My father told me of the days that butchers made their wages on the old time scales that the customer had no idea of how to read from their side of the counter. The owner of the shop expected his employees to add a little to every transaction through the week. In return , come saturday night the butchers took enough free meat home to feed their families for the week . This was common at most all independent shops of that era.
I have an old one on the garage right now, bought it from a very old store,
I'm not sure I agree with this premise- because you are essentially cheatng the customer, or in essence, stealing, thats probly why we have weights and measures testing the tares on our scales today.
Years ago, if a customer demanded a 20 lb turkey and all you had was 18.5lbs.... I do think there was some "creativity"
to satisfy that customer.
one old store I was in,,,was a fake thumb,,,,,for scale use only written on it- I dont know if it was from a customer as a gag gift to the meatcutter or not
The first market I worked in that wasn't allow, I was taught to treat customers right but in markets after that I've seen a lot of it over the years. I never seen a company or store manager demand it, it was a market managers call. I never seen the thumb but have seen beer openers attach to the back of the scales.
once in Atlanta, early 70's, in a I00,000 a week market we had a scale set to the side where all weekly sale items were weighed, one day I notice a little metal piece coming over the top of the back of the scales, when I looked over it was a piece of clothes hanger wire with a beer opener on it.
In this market we worked off the clock a few hours ever week and was paid a bag of pull back meat sign ok by the market manager and store manager which in those days would have been around 35 to 40 dollars, there were 7 of us in that market and we never came under a gross of 28% so I guess that was the way we were paid.
In most markets that I worked that stuff was done by not taking the tare weight of the package off two weeks out of the month, as soon as the inspector came in and left no tare was taken off till about two weeks before his return. In scales where tare is pre set, a pen would be taped to the back to off set the tare.
We had scales like that when I started. We never had anything hanging on them but the owner always told me to set it down hard and read fast!! He also like to hire pretty women with big chests, they usually had to lean into the scale and I am guessing add a little weight,lol the guys never complained
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I'm not a vegetarian, but have eaten many animals that were.
set it down hard, and read fast! rj, thanks for the chuckle...
about 25 yrs ago, I had a boss ask me to eliminate the tares off the scale for the fourth quarter, I said sure, no problem,,,,never did it,,but acted like i did..(i wasnt going to lose my job over a dickweed)
I seen cutters throw small trim fat under packaged meat. saying that the customer would see it. just as a honest mistake. like oops..lol
I always heard of the laying of the thumb action, alone with painting meat red with die-food coloring.
list could go on , with many other things I was order to do. but didnt , twice was threaten of being fired..
I reply both times, "Lets go ahead with-it, Your the one thats going to have to explain it up in the front office..lol those was in my first two year to boot tho.
there after, lonely really bad things i seen was from the warehouse. TRUE AGED MEATs
i knew a guy who used to grind anything available-mix it with tomato juice and ice-always had the cheapest ground round around but it disappeared in the frying pan!!!
When I started they use to put knives in the scales with turkeys round the holidays......i don't think it's right to rip off r customer ....I wouldn't wanna be ripped off
My first cutter told me that when he started in the business that his manager would have a 5gal. bucket of crushed ice sitting beside the grinder everyday. He told him to "make it disappear by the end of the day".
thats horrible, we are customers as well and I am a firm believer in what goes around comes around.....there are other ways to be creative without cheating people.
Isn't this what the packing houses are doing to us now ( Enhanced with up to a 12% solution of water and salt ).
I see loin strips packaged with an extra piece of fat in them. Just a chunk sitting on top of the boneless loin. Each piece probably wieghs at least an ounce. That could really add up after a while in wholesale.
My first cutter told me that when he started in the business that his manager would have a 5gal. bucket of crushed ice sitting beside the grinder everyday. He told him to "make it disappear by the end of the day".
This was a common thing in a lot of chains back in late 60's 70's here in the south, water weighs 8lbs to the gal, and ice would also keep burger bright red for a couple days. with the old hobart grinders with the top pan you could grind 300lbs of trim at a time with 5 lbs of ice. some markets I work in those days would grind 5 to 6 times a day on Fri, Sat, Sun.
I use to hate grinding for Winn-Dixie, They would put it in the freezer for 25 mins, wrap it and in 4 hours you were wiping blood from the burger secton. plus what was left there had loose wrap on it. I couldn't stand that ****.
