LOOKIN’ AROUND by Syd Iwan “I wonder how badly I’ve been had?” Such was my question as the traveling salesman drove off down the road. I shrugged, picked up my $150 (plus tax) box of steaks and took it into the house. “Maybe I should do my sums and figure out exactly what kind of a deal I’ve just made,” I muttered to myself. I was kind of surprised that I’d been talked into buying anything from the personable young fellow who had just left. Normally I have fairly good sales resistance and don’t fall for many supposedly “hot deals” that come my way. The odds are very low, for example, of my buying a pricey two-ton vacuum cleaner as my folks once did or a water softener as did my wife’s folks. I can usually see the flaws in a salesman’s patter and show them the door. What was the difference this time? Well, this particular salesman was very, very good for one thing. He knew exactly what he was doing. Secondly, I like steak quite a bit so the odds were tipped in his favor from the start. He also had enough experience that he was able to counter all my objections to the buying of his products. For instance, I said we were ranchers and that we could and do butcher our own critters. He replied that I would then know a good steak when I saw one. His did look good. When I said my freezers were already too full and I didn’t have room for a case of steaks, he said you can always find a little more room in a freezer. Each steak he offered was individually sealed in clear plastic so they could be taken out of their boxes and stuffed in the small spaces between other things. That was so. The original price the man mentioned was way out of sight as far as I was concerned. I could easily have turned him down if he hadn’t kept reducing the cost. He also had some song and dance about not being able to take the meat back to his company since, once it had been scanned out, it couldn’t be returned. It was late in the day, and he supposedly had to get rid of what he had or he’d lose some money. As a result, he would consider taking a loss on a box of steaks if necessary. I took all this with a grain of salt since the frozen goods were currently in a white freezer in the back of his white pickup. He could simply plug it in and try selling again the next day. He had by that time, though, reduced the price substantially. I should probably mention that the meat company involved here is quite large and well known so at least their products were apt to be decent and not a danger to one’s health. Their sales brochure and packaging were fairly professional. In any event, I finally caved in and bought one box of stuff although I was strongly encouraged to buy two at the price. That, however, was not going to happen. One was my absolute limit. At that point, then, I was curious as to how bad a deal I had made. There were six boxes of meat with one being thick hamburger patties and the others being boneless steaks except for the T-bones which did have T-bones. After I discounted the five pounds of hamburger at current store price of roughly $4.50 a pound, that left about $125 worth of steak. Dividing $125 by approximately 12 pounds of steak made it come out close to $10 a pound. Wow. When I checked store prices later, however, they were selling rib-eyes at $11.99/lb. which was news to me since I seldom buy steak. We usually have some of our own in the locker so there’s no point. The best you could say, I guess, was that it appeared I hadn’t totally been taken to the cleaners. I’d probably paid about normal retail price although I certainly hadn’t gotten any hot deal. I did like the fact that everything was individually wrapped in about half-pound amounts so I won’t have to thaw out a whole large package and try to figure out how to use it all before it goes bad. With some of our steak, I can pry individual portions out of the frozen packages which allows me to use one piece at a time, but other times I can’t and have to plan how to use it all up. I am happy to report that the new steak is quite good. It is also very tender. It might not be quite as tasty as our own, but it isn’t far off either. I should get another twenty-some meals out of my recent purchase which will give me a better idea of its quality. I will, however, have to deal with my wife’s teasing about my lack of sales resistance. She can’t help herself. It was all apparently too funny to her. There is also the normal complaint you may have heard, “Steak, steak, every day, steak.” It’s a tough life, but I’ll do my best to bear up somehow.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 12:23:53 +0000
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