I don’t do this often, but every once in a while I’ll ask the grocery store butcher to cut up an item (yesterday, it was chicken wings). And every time I do, the guy behind the counter will get this annoyed look on his face and begrudgingly takes my item.
So my question is: Aren’t these guys supposed to do this? Or is this a thing that is not typically considered part of their job?
I shop at Kroger if that means anything.
Yes. This is standard policy throughout the supermarket industry, especially for huge chains like Kroger.
I’d [del]complain[/del] say something to the manager or at least fill out a comment card (they do actually read those and take them seriously).
I’ve never been to a grocery that refused such a request. I’ve also found the butchers like getting such requests because it highlights their expertise. I suppose if they’re busy it might be a little bothersome to them but you should be able to call ahead or stop in the day before to order something.
If this was repeated behavior you may want to follow DCnDC’s advice and talk to a manager.
Publix is always really happy to do it.
The butches might refuse but the fems are much more amiable.
It’s not just at the meat counter. If they have a cheese counter and there’s a cheese you want but everything you see is too big you can ask and they’ll give you any amount you want.
At my regional chain they are always happy to cut to order. They’ll even track me down as I shop so I don’t have to go back to the meat counter. I always ask for “the cut you’d give your mom”.
I’ve asked for special cuts at my local Kroger (actually at several of them) several times and they’ve always been happy to do so. You may have just caught the butcher on a bad day.
Does this mean I can ask them to cut a chunk of meat into stew-sized pieces? That would be awesome, if true!
Sure, they’ll happily do so for free, IME
At my local Western Beef I asked them to remove the skin from a pernil so that I could make chicarrones AND pulled pork. They refused. Said they didn’t want to have to sell either a skin or a naked piece of pork even though I told them I wanted both pieces. They had no problem taking the skin off and cutting the shoulder into chucks though, but that was not what I wanted.
That’s weird, especially if you were going to take the whole thing anyway. Although, if it were my store, I wouldn’t have done it without the stipulation that you take the whole thing.
We had a guy in the other day that said he loved the Cajun deli-style turkey breast we get in and wanted to buy the whole box. I explained to him that it comes in a big chunk and we just slice it ourselves. He said he’d like to buy it but didn’t have a slicer. I told him we’d have no problem slicing and packaging it for him. I don’t know if he ever came back and ordered one but he seemed quite pleased with that idea.
Yep, I’ve never had a problem getting special cuts or meat ground at Kroger.
Man, that will save me a bunch of time doing the part I like least about making my famous Green Chile stew!!
I’ve seen retro-recipes from maybe WWII or in a country with rationing involving a whole bologna, hollowed out and stuffed with potato salad or some such. I don’t know why a deli couldn’t sell a whole loaf of cold cuts, if it weighs 10 lbs. and costs $4 a pound, well, mark it $40 and hand it over…I’ve asked the butcher counter for some ground chicken (it’s seldom shown in a meat case) and they refused because the chicken would contaminate the meat grinder. They didn’t have separate meat grinders, just the one, and they couldn’t put chicken in it and then have to take the grinder apart and disinfect it in the middle of the day.
Unless it’s a very large store and/or they sell a lot of ground chicken, I can see not having a separate grinder just for chicken. Those commercial grinders (as with most commercial machines and utensils and such) are pretty expensive. Also, I can see not taking the time during the day to do it when they will probably have to grind more burger or something to finish the day or get through until morning, if they are 24 hours. Most stores I’ve seen sell the ground chicken/turkey in the little one pound chubs direct from the processing plant.
So I understand. There’s usually ground turkey 
, ground chicken is a sometimes thing. I just try to buy and freeze the chicken so I won’t run out at a bad time.
I worked in a chain store meat dept decades ago (god I’m old) and it’s a pain in the ass cleaning the grinder. Back then, we didn’t grind chicken, we just had pre-packaged ground chicken. I can’t say that I’ve seen store-ground chicken anywhere I shop - it’s all pre-packaged. I doubt anyplace but a specialty butcher shop is likely to grind or maintain a separate grinder for chicken, and I doubt any chain store would grind (and maybe de-bone?) chicken for someone, unless it’s the end of the cutting day and the butcher is in a good mood/nice guy. It would have to be cleaned after grinding chicken and before grinding beef again.
Hell, if you go to a Wal-mart, I wonder if they have a grinder at all. Everything is a little too precise and uniform. Every package is always a pound (even the non-chubs), etc. I kind of wonder what things are like behind the scenes at a Wal-mart meat dept.
I know Kroger’s is much the same as Giant Eagle - they have open departments with display cases.
At T&T supermarket (a Taiwanese/Canadian chain of Asian supermarkets), my wife once asked the meat counter guy to cut up a piece of pork belly into thin strips and he refused. I thought that was surprising, but what can you do?
WalMart got rid of their butchers in 2001 after they tried to unionize. The only slicers/grinders are likely to be in the deli. However, at least by me, they do have some interesting cuts that I don’t see elsewhere…really thin cut milanesa beef (that I turn into various things) or a kind of rough chopped beef (carne picada) that’s good for chili or some Asian dishes like chow fun.
We have an old-fashioned butcher shop a couple miles away, and they haven’t done much in the way of special trim or cuts that I’ve asked for. I suspect there’s only one actual butcher associated at the shop, and the other employees just do the simpler stuff.