Author Topic: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman  (Read 13828 times)

Davnasty

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"Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« on: December 05, 2018, 09:00:13 AM »
A coworker told me about this great deal they got on some meat the other day. Apparently someone with a van showed up and said they were delivering a bunch of meat to someone else in the area and for some reason had an extra order of meat, $800 worth in fact, that they really needed to unload before it went bad. They were asking $500, then $350, but since he only had $275 in cash they accepted that.

Anyway, I realize the story about having "extra" meat was a bullshit tactic to present it as a one time opportunity, but what I'm not sure of is whether this was just shady or a straight up scam. Is this a thing? Was this stolen meat perhaps?

Cromacster

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2018, 09:03:59 AM »
I don't know about a scam, but if I wasn't already a customer I would be sketched out by some random trying to sell me meat.

The guy I by meat from shows up in my city in a white van and drops meat off at various "drop spots", which are just people houses.  Might have been that type of situation and someone cancelled.  Or sometimes they bring extra and try to sell it on the spot, maybe he wasn't able to sell it through normal means.

PoutineLover

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2018, 09:13:38 AM »
That sounds kinda like the suit scam where some guy will sell a bunch of "designer" suits out of the back of a car, only to find out later that they are all knock offs. There's no way I'd buy meat from some random guy knocking door to door, how do you know if it's been refrigerated, if it would pass inspection, if it's contaminated? Sketchy.

sol

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #3 on: December 05, 2018, 09:23:20 AM »
I get visited by the door to door meat salesman at least once per year.  Just say no thank you, like you do to any other salesman. 

KodeBlue

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2018, 09:47:27 AM »
I would be leary of buying meat from someone who just showed up at my door.

ketchup

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2018, 10:04:33 AM »
Yeah... I would not be eating meat that just showed up like that.  I also wouldn't be surprised if the meat turns out to be frozen blocks of old T-shirts.

AnswerIs42

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #6 on: December 05, 2018, 10:19:21 AM »
Is it just me, or does the thread title sound like the plot of a 1970s adult movie?

partgypsy

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #7 on: December 05, 2018, 10:21:54 AM »
Is it just me, or does the thread title sound like the plot of a 1970s adult movie?

lol

ysette9

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #8 on: December 05, 2018, 11:16:32 AM »
Is it just me, or does the thread title sound like the plot of a 1970s adult movie?
I was at least expecting the sales person to be overweight

patchyfacialhair

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #9 on: December 05, 2018, 11:23:29 AM »
Stolen meat seems likely.

Davnasty

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #10 on: December 05, 2018, 11:57:38 AM »
Yeah... I would not be eating meat that just showed up like that.  I also wouldn't be surprised if the meat turns out to be frozen blocks of old T-shirts.

They've already sampled the filet and said it was good. Sounds like most of it was vacuum sealed but visible.

My guess that the meat is OK but the price was not. As others have mentioned though, no guarantee of how it's been stored.

faithless

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #11 on: December 05, 2018, 12:06:05 PM »
You definately win the award for 'Most intriguing thread title'!

FireHiker

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #12 on: December 05, 2018, 12:13:32 PM »
OMG I knew someone who bought meat randomly from a door to door salesman. I already knew she was someone who could be talked into buying anything, but I was still surprised by that one! No WAY would I buy meat from someone going door to door!

Spiffy

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #13 on: December 06, 2018, 07:25:45 AM »
This happened to us years ago. The guy was in some sort of frozen food delivery van with a logo on the side and said he was making deliveries to people who had ordered but took extras to try to sell along the route. We said no thanks and he asked "Is it because I am selling meat out of a van?" Yes. Yes it is.

GuitarStv

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #14 on: December 06, 2018, 07:48:31 AM »
Mental note - Door to door sales is a Mustachian way to both unload large quantities of unidentifiable meat and generate income.  If you ever happen to have some bodies lying around the house.  Hypothetically.

hops

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #15 on: December 06, 2018, 08:01:55 AM »
The last door-to-door meat salesman I encountered was driving a van with a logo that looked similar to Omaha Steaks. But something was just off-kilter enough to make you look again and notice that it was basically their logo but with some other O-city in the name, which enhanced the sketchiness of the whole enterprise. That was a high-class affair compared to the time my brother-in-law was approached by an aggressive, twitchy, sore-covered drug addict who was trying to sell meat from the back of a battered pickup while a disheveled woman, also covered in sores, waited impatiently in the passenger seat.

AMandM

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #16 on: December 06, 2018, 08:26:14 AM »
We once got a door-to-door frozen meat salesman.  It was a company I'd heard of, in fact some acquaintances bought from them, so the meat itself didn't seem sketchy to me.  But the pitch was deceptive; they talked about quantities in terms of "months of meals" and it was hard to pin them down on actual serving size, number of servings, etc.  Fifteen years later, my kids still talk about the event. "Mama kept asking him how much it worked out to per pound and the guy said, "We don't sell our meat by the pound," and Mama said, "Well, I pay for my meat by the pound, so I need to know how yours compares," and finally he went away."

Also he offered to sell us a freezer to store this allegedly enormous quantity of meat. Naturally it had convenient monthly payments that added up to a high interest loan on an overpriced appliance.

I think it was legit, in the sense that it wasn't illegal or fraudulent, but it was definitely a rip-off in terms of value for money.
« Last Edit: December 06, 2018, 08:27:51 AM by AMandM »

PoutineLover

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #17 on: December 06, 2018, 08:42:31 AM »
Well the door to door meat salesman I met didn't have product with him, he was just talking about the company and allowing you to place an order. I tried it because it was local meat and seemed sustainable and high quality, but it was a bit too expensive and you needed a lot of storage space to buy enough to get a decent discount. The meat itself was good though.

Maenad

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #18 on: December 06, 2018, 10:23:57 AM »
That just screams "incipient food poisoning" to me.

Hunny156

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #19 on: December 06, 2018, 11:57:04 AM »
Hubby interviewed with one of these companies, many moons ago.  Schwann's was the name of it, I think?  The interview lasted an entire day, starting with the early morning rah rah meeting to get the sales force hyped up, before loading their trucks and running around in their territories.

The meat is on consignment, so if the meat is damaged, lost or stolen, the worker pays the company.

The company frowns upon workers who bring back a truck w/any meat left in it, so workers were known to pull 12 hour shifts in order to unload everything in the truck.  Because who doesn't want to ring the bell of someone's house at 9 PM, trying to sell that last package of meat?

The "manager" also ran routes, except that these hyper crazy individuals would run multiple routes in multiple areas of the state, and often slept in the cabs of the truck in order to make more money!

They were really surprised that at the end of the day, hubby turned down the offer.  And no, we have never purchased meat in this fashion, nor would we.

DS

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #20 on: December 06, 2018, 12:22:51 PM »
This happened to us years ago. The guy was in some sort of frozen food delivery van with a logo on the side and said he was making deliveries to people who had ordered but took extras to try to sell along the route. We said no thanks and he asked "Is it because I am selling meat out of a van?" Yes. Yes it is.

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #21 on: December 06, 2018, 01:00:01 PM »
Hubby interviewed with one of these companies, many moons ago.  Schwann's was the name of it, I think?  The interview lasted an entire day, starting with the early morning rah rah meeting to get the sales force hyped up, before loading their trucks and running around in their territories.

The meat is on consignment, so if the meat is damaged, lost or stolen, the worker pays the company.

The company frowns upon workers who bring back a truck w/any meat left in it, so workers were known to pull 12 hour shifts in order to unload everything in the truck.  Because who doesn't want to ring the bell of someone's house at 9 PM, trying to sell that last package of meat?

The "manager" also ran routes, except that these hyper crazy individuals would run multiple routes in multiple areas of the state, and often slept in the cabs of the truck in order to make more money!

They were really surprised that at the end of the day, hubby turned down the offer.  And no, we have never purchased meat in this fashion, nor would we.

That's so crazy- we have a Schwann's van in our neighborhood twice a week, and they have never approached our house for a sale.
Our neighbors rave about them, but it all looked like expensive processed stuff to me when I looked online.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #22 on: December 06, 2018, 02:02:28 PM »
That just screams "incipient food poisoning" to me.

I'm visualizing a 1970's porn theme in which someone accepts the offer of extra meat and then-- in a spontaneous burst of frugality-- asks the vendor if he will take it out "in trade".

OurTown

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #23 on: December 07, 2018, 12:37:30 PM »
Hubby interviewed with one of these companies, many moons ago.  Schwann's was the name of it, I think?  The interview lasted an entire day, starting with the early morning rah rah meeting to get the sales force hyped up, before loading their trucks and running around in their territories.

The meat is on consignment, so if the meat is damaged, lost or stolen, the worker pays the company.

The company frowns upon workers who bring back a truck w/any meat left in it, so workers were known to pull 12 hour shifts in order to unload everything in the truck.  Because who doesn't want to ring the bell of someone's house at 9 PM, trying to sell that last package of meat?

The "manager" also ran routes, except that these hyper crazy individuals would run multiple routes in multiple areas of the state, and often slept in the cabs of the truck in order to make more money!

They were really surprised that at the end of the day, hubby turned down the offer.  And no, we have never purchased meat in this fashion, nor would we.

We had regular deliveries from "the Schwan man" when I was growing up on the farm, although we never bought the meat because we butchered our own.  They sold gigantic tubs of ice cream, I think they came in 3 gallon buckets!

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #24 on: December 07, 2018, 12:54:43 PM »
We used to live in an area that was frequented by a door-to-door meat salesman. They would stop by and offer a box of meat for about $350. They would make a big deal about how they just needed one more sale to earn some sort of prize. Then they'd start dropping the price. My wife fell for it one time when they price got down to $100. I was very unhappy. I weighed the meat when I got home, and found out it contained just 12 lbs, meaning the average price was over $8/lb (and any fool who paid full price would have been paying nearly $30/lb!!!). $8/lb is a reasonable price for good steak. But there were maybe 4 steaks in the box, some ground beef, sausage, pork chops, etc. But the meat wasn't stolen or bad, it was just a fucking ripoff.

Davnasty

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #25 on: December 07, 2018, 02:58:29 PM »
We used to live in an area that was frequented by a door-to-door meat salesman. They would stop by and offer a box of meat for about $350. They would make a big deal about how they just needed one more sale to earn some sort of prize. Then they'd start dropping the price. My wife fell for it one time when they price got down to $100. I was very unhappy. I weighed the meat when I got home, and found out it contained just 12 lbs, meaning the average price was over $8/lb (and any fool who paid full price would have been paying nearly $30/lb!!!). $8/lb is a reasonable price for good steak. But there were maybe 4 steaks in the box, some ground beef, sausage, pork chops, etc. But the meat wasn't stolen or bad, it was just a fucking ripoff.

After reading up on the topic a bit I think this is the most plausible scenario. Some of the tactics they use to make it seem like a good deal:

1) Saying it's leftover meat they need to unload which creates a scenario where you could plausibly be getting a great deal.
2) Starting with a ridiculously inflated price so that the somewhat inflated price they want you to pay sounds like a deal.
3) Packaging the meat in small portions and describing the amount in terms of servings or a length of time you might expect it to last, as in "12 weeks of meat". This makes it seem like more than it is and makes it difficult to calculate the $/lb
4) By selling a box which includes everything from sausage to filet mignon people tend to focus on the filet and the large amount of meat in front of them rather than the actual value of each item individually.
5) What I would describe as the Costco Effect, where as the volume of a product increases we can visibly see it but when the price increases proportionally our brains don't compute. Not everyone has trouble with this but for some people it's difficult to visualize the difference between two numbers once they get large enough.
6) Like any unscrupulous door to door sellers they throw in the occasional sob story.

I'm quite curious as to how much meat CW ended up with for $275 but I felt bad prying as they were so excited about the great deal they got.


11ducks

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #26 on: December 08, 2018, 03:40:46 AM »
Mental note - Door to door sales is a Mustachian way to both unload large quantities of unidentifiable meat and generate income.  If you ever happen to have some bodies lying around the house.  Hypothetically.

My thoughts exactly. You buy van meat, maybe you're eating people.

GuitarStv

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #27 on: December 08, 2018, 10:32:20 AM »
Mental note - Door to door sales is a Mustachian way to both unload large quantities of unidentifiable meat and generate income.  If you ever happen to have some bodies lying around the house.  Hypothetically.

My thoughts exactly. You buy van meat, maybe you're eating people.

Exactly.  So you better get a damned good deal on it.

MgoSam

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #28 on: December 08, 2018, 05:00:36 PM »
I'm content with the meat I get at Aldi. $8/lb for ribeye is a good deal to me and I really enjoyed it.

I would rather buy the meat I want for immediate use rather than storing it though I've toyed with the idea of buying a cow share but have never pulled the trigger as I don't eat a whole lot of ground beef.

KodeBlue

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #29 on: December 09, 2018, 08:12:38 AM »
Mental note - Door to door sales is a Mustachian way to both unload large quantities of unidentifiable meat and generate income.  If you ever happen to have some bodies lying around the house.  Hypothetically.

My thoughts exactly. You buy van meat, maybe you're eating people.

Soylent green is people!

By the River

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #30 on: December 12, 2018, 08:18:28 AM »
...
4) By selling a box which includes everything from sausage to filet mignon people tend to focus on the filet and the large amount of meat in front of them rather than the actual value of each item individually.
5) What I would describe as the Costco Effect, where as the volume of a product increases we can visibly see it but when the price increases proportionally our brains don't compute. Not everyone has trouble with this but for some people it's difficult to visualize the difference between two numbers once they get large enough...

I had seen an Omaha Steaks ad the other night with a special holiday package of steaks, pork chops, etc for only $44.99 (separately $130+)  I wasn't going to buy it but thought not a bad price probably because of the two effects you mention.   

Just went to their website and priced it out, assuming that the top sirloin was a third of the price, the pork chops a fourth etc.  Based on this assumption, the two 5 ounce steaks would be selling for $23/lb; the two 4 ounce boneless pork chops for $22/lb; burgers $9/lb, franks for $6/lb and fries at $5/lb.     

Doesn't sound as good of a buy now.   

MgoSam

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #31 on: December 12, 2018, 11:22:38 AM »
That's why my favorite explanation of bulk meat purchases is the cost per pound.

Let's say I'm offered a 1/4 cow and the price breaks down to where at the end of the day I'm paying $6.50/pound I might be very happy were I someone that would regularly buy grass fed local ground beef as that likely costs more if you were to go to WF or a farmer's market. I think Aldi sells grass fed ground beef for around that even. So That might be a great deal as not only are you getting the ground meat at that rate but everything including ribeye.

frugalnacho

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #32 on: January 02, 2019, 09:43:28 AM »
Was it from one of these guys?


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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #33 on: January 02, 2019, 12:37:26 PM »
We get the meat man 2-3 times a year.  I point to our livestock.  Had a buddy buy a bunch of van meat in college.  Mostly sad little faux fillets wrapped in bacon.  He didn't know how to cook, so he said I could eat all I wanted if I cooked some for him.  Done deal.

I'm a red panda

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #34 on: January 02, 2019, 12:45:12 PM »
Oddly, a guy on my facebook just purchased a huge lot of "extra meat" at a "very reduced price".  He was sitting in an outdoor cafe when approached.

Apparently the meat guys are making their rounds.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2019, 12:51:46 PM by I'm a red panda »

Eric

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #35 on: January 02, 2019, 12:48:56 PM »
The entire concept of selling meat door to door is a new one to me.  What's next?  Meat sales in the alleyway behind the bar?  Pssssst.  Hey buddy.  Wanna buy a steak?  Prime cut!

Blonde Lawyer

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #36 on: January 02, 2019, 02:55:16 PM »
When I lived in Maine, this was a thing.  The side of the road seafood sellers were even more popular.  A guy would sell lobster/shrimp/scallops out of the back of a pickup near a busy road, about 20 minutes from the ocean and make a killing.  I was never brave enough to buy it.

kimmarg

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #37 on: January 02, 2019, 04:26:31 PM »
When I lived in Maine, this was a thing.  The side of the road seafood sellers were even more popular.  A guy would sell lobster/shrimp/scallops out of the back of a pickup near a busy road, about 20 minutes from the ocean and make a killing.  I was never brave enough to buy it.

Interesting i live in Maine and have never had a door to door meat guy. There was  Schwans truck (ice cream!) when I was a kid.  Oddly I never thought about the selling seafood on the side of the road being weird. I actually assume it's much fresher as it just came off the boat.  I've bought scallops out of a truck at a ski area.. of course I knew the guy who owned the truck had been out on his boat the day before. Best scallops!

Just Joe

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Re: "Extra" meat from door to door salesman
« Reply #38 on: January 03, 2019, 09:55:57 AM »
A little further south here we buy BBQ out of trucks on the side of the road. There is a fellow that has a trailer all built out as a mobile smoker with a roof. He comes to a cross roads near us every Saturday. REALLY good.