FatDad
'Semper in excretum sum sed alta variat'
I just put this post on Facebook today and felt I should share it with you.:-
RANT WARNING!!! (I'm getting my soap box out)
Well there's a new one on me. I went a 'butcher' this morning to buy a whole chicken for roasting, "So what?" you may ask.
But I was actually met by a surprised look from the, admittedly, polite (which is nice) chap behind the counter and he quizzically asked, "A WHOLE chicken?"
I nodded and he continued, "Sorry we just sell trays of chicken pieces, not whole chicken."
I did the British thing, I apologised for my silly mistake and left. I mean, imagine going to a butcher for a fresh chicken. What a dullard I must be.
So we have 'butchers' who buy meat in bulk, already broken down into portions, which they simply unbox and shrink-wrap onto plastic trays to be sold on.
Almost 48 years on this planet and this is the first time I have ever been told in a self-proclaimed 'butcher shop' they don't sell whole chicken, one of the traditional staples. After all, I wasn't asking for Hare, Pheasant, Duck or even Dodo En Croute.
As a side note: The counter assistant (clearly not a butcher) did not even go on to say, "We don't usually sell them but we could order one in for you if you like."
Now THAT would be something to make buying from the little man something worth doing!
Alas I now know for certain that high street shopping will become a thing of the past when people like the butchers throw up their hands and admit defeat and decide selling whole, fresh chicken no longer falls within the remit of a butcher in the 2015.
You may as well wrap your meat portions in a warehouse on some faceless industrial estate in the midlands, employing cheap foreign labour wearing white overalls, hair nets and wellies (or why not a warehouse abroad where it is even cheaper?) before selling your products from that same warehouse via the internet and save us all a trip to the shops. While you are at it, why not do airline meals too? You've already got the conveyor belts and packing machines.
I'm sure there are market forces coming to bear here which means a butcher perceives selling whole chicken is not worth their time but personally I don't know why when their arch enemies the supermarkets have row after row of the things (freezers full of them too if you want - they sell 'em so people must be buying 'em. Ergo: the market is there).
It might be worth noting at this point that a customer forced to go the supermarket for a whole chicken may as well get he entire shopping there while their at it: including their beef, lamb and pork joints as well as their chicken portions! Oh to hell with it, while we're at it who needs grocers shops, fruit and veg shops, newsagents etc etc. anyway? Let's resign the high street to Beamish and simply grab our bags for life and skip our way to to the supermarket - heck we can even go there after 4:50pm when most small high street shops don't want to see you anyway, but that's a whole other rant.
Finally, this has to bring into the question the term 'Butcher'."
Does removing chicken portions from a large cardboard box, placing them onto plastic trays and wrapping them in more plastic constitute 21st Century butchery technique? Is there a case for unfair advertising here? Probably not but it smacks of that kind of thing.
This type of thing may explain the difficulty in acquiring bones for the soup from good old 'family butchers' these days. Not many bones in a box of meat portions!
This is a rather sad day that shows times really are changing and the word butcher may as well be replaced with the word 'Meat Packer'.
Am I alone in the surprise that a butcher would not sell whole chickens?
I know in the scheme of things this is nothing to get out of my pram about but we shouldn't reminisce about how much better is was 'in our day' if we don't point out everyday things like this starting to disappear when we see it happening.
Oh well, back to Tesco I suppose -
Supermarkets 1 - The Little Man 0
#RIPHighStreet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTE: After an some irate and highly charged messaging back and forth with the particular butcher in question who happens to be a friend of mine he understood I did not intend this to be an attack on him or his business (that's why I didn't name his business) but it was an attack on the way the traditional small business is a dyeing breed and that I was actually on his side.
We're all sweet now and he even explained how traditional joints and poultry almost bankrupted him and he had turned around his fortunes creating specialty sausages and pies etc. So I could understand why he would be upset if he thought my message was aimed at him.
So I think the facts butchers are starting to feel they cannot stock joints of meat and poultry AND remain in business stands as stern warning that our expectations of traditional high street businesses and what they supply may require some rejigging if supermarkets get their way.
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RANT WARNING!!! (I'm getting my soap box out)
Well there's a new one on me. I went a 'butcher' this morning to buy a whole chicken for roasting, "So what?" you may ask.
But I was actually met by a surprised look from the, admittedly, polite (which is nice) chap behind the counter and he quizzically asked, "A WHOLE chicken?"
I nodded and he continued, "Sorry we just sell trays of chicken pieces, not whole chicken."
I did the British thing, I apologised for my silly mistake and left. I mean, imagine going to a butcher for a fresh chicken. What a dullard I must be.
So we have 'butchers' who buy meat in bulk, already broken down into portions, which they simply unbox and shrink-wrap onto plastic trays to be sold on.
Almost 48 years on this planet and this is the first time I have ever been told in a self-proclaimed 'butcher shop' they don't sell whole chicken, one of the traditional staples. After all, I wasn't asking for Hare, Pheasant, Duck or even Dodo En Croute.
As a side note: The counter assistant (clearly not a butcher) did not even go on to say, "We don't usually sell them but we could order one in for you if you like."
Now THAT would be something to make buying from the little man something worth doing!
Alas I now know for certain that high street shopping will become a thing of the past when people like the butchers throw up their hands and admit defeat and decide selling whole, fresh chicken no longer falls within the remit of a butcher in the 2015.
You may as well wrap your meat portions in a warehouse on some faceless industrial estate in the midlands, employing cheap foreign labour wearing white overalls, hair nets and wellies (or why not a warehouse abroad where it is even cheaper?) before selling your products from that same warehouse via the internet and save us all a trip to the shops. While you are at it, why not do airline meals too? You've already got the conveyor belts and packing machines.
I'm sure there are market forces coming to bear here which means a butcher perceives selling whole chicken is not worth their time but personally I don't know why when their arch enemies the supermarkets have row after row of the things (freezers full of them too if you want - they sell 'em so people must be buying 'em. Ergo: the market is there).
It might be worth noting at this point that a customer forced to go the supermarket for a whole chicken may as well get he entire shopping there while their at it: including their beef, lamb and pork joints as well as their chicken portions! Oh to hell with it, while we're at it who needs grocers shops, fruit and veg shops, newsagents etc etc. anyway? Let's resign the high street to Beamish and simply grab our bags for life and skip our way to to the supermarket - heck we can even go there after 4:50pm when most small high street shops don't want to see you anyway, but that's a whole other rant.
Finally, this has to bring into the question the term 'Butcher'."
Does removing chicken portions from a large cardboard box, placing them onto plastic trays and wrapping them in more plastic constitute 21st Century butchery technique? Is there a case for unfair advertising here? Probably not but it smacks of that kind of thing.
This type of thing may explain the difficulty in acquiring bones for the soup from good old 'family butchers' these days. Not many bones in a box of meat portions!
This is a rather sad day that shows times really are changing and the word butcher may as well be replaced with the word 'Meat Packer'.
Am I alone in the surprise that a butcher would not sell whole chickens?
I know in the scheme of things this is nothing to get out of my pram about but we shouldn't reminisce about how much better is was 'in our day' if we don't point out everyday things like this starting to disappear when we see it happening.
Oh well, back to Tesco I suppose -
Supermarkets 1 - The Little Man 0
#RIPHighStreet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTE: After an some irate and highly charged messaging back and forth with the particular butcher in question who happens to be a friend of mine he understood I did not intend this to be an attack on him or his business (that's why I didn't name his business) but it was an attack on the way the traditional small business is a dyeing breed and that I was actually on his side.
We're all sweet now and he even explained how traditional joints and poultry almost bankrupted him and he had turned around his fortunes creating specialty sausages and pies etc. So I could understand why he would be upset if he thought my message was aimed at him.
So I think the facts butchers are starting to feel they cannot stock joints of meat and poultry AND remain in business stands as stern warning that our expectations of traditional high street businesses and what they supply may require some rejigging if supermarkets get their way.
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