Photos of Raw Meat in Shopping Carts at San Jose's 99 Ranch Market Go Viral

“In an interview with NBC Bay Area, 99 Ranch said they just learned about the incident on Friday and have dumped all the meat from the vendor, Jim’s Farm Meat.”

To late for dumpster diving?

Comments?

Well that’s pretty brazen. Not even using the delivery entrance?

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‘99 Ranch said they just learned about the incident on Friday and have dumped all the meat from the vendor, Jim’s Farm Meat.’

The meat isn’t the problem, the people are.

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Like the tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it, if nobody posts pictures of it on social media, it didn’t happen.

I don’t get it. How are large and primal cuts going to get into the market? Besides the traditional hunk of carcass carried on the shoulder.

Well, the meat company could spring for dollies.

Nothing wrong with that meat, it was sacrificed to save face. The aggrieved party here is Costco, which is probably going to have to sterilize all of its carts.

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This should live in the annals of stupidity based on ignorance. Not the part about taking the meat into the store in the cart – the reaction. These people need to tour a slaughterhouse to see how their food is processed before it reaches them. It’s not gross folks – it’s normal. Grossness is in the eye of the ignorant beholder. Do you expect your carcass to be sterilized every step of the way? Geez – how far have we gotten from our roots.

By the way, I assume the remark about Costco sterilizing its carts was tongue-in-cheek. Clearly the cart was stolen from them, and they have nothing to do with what happened then.

Ok, because I like to over think things this is what I have done. You might know this area better than I, because I’m in NJ, however when I google map the 99 Ranch Market this is what comes up. No mention of a Costco anywhere near here per the map. The article is written to give the impression the meat delivery people just grabbed a couple of shopping carts in the parking lot and used them to deliver their meat. It would seem from the map this isn’t the case, the new theory is the meat company had previously stolen the costco baskets and these ARE their standard delivery method. Which if that is the case perhaps it’s not as “ewwwwww” as we are imagining.

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It depends on whether or not Costco can convince the public that those particular carts were stolen, and not just “borrowed” for the occasion. If “borrowing” the carts was a practice, then all of Costco’s carts are suspect. Again, it’s a PR matter, more than anything else.

Ranch 99 is a small chain. I am not sure which location in San Jose is in the photos. Regardless, the meats should have been delivered to and through the Ranch 99 loading dock and not via a Costco shopping cart through the front door. Also, Ranch 99 has their own shopping carts :grin:. Costco is an innocent bystander, hah!

@ souperman I think it’s pretty clear any shopping cart found in such a situation is on permanent “borrowed” status. My observation, take it FWIW, has been that Asian groceries have their own supply chain with their own set of operating principles, and the likelihood that that particular cart will ever again see the inside of a Costco is, to put it mildly, small.

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@ reuel Not sure what “small chain” means in this context. Ranch 99 currently has 43 locations spread out over several states, mostly in the west but also New Jersey. They used to have at least one store in Atlanta, but they apparently pulled out a few years ago, which was too bad because they had a good selection of authentic cookware. I have a couple of nice woks I bought there plus some other stuff. Just used one of the woks a few days ago to fry up some pork cubes for black vinegar pork.

That’s why it was a “theory”. Lol

Wow they do have location(s) in New Jersey! One in my hometown! (I moved from there 24 years ago.)

My point was it’s a matter of perception. Costco has to make clear to its members that it was not borrowed, and that such borrowing was not a common practice.

It sounds like you’re relying on a negative racial stereotype here. “Jim’s Wholesale Meats” is a one-man trucking operation (which probably just lost its biggest or only contract). I have no idea of “Jim’s” ethnicity, but your suggestion that theft of shopping carts is SOP for Asian grocery supply chains is repugnant.

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@ souperman I wasn’t suggesting theft of shopping carts is standard practice for anybody. I have observed, however, in the US and many parts of the world, that smaller businesses including Asian food businesses often engage in more relaxed or informal methods to get the job done than larger more bureaucratically organized businesses. I shop in lots of Asian markets – they are often my go to places to get things. They typically are cheaper and have a good variety of things I’m seeking out, for which I am grateful. They also tend to be far less clean, and if you peer into the back you will see practices that simply aren’t seen in typical US supermarkets, which helps explain how it is they can do things more cheaply. Observing these facts is not racist – it’s simply a fact. On the subject of using shopping carts, yes I would say that piling things in shopping carts is something I have sometimes seen in Asian markets, and the store logos I have noticed on such carts sometimes don’t match the stores in which they are being used. That’s a fact. Make of it what you will.

What I make of it is that it’s a negative stereotype of a racial group.

A stereotype cannot be based on a fact, only a fiction.

How about “alternative facts”?

I know what they did is not right, but the outrage is silly too. I am on a mobile phone now. I will respond in full later.