fred99: That's typical - and they all do it.
A trickier trick that they do is with frozen chickens where they actually will have a worthwhile special with a big notice behind the freezer bin stating "Tegal No, 16 Chickens $7.99" . The freezer bin will have a mix of #16 and #14 chickens in it, and the #14 chooks will be about $13.99 each - that price will be displayed on a little tag. If you sit back and watch - many people don't look and bung the first chicken they pull out of the bin in their trolley. This should cause problems at the checkout - if people notice when they get scanned or check their bill. But no - as the type of person who check their receipt and keep an eye open as goods are being scanned, are also very careful about checking prices of things before they out them in the trolley.

Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

I suspect the age at which they are sold is different than in the UK.

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JimmyH

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#1049998 20-May-2014 18:49

Sidestep:

Genetic Improvements (breeding, not GM) and improved feeds means intensively farmed birds can be harvested at 5 weeks or less with a good weight/cost ratio.

If a greater weight/size is required they can be grown out longer – to greater weights, but there's a diminishing return unless people are willing to pay a premium.

So KiwiNZ's right. We're (customers) happy with that size/price.

My main issue is that when the birds are harvested that young they don't have the same flavour as birds that are harvested somewhat older. The young birds just don't taste as "chickeny" as they should, and some are practically tasteless.

Plus, it's the same effort to roast a small bird as a large one. I prefer a larger one so that I get some leftover meat for the next night and sandwiches etc, if I am going to go to the bother of preparing a proper roast.

Sidestep

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#1050020 20-May-2014 19:11

My main issue is that when the birds are harvested that young they don't have the same flavour as birds that are harvested somewhat older. The young birds just don't taste as "chickeny" as they should, and some are practically tasteless.

Plus, it's the same effort to roast a small bird as a large one. I prefer a larger one so that I get some leftover meat for the next night and sandwiches etc, if I am going to go to the bother of preparing a proper roast.

I was shown through a large fast turnover broiler production unit a couple of years back.
They poured new chicks in to the freshly cleaned, sterilized barns every 6 weeks.

Put me off chicken for quite a while.

Now I get free range, organic ones from a guy up the road here, and buy the same from the Hutterites or similar while away.
The taste and texture is completely different.

Fred99

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#1050073 20-May-2014 20:24

Sidestep:

My main issue is that when the birds are harvested that young they don't have the same flavour as birds that are harvested somewhat older. The young birds just don't taste as "chickeny" as they should, and some are practically tasteless.

Plus, it's the same effort to roast a small bird as a large one. I prefer a larger one so that I get some leftover meat for the next night and sandwiches etc, if I am going to go to the bother of preparing a proper roast.

I was shown through a large fast turnover broiler production unit a couple of years back.
They poured new chicks in to the freshly cleaned, sterilized barns every 6 weeks.

Put me off chicken for quite a while.

Now I get free range, organic ones from a guy up the road here, and buy the same from the Hutterites or similar while away.
The taste and texture is completely different.

if that was enough to make you feel a bit sick, then don't read the following.
There's a process called "protein recovery". All the blood, guts, and assorted fluids (wash water) in a chicken abattoir is a problem for disposal (high COD/BOD). The answer is to throw some acid in to it, which coagulates proteins in solution, then add a chemical flocculent to bind the coagulated proteins and assorted organic matter (IOW poo, puke, whatever), then separate the solids and dewater them. So you get waste water with reduced BOD - cheaper to get rid of - and a big pile of dry recovered gut contents and protein. What to do with the "solids"? Hell no - don't waste it - you can turn that into chicken food.
Does this actually happen in NZ? Nobody ever asks...

gzt

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#1050096 20-May-2014 21:09

Geektastic: Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

This strikes me as a reasonable question, but badly phrased. Also it would have gone down better in a new topic instead of a major digression from this one.

jonherries

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#1050295 21-May-2014 09:59

Was at Tesco's on Friday they had 12 beers for £11 and 15 for £11 (same brand - Becks - and same bottle size).

Below that it said two boxes either 12 or 15 for £18.

That is either 30 or 24 beers for the same price... They were sitting right next to each other, how crazy is that.

Jon

MikeAqua

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#1050305 21-May-2014 10:23

I always look out for clearance specials on beef.

Regardless of price it's the only way to find beef in a supermarket that's aged enough to be tasty.

Mike

trig42

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#1050315 21-May-2014 10:41

MikeAqua: I always look out for clearance specials on beef.

Regardless of price it's the only way to find beef in a supermarket that's aged enough to be tasty.

Haha, I do that too. Look for the browner bits of steak, stay away from the red bits.

MikeB4

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#1050322 21-May-2014 10:46

We stopped buying meat from Supermarkets with the exception of Chicken. We have mostly found meat to be poor quality especially Lamb, the Lamb at Countdown stinks we you unwrap it. We travel over the hill to Greytown (Wairarapa for non Wellingtonians) to buy our meat from a great little
Butcher. His meat is awesome.

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#1050343 21-May-2014 11:17

KiwiNZ: We stopped buying meat from Supermarkets with the exception of Chicken. We have mostly found meat to be poor quality especially Lamb, the Lamb at Countdown stinks we you unwrap it. We travel over the hill to Greytown (Wairarapa for non Wellingtonians) to buy our meat from a great little
Butcher. His meat is awesome.

The key is to only eat happy animals. Stressed out animals don't taste as good:)

sdav

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#1050344 21-May-2014 11:18

Geektastic:
KiwiNZ:
Geektastic:
Fred99: That's typical - and they all do it.
A trickier trick that they do is with frozen chickens where they actually will have a worthwhile special with a big notice behind the freezer bin stating "Tegal No, 16 Chickens $7.99" . The freezer bin will have a mix of #16 and #14 chickens in it, and the #14 chooks will be about $13.99 each - that price will be displayed on a little tag. If you sit back and watch - many people don't look and bung the first chicken they pull out of the bin in their trolley. This should cause problems at the checkout - if people notice when they get scanned or check their bill. But no - as the type of person who check their receipt and keep an eye open as goods are being scanned, are also very careful about checking prices of things before they out them in the trolley.

Slightly aside, but why are all the chickens in NZ so small?

We thought they must be sparrows or something when we first moved here - UK chickens are sized differently using less silly numbers (1 - 10 rather than 1-100 or whatever they use here!) and we think an average UK supermarket chicken would be about a size 22 here, which you hardly ever see.

The Chicken sizes easily feeds a family in NZ. But of course we never do it right here do we , only the UK does it right

Yes yes, flog that dead horse some more. I have never heard Kiwis in the UK compare things to NZ.....

The chickens here feed 2 people with maybe a but left over for a sandwich.

Our local butcher gets his from Tegel and won't bother with less than a size 22 (because, despite being a kiwi he agrees the usual ones are too small), whereas you hardly ever see that size in the supermarket.

Funny timing - We had a supermarket chicken last night, four people feed plus a bowl left over. I guess if all we had to eat was the chicken we would be wanting but there was other food on the plate too. IMO we eat too much meat in the West but that is another topic all on it own.

JonnyCam

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#1050370 21-May-2014 11:35

KiwiNZ: We stopped buying meat from Supermarkets with the exception of Chicken. We have mostly found meat to be poor quality especially Lamb, the Lamb at Countdown stinks we you unwrap it. We travel over the hill to Greytown (Wairarapa for non Wellingtonians) to buy our meat from a great little
Butcher. His meat is awesome.

The sausages there are great.

MikeB4

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#1050373 21-May-2014 11:36

JonnyCam:
KiwiNZ: We stopped buying meat from Supermarkets with the exception of Chicken. We have mostly found meat to be poor quality especially Lamb, the Lamb at Countdown stinks we you unwrap it. We travel over the hill to Greytown (Wairarapa for non Wellingtonians) to buy our meat from a great little
Butcher. His meat is awesome.

The sausages there are great.

Yep sure are

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