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  • From: "Rick Hopkins" <rdhopkins AT americanpasturage.com>
  • To: <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [Market-farming] re grass fed steaks
  • Date: Fri, 7 Feb 2003 13:02:48 -0600

Caryl,

It isn't me selling ground beef at $8, it is the clown under the arches.
:-)

I just put up a new price sheet last night
http://www.americanpasturage.com/Prices/prices.htm We were able to make
some price adjustments that reduced our ground a bit. I know we will reach
more lower income families who really need the benefits of grass fed beef if
we can keep our prices closer to local retail.

We find a pretty good cross section of customers from the reclusive home
school families to upper income professionals. I can't give an exact
percentage, but the two main reasons people buy our beef is for flavor and
health.

If you can talk with one of the meat cutters in a local market (assuming you
still have some left), they might help you to decide which cuts, other than
your steaks, that are the most popular for that area and focus on them.

Recipes are a good way to strike up a conversation. Most customers will
discuss their level of cooking skills which can let you suggest cuts that
suit their cooking and eating habits. There are a bazillion techniques and
approaches and each customer is as unique as a snowflake.

Rick H.

-----Original Message-----
From: market-farming-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:market-farming-admin AT lists.ibiblio.org]On Behalf Of Caryl
Elzinga
Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 11:55 AM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [Market-farming] re grass fed steaks


We sell our ground (90-95% lean) and roasts for $4.20/lb. The local
grocery store (not the discount warehouse type) sells theirs for $3.50-3.95.
Do I understand you sell yours for $8.00/lb?? We get some price resistence
on the ground and roasts, but mostly people just seem to want steaks (at any
price...). We've moved a bit more roasts and ground this winter- people
tend to grill less, I guess. We've also turned some of the ground into
several sausage types that we sell for $7.50 (the co-op carries them as well
for $10.50). While those prices may sound great, the costs of getting it
from here to there are high (packing, transportation, marketing materials,
our time--the market is nearly 6 hours away).

I think our biggest problem on the ground and roasts is that most of the
people who buy at the farmer's market (summer only) and at the co-op (all
year, about one beef every 2-3 weeks) seem to primarily be dual income no
kids types. One woman told my husband as she bought a tenderloin that she
had never made a roast in her life. We've had a few of these people buy our
packs which include a roast and a few packs of ground (I include recipes),
but mostly they just want steaks.

I wonder if anyone out there has tried supplementary advertising to reach
families, who would be our primary purchasers of ground and roasts, and what
they have found effective.


Caryl,

What is your ground beef price? We have sold more consistently when we
raised our prices. There may be a perception that price=quality. Even with
our current prices, which we were able to reduce a bit this year with
lowered input costs and fine tuning the cuts, we are still under the clown
at almost $8 a pound for hamburger of questionable origin.




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