Meat Pricing

Posted on May 06, 2020 within News

Valued Food City Customers,

It is important that we keep our customers informed about major developments in the grocery industry that affect you, especially now during this pandemic, and our latest update to you, our customer, concerns the price of meat.

You may have noticed and will continue to see for the foreseeable future an increase in prices for beef, pork, and chicken.  This price increase is not something that is unique to Food City, but is something that all retailers are experiencing.

There are a few factors affecting the increase in meat prices:

• Many meat processors, including Tyson, Smithfield, and JBS have had to close their facilities after COVID-19 outbreaks among their employees
• Meat packing employees typically work should to shoulder on the processing line. To help reduce exposure and spread people apart, they are not operating at fully capacity. Some lines that would normally have 50 to 60 people are down to 1 to 2 people
• With less people being able to process meat, there is less meat available for the consumer. Hog slaughter is normally 2.7 million a week. This past week, it was 1.5 million for the week

In order to allow as many customers as possible access to meat, we always reserve the right to limit quantities to ensure that our customers are able to provide for their families. We ask that customers not hoard to allow for as many people as possible to purchase meat.

At this moment, no one knows when meat shortages and price increases will go away. In the meantime, we will do our best to keep you up to date with the latest developments, minimize our price increases, and continue to provide the highest quality available.

Thank you for your continued support of a local, family business!