Western Pa. store owners say high beef prices should drop soon

Taco Tuesdays are a big draw at Meetheads Bar and Grill in Vandergrift.

But for the time being, Meetheads isn’t selling the popular $1 beef tacos on Tuesdays. Owners Jeff and Amy Frazer say they just can’t afford it.

“The beef prices are crazy right now,” Amy Frazer said. “Within the past couple months, the price of beef has gone up. Not that we won’t have taco night again, but we just temporarily suspended it because selling dollar tacos with the cost of beef right now just isn’t feasible.”

Jeff Frazer said the restaurant is in the same predicament with its hamburgers, a specialty item it continues to sell.

“We don’t want to sell a frozen hockey puck,” he said. “We’ve always had fresh meat, so it impacts us a little more.”

Meetheads chef Buster Burnham said he’s frustrated.

“There’s no reason for ground beef to be $4 a pound,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic disrupted the nation’s meat supply chain, causing beef shortages — forcing grocery stores and restaurants to pay higher prices and pass on the cost to consumers. By mid-May, more than 14,000 meatpacking workers were out of work because of the pandemic, forcing packing plants to work at roughly half of their normal capacity, according to the nonprofit Food and Environment Reporting Network.

The pandemic also pushed consumers to rush to grocery stores and stock up on necessities and food. As a result, consumers wound up paying 11% more in beef prices in May, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Prices starting to drop

However, things appear to be looking up for meat lovers, whether they are restaurant-goers or shoppers who like to cook at home. Store owners in the area say the pandemic-induced spike in meat prices appears to be easing and prices should be back to normal some time after the Fourth of July.

“I would advise that people don’t stock up at this point. Just get what you need for now because prices are dropping,” said Bill Naser, who has owned Naser Foods in Oklahoma Borough and Pleasant Unity since 1978. “I’m confident that prices will be dropping down, but some of the custom meats like porterhouse and Delmonico steaks aren’t going to drop until after the Fourth of July.”

As far as Naser is concerned, meat prices have nowhere to go but down. As recently as three weeks ago, a pound of ground beef at his stores was selling for $5.89. As of Friday, it had dropped to $4.99.

“I have never seen ground meat prices that high. Never,” Naser said. “It’s terrible.”

Naser’s head butcher, Randy Shaeffer, sets the prices. He said when the covid-19 crisis started, prices weren’t that bad.

“But as we got further into this and we had shortages on beef, that’s when things started skyrocketing. Production was down, and then everybody started panic buying and that made it even worse,” Shaeffer said.

However, in a statement to the Trib, Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said there is not a meat shortage.

“It may not be available in the cuts or the packaging customers are used to,” Redding said. “The initial slowdown in processing created supply chain issues — not with the supply of meat — but with processing capacity and diminished demand. Supply chain issues are stabilizing, in part, due to creative solutions at the local level and investments we have made as a state in increasing the capacity of small, custom butchers who process locally sourced meat.”

Naser’s isn’t the only store saying it has felt the impact of a beef shortage. Tom Charley, co-owner of Shop ’n Save stores in Greensburg and Murrysville, said the drastic production slowdown sent his prices soaring as well.

“You had significant supply issues. The farmers had the animals, but the processing plants weren’t at capacity,” Charley said. “Half the meat plants were shut down and the other half that weren’t shut down were at 50% labor capacity, so you’re at 25% of the capacity, essentially.

“In February, you could get ground beef for under $2.50 a pound. Three weeks ago, you couldn’t even get this product. And if you were getting it, it was like $5 a pound or $5.50 a pound, definitely the highest prices I’ve ever seen.”

At that point, Charley said he and his brother, Mike, a co-owner, were extremely concerned. But ground beef at their stores is now selling for under $3.50 a pound and dropping.

Shoppers should be able to get what they want for the Father’s Day and July Fourth holidays, Charley said.

“The entire market is coming back down, and we’re starting to see beef prices come down significantly.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Giant Eagle stores said the supermarket chain has not had trouble meeting demand for meat products throughout the pandemic and especially now at the onset of the summer grilling season.

“We work with several meat suppliers, both national and local, to offer a variety of options and to best manage fluctuations in product cost,” Dick Roberts said. “This variety is highlighted by our partnership with local farmers and processors.”