This meat shop called THE MEAT BARN is located on 78th street and Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights. They boast to be the provider of full-service meat and produce market. As I walked in, I took some of the pictures of meat they were providing. All of it was packed in the store and displayed.
The whole chicken costs $1.29/ lb.
The ground meat costs $2.98/ lb.At the back of the store there was an area called custom meat cutting counter. As described by a butcher working there, he got shipments of meat, and that area was where he packs them in nice shiny plastic wrap, and weighs them to print a price tag for each meat. You can see the plastic trays at the top shelf on the left of the following picture.
As I walked out towards the cash register to interview the cashier, whom I assume to be the owner of the store, I was very happy to see these signs posted near the register.
When I finally spoke to the cashier about the meat, my first question was that where do you get your meat supply from. To which she replied the Food Nation. I asked her if it was like a meat packing plant's name, a factory farm, or what? She had a blank look on her face. She did not know what this company represented. I then gave her another option thinking that it must be it; is the Food Nation a distributing company. She said yes, it is. I asked her if she knew where do Food Nation bring their meat from? She said she DID NOT KNOW! She only knew that Food Nation provides them with the meat needed for the store. I found this very disturbing thinking that the people who pompously provide meat with a look of an old-style butcher waiting at the back of the store to custom cut your style of meat and pack it in nicely for you to take home and cook. They didn't really know what they were providing. Maybe an E coli infected meat was lying in that store somewhere waiting to be bought by a family and ruin thier lives forever.
