*****waterlogged meat: how Wal-Mart (and others, now) are screwing you

It is no scandal.

If you don't like it, just don't buy it. It was also your fault for shopping for that kind of stuff at Walmart.

It ain't just Walmart and it didn't just happen last week.

http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/food/1003/12meat.html

This stuff is old news, try buying higher priced seafood in big chain grocers like lg. shrimp or scallops, notice thy're usually frozen and covered with ice/frost. They even get really annoyed when you request only thawed pieces.

Weigh it after its defrosted, you'll find you're paying for 15-25% water. At $12-17 per lb, this sucks big time.

Wal-Mart sucks. Don't shop there if you don't like their stuff. I certainly don't.

You're worried about salt water? Salt water?

Have you no idea what happens in the cattle and meat packing industry? Salt water is the least of your worries, my friend.

"Wal-Mart, the nation's largest food retailer, converted to all case-ready in 2001. Much of Wal-Mart's pork, chicken and beef also are enhanced with added liquid.

"We are always looking at ways to provide our customers with quality products at low prices," Burk says. "We thought it was a good fit for us and our customers.""

Thanks, asterix. I knew I wasn't making this s--t up. It's a nauseating corporate lie.

I couldn't agree more with the poster who said it was my fault for shopping at WalMart. I don't buy meat there anymore.

It's been said before, folks, but usually by crunchy earthy granola-head freaks: Buy organic. Buy local. Most of all, be heads-up.

Here's what I suggest we all do: Go into WalMart, see if you can find ONE standard meat--any chicken, beef, or pork cut--that doesn't have added water. Then do what I did: go to a floor supervisor and tell them you're looking for meat that's just "regular meat," without any added salt water. Ask them if they carry such meat. Ask them to help you look. Take up a little of their time. Do this all very politely. Then ask if they could possibly stock some of this sort of meat.

It won't work. But--well, Mario Savio said it best: Throw a wrench into the machine.

Damn. And I actually ENJOY shopping at WalMart. But this s--t has me p---sed off.

Oh yeah: America, the greatest country in the world. I'm sorry I forgot to add that.

I love her steaks, chops, and roasts. I love her fried chicken. I love (to death) her slow-cooked barbecue/BBQ.

Now WalMart's coming along and trying to fool us into thinking that salt-water injections are what Real American Meat is all about.

It's disgusting. Nauseating. It's coprophagy. It's calumnious, desecrational, devolutional, profit-idolozing, double-speaking shitBull.

Most of all, it's a bad, bad, bad thing.

Truly evil, in fact.

And anti-American.

"This country injected with up to twelve percent saline solution."

God! Please save us, O Heavenly Father.

I agree, I enjoy shopping at walmart. I do all my generic shopping there as possible, like health care products and staple foods.

For quality stuff I dont buy from walmart like electronics or clothing. I once bought a dvd player, it broke within it's third use. As long as you know what to buy at Walmart, you should be fine.

You eat staples? You must be tough!

I eat babies.

How many brats can you eat in an hour? And when is your book coming out?

I just want to make clear: I'm not one of those people who gets up in the morning seething with rage at Wal-Mart. I live in a smallish southern town (24,000) where Wal-Mart is basically the only game in town.

I buy my running singlets and t's ("Star") at Wal-Mart, and cackle at how much money I'm saving. I buy my running socklets (also ("Star") there.

I do subscribe to The Nation, but I don't necessarily subscribe to their party line.

BUT: on the meat-thing, I draw the line.

I just googled "Wal-Mart" and "evil." Just to see what came up. Jeez. Lotsa people hate Wal-Mart.

I didn't until now. But I'm in the middle of having a conversion experience.

Once I was blind, but now I see.

I see the world in shades of grey, not black and white. (And despite what my handle suggests; that's sort of a joke.)

I don't think that large corporations are evil, by and large. I just think they are tying to maximize profits. They squeeze. They evaluate every last aspect. They do what they gotta do. They're run by humans, and they give the humans who run them a certain amount of plausible deniability.

Corporations lead people to confuse ethical imperatives with instrumental imperatives; ethical goods with instrumental goods.

An ethical good: "It's a good thing to sell people the freshest possible meat at the lowest possible price."

An instrumental good: "If you're trying to squeeze maximum profits out of your meat division, it would be a really good thing to inject every single piece of meat you sell with up to twelve percent salt solution."

To paraphrase Willie Sutton: consumers are the ones who get shafted because they're where the profits are.

I'm drawing the line, though, with meat. I'm a red-blooded American guy. I'm not a hippie freak. I'm a centrist pragmatist.

It is wrong--W-R-O-N-G--to inject every single piece of meat you sell with salt water. It's needless. Heck, add 3% if you must. Tweak the s-h-i-t.

But don't treat me like an idiot and hope I don't notice.

againtocarthage wrote:

I eat babies.

I hear that they have a high saline content too. I think you are getting ripped off, try and find some organic babies.

au contraire wrote:

I just want to make clear: I'm not one of those people who gets up in the morning seething with rage at Wal-Mart. I live in a smallish southern town (24,000) where Wal-Mart is basically the only game in town.

Two Arizona Wal-Mart workers shot dead

Pair gunned down in store parking lot in suburban Phoenix; suspect held

The Associated Press

Updated: 10:06 p.m. MT Aug 23, 2005

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Two Wal-Mart employees were shot to death Tuesday as they gathered shopping carts in the parking lot of one of the retail stores in suburban Phoenix, and police later arrested the suspected gunman.

The shootings occurred in the middle of the parking lot, about 75 yards from the store entrance. At one point, a body could be seen in one of the corrals used for collecting shopping carts.

Hours later, police spokesman Mike Pena said a suspect had been arrested without incident in a retirement community in nearby Peoria.

Investigators initially sent a robot to Ed Lui’s door, fearing he could still be armed. The man came out with his hands up and was booked on two counts of first-degree murder, Pena said.

I live within driving distance of Amish country. I think I'm going to get my meat from them. Probably the only place in the whole freakin' country where I feel confident of livestock quality.

Corporations? Remember, they can be held legally liable by their shareholders if they do not take actions to maximize profit. It's not that they enjoy being inhuman, the law requires it.

i wouldn't necessarily call this pure profiteering. it gives the meat a longer shelf life. which means they throw away less meat. which means you pay less.

and i have no idea where you get the idea that the solution would add 10% to the weight.

This is a scandal! Good thing you reported it here on Let's Run. By tonight it will be all over the news!

do you live in virginia?

Americans just aren't with it enough to boycott a place like Wal-Mart. If we would simply buy products from smaller, local businesses, we wold have better products and prices would go down.

It's a big, stupid country.