Do not buy from Calibeef, a company based in San Jose, California! A Califbeef salesman drove up in a truck a few hours ago, rang our doorbell, and convinced my husband to buy their “Beef Steak Assortment” for $230. That box holds 18.75 pounds of beef. That means that my husband paid $12.25 per pound — and of those 18.75 pounds, 6.69 pounds are hamburger. $12.25 per pound for steak is bad (even New York strip and ribeye costs less at the regular supermarket), but $12.25 per pound for hamburger is ridiculous.
And wait, it gets worse. My husband should have read the labels on the boxes. For example, the label on the Boneless Beef Ribeye Steaks box clearly states, “Tenderness enhanced with up to 19% of a seasoning solution. Solution ingredients: water and less than 2% of dextrose, salt, sodium phosphates, modified food starch, corn syrup, natural flavors, soy sauce (wheat, soybeans, salt), hydrolyzed soy protein, butter flavor (maltodextrin lipolyzed butterfat flavor), sugar, hydrolyzed corn protein, vegetable oil.” The labels on the other steaks also say that the steaks have been “enhanced” by a similar (though not identical) list of ingredients that I don’t want to eat.
The salesman asked $400 at first, then lowered the price as if he were doing my husband a deal. When asked repeatedly how many pounds were in the assortment, the salesman didn’t answer. And the salesman said several times that the steaks were “aged so that they you aren’t paying for water weight.” Aged, maybe. But the labels say that water has been added to the steaks, so the second part of that claim is a definite lie.
So, WAY overpriced, and WAY under-quality = RIP-OFF. With a side-helping of LIES. Hard to swallow.
A similar truck claims to be Calibeef tried to sell us some beef this evening. We said no, and the salesguy tried by reducing the price multiple times — and even provided Calibeef brochures. We said we would take some if they’re free — a good tactic to turn them away. We heard about this scam… so weren’t falling for it. Besides, wouldn’t eat food (esp. raw meat) from the back of some random truck!