On 5/28/2014 6:22 PM, Oregonian Haruspex wrote:
> On 2014-05-28 22:12:52 +0000, jmcquown said:
>
>> I was at the dollar store the other day picking up some household
>> items. I cruised past the freezer/cooler cases on my way to pick up
>> some milk.
>>
>> It occurred to me they no longer carry some of the frozen items they
>> used to. Like cryovac'd packages of raw frozen fish fillets, etc.
>> (No, I've never bought fish from the dollar store but I do notice what
>> they have in the freezer and cold cases.) At any rate, I mentioned to
>> the woman at the checkout stand they seem to not stock some types of
>> frozen foods anymore. She said that's because people were stealing it.
>>
>> Okay, I know people steal. The dollar store not stocking some items
>> sort of made sense. But then she told me this bizarre story:
>>
>> She said she went to the Food Lion (a grocery store in town) one night
>> around 11PM. She said they had absolutely no meat in the cold cases.
>> (We're talking fresh meat; pork chops and roasts, steaks, chicken,
>> etc., not frozen stuff.) She further claimed when she asked about it
>> she was told at night they take ALL the meat out of the coolers and
>> put it in the walk-ins in the back. Reason: people who shop late at
>> night were stealing it. She further said they told her they were
>> understaffed so no one could watch the customers.
>>
>> Uh, what? I found this tale to be so unbelievable I actually asked at
>> Food Lion. I spoke with a man in the meat department. The first
>> thing he did was start laughing. He said no, we do not haul all the
>> meat back to the walk-in cooler at night. And if we're so
>> understaffed, who is hauling all that meat? BTW, we're only open
>> until 10PM. LOLOL
>>
>> Jill
>
> While this lady may have been full of it, meat theft is a huge issue at
> many stores. It depends on the particular neighborhood of course.
>

Back in the 80s, in Pasadena CA, some of the local supermarkets stopped
selling meat after a certain hour in the evening. I think it was after
10:00 pm, but I don't exactly recall. The issue was that the butcher's
union's contract with the supermarkets said that meat could not be sold
without a union member on the premises, and some of the supermarkets did
not want to pay to have a butcher basically sit around doing nothing
until closing time.

They did not empty the meat cases, but they did cover them over with
freezer paper so that you couldn't even see the meat. Eventually the
issue was resolved somehow, and meat was again available late at night.
I was working late hours in those days, so it was a minor inconvenience
to me, as I liked to stop at the market on the way home to buy stuff for
dinner. I just had to change my shopping habits for the duration.