Butchers say beef prices are going down, hope to be back to normal pricing soon

You probably noticed higher prices for meat during the pandemic. Now, experts say beef prices are going down, so keep an eye on those labels.

Beth Stoops has been shopping at Lawhon’s Grocery and Meat in North Fort Myers for decades.

“They have the best steaks in town,” she said.

She cooks dinner for her whole family and steak dinners are her favorite.

“Steaks on the grill, baked potatoes, corn…” she listed.

But when prices went up during the coronavirus pandemic, she cut how much beef she buys in half.

“It was bad,” Stoops said. “I couldn’t believe what the prices were. We had to change dinners a little bit.”

But relief for customers like Stoops has arrived, says butcher manager JD Roberts.

“Now, it’s pretty reasonable,” he says.

The news comes a week after the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that beef and veal prices had it’s biggest monthly jump ever with almost 11% from April to May.

“Our burger went up for the highest at $7.99 a pound, and some of the New York strips and ribeyes and stuff was in between $18 and $19 a pound,” he said.

Now, Roberts says burgers are around $5 a pound and steaks around $14. He hopes by next week we’ll be at “pre-COVID” prices.

“Two weeks ago, we started seeing them drop $.50 quarter here and there and as of right now, like, our burger is $5.09 a pound for ground chuck and the steaks are right around $13, $14…so I figured another week or so it should be back to normal,” he said.

That’s good news for Stoops. She can go back to cooking a crowd favorite.

“It’ll make the kids happy too because they all love steak,” she said.