Packaged Meat!!!!

Going to S'malls always brings a new experience (good or bad).  Today it was GREAT!  Usually shopping is not something I enjoy, but today's new treat brought me an amazing amount of joy, considering it is something that I always took for granted in the States.  Continue reading for my meat buying adventures of the last five years and the surprise I am so excited about today. 

5 years ago 
There were two stores that had quality beef that I tended to go to.  One was closer to town and had a butchering block right behind the counter (kind of fun for the biology major in me).  The second was a bit out of town and the butchering was done in a back room.  Since the beef was butchered on the spot it was sometimes difficult to find different cuts of beef in the afternoon.  So, we would have to plan ahead and sometimes had to rework meals based on meat shortage.  The stores with good meat didn't have the best selection of other items, so we would usually have to go to three or four places in order to buy all our groceries.  Also, the meat was not trimmed - just cut up into chunks. 

3 years ago
Gross was built!  We definitely got a lot of entertainment out of the name of our first big grocery store.  They had a meat counter and had most of the products that we needed, but were a bit more expensive. They also had a limited supply of meat, because it was brought in sometime in the morning.  Also, there were one or two ladies that worked the meat counter and if they were on lunch or away, you could not buy meat.  They still sold larger chunks of beef and you had to wait for them to weigh your purchase, but it was convenient because it was close to the office and you could get other items as well.   

2 years ago
Skiff moved across town and opened up the biggest meat counter in town.  They had fresh meat most of the time.  The main disadvantage was that the lines were usually fairly long.  Their prices were cheaper than Gross, but it was located further from the center of town and their customer service was lacking.  Skiff recently changed it's name to S'malls. 

TODAY!!!!  (Yes, I know I used a lot of !'s)
Today, I walked up towards the meat counter in S'malls and saw a separate meat counter.  The meat there (pictured above) was trimmed into nice, manageable pieces and was packaged and priced.  All I had to do was pick up the meat and put it in my cart!  I bought two - you never know how long it will be this way, so you might as well enjoy it while you can.  To me the small added expense to buy the pre-packaged meat is well worth it for me not to have to stand in line, cut off the fat, and trim the meat into pieces that I can actually cook with.

I also picked up a personal pre-packaged portion of one of my favorite salads!  This is a new thing that I saw for the first time today as well.  It's the little things in life ...  what a good day!