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Has anyone noticed that Costco has been majorly short on all of Solomon’s meat (except for chopped meat??)
When I asked by the meat, they had a hard time understanding what “flanken” was LOL and when I asked by the front desk they told me that there is a back order. Anyone know the “behind the scenes” story??A lot of cholent has been sighted recently everywhere, this is probably the reason for the shortage.
I think flanken is short ribs in English.
Flanken is short ribs that have been cut across the bones in 1-2″ bone lengths. Short ribs are the full length of the bone and separated into sections by cutting the meat between bones.
Some of the Costco stores carry kosher meats from another supplier called Tomer. While I think Solomon’s is glatt, the Tomer products carry a triangle K hashgacha which I don’t think is considered glatt by most frum yidden. I’ve also seen Tomer products at some Wegman’s stores in jewish neighborhoods, so thats usually a sign of good quality. I’ve also heard that some of the schlachthouses are encountering a labor shortage because of difficulties in getting temporary work visas for the Hispanic workers.
“Short ribs are the full length of the bone and separated into sections by cutting the meat between bones.”
I thought those are spare ribs.
My suspicion is that Costco chiseled the price down to where Solomon’s makes very little per lb. Costco orders what they want, but Solomon’s only fills the order when they can fill all of their other customers’ orders as well.
In times of high demand, e.g. before Yom Tov, Solomon’s can’t fill all orders and will give priority to their customers who pay their regular price.
Again, just a theory.
To gadolhadorah.
Did you call the Triangle K to inquire about the GLATT question? Or are you assuming it is not Glatt. The Triangle K is much different then it was many years ago.
Rumor is that one of the larger kosher meat producers pays Costco off to not carry flanken etc.
My understanding (subject to your updating) was that the Triangle K hashgacha under R’ Yosef and R’ Aryeh Ralbag offered a hechsher for BOTH glatt and non-glatt products and that some yidden would only want products from a hashgacha that was exclusively glatt? If I have that wrong, please clarify.
Koltuv: I don’t know if it till true today but the CRC back in 2016 sent out a kashrus alert stating that Tomer was not-glatt kosher meat and not recommended. At one time, in the US, “hamon ahm” was not machmir on glatt.
T2T…..not just flanken but also schmatlz herring, kishka and broccoli. If you are going to invent rumors, focus on something more credible like the Trump’s secret deal to build a world class casino with top of the line chadissehse hashgacha and special spa with Mikvah in Uman.
Since when is Triangle K a legitimate hechsher for anything?
Triangle K is on Hebrew National.
in our costco there is no more fresh kosher meat; instead, there is excellent frozen meat with a very good hashgacha.
BaltimoreMaven
Participant
Since when is Triangle K a legitimate hechsher for anything?Sir.
I am sure that you are a Ben Torah. My purpose in responding to your comment is not to start an argument. I am hoping that in the spirit Yom Kippur, and I hope the coming year, you will consider the damage you can cause another Jew when making a statement that may not be accurate.
I don’t know much about the Triangle K hecher; however, I do know that there is some very respectable Bnei Torah involved with Triangle K. Please talk to someone that is really knowledgeable about Hechsharim to educate you in this subject.
“Triangle K is on Hebrew National”
I’m sure that most YWN readers don’t hold by Triangle K or any of several other large commercial hashgachos but in reality, at least from my perspective, its better that hundreds of thousands of yidden feel they are “doing good” by purchasing Hebrew National versus treifus “all beef” hot dogs. Hopefully, they will eventually come to realize that there are gradations of kashrus but we should avoid implying that R’ Ralbag is deliberately choteh u’machti harabim with his hashgahca.but we should avoid implying that R’ Ralbag is deliberately choteh u’machti harabim with his hashgahca.
We should yell it from the rooftops.
TRIANGLE K IS NOT RELIABLE TRIANGLE K IS NOT RELIABLE TRIANGLE K IS NOT RELIABLE TRIANGLE K IS NOT RELIABLE
I don’t know much about the Triangle K hecher
Obviously.
DaasYochid, what exactly makes triangle k not reliable? Is it the issue of glatt?
i know one of the mashgichim from hebrew national a charadi israeli. He davened in the yeshiva in Milwaukee for yom tov twice. i asked him how a charadi wound up giving a hecsher at hebrew national and he told me that he wanted to upgrade the standards where even though alot of kulies were being used it was on a high level of kashrus then it was be he came. Bedeved he said it was good but not for bnai torah. He said that everything was kosher but with many kulies.
I won’t talk for myself but I can say that a very well known Rov, an expert in Kashrus told me that Triangle K is “worthless”. Period. You can yell all you want, it’s not my words. And he is not generally known to be very extreme at all. He was a Rov and ran kashrus organizations “out of town” for many years. One needs to have a more open mind in those communities.
Unclemo
I don’t use the TriangleK but your comment is worthless if you aren’t willing to name the Rov or the Rov is not willing to publicly own his comments. What if Plony made the same statement you did but with the opposite conclusion? Would you say oh great, now I can try Hebrew National? Of course not. So why do you expect your anonymous assurance of an unnamed Rov to be taken as proof?Harav Ralbag shlita is a boki beshas. Including Kodshim. He is a Talmid of Rav Simcha Zissel Broide of Chevron. He has great Zechus Avos as well. I remember Der Tatte from the West Side and the Agudas Harabonim.I think the Rav Harashi Harav Lau is an eidem by the Ralbags in Eretz Yisrael.
Can someone please explain to me why this thread has turned into a contest of who can say nastier things about another Jew when all the OP wanted to know is what happened to the Flanken at Costco? I happened to ask Dan the manager at our Nanuet Costco a couple of years ago and he answered simply that the local Jewish stores were complaining that they were not getting enough meat. I actually still have some of their Ribeye steaks in my freezer if anyone needs. A Gmar Chasima Tova to all.
The Issue with Hebrew National is the brand had such a bad repution , it could not be fixed. Hebrew National is actually owned by a big food conglomarate who wanted to own “Premium brand” foods. After the purchased Hebrew National they found out most kosher keeping jews didnt eat it. They did reseach why and found it the supervision wasnt up to their standards, The research also said the OU was an acceptable supervision (Companies arent stupid) they then went to the OU to get the OU and the OU told them Hebrew national’s reputation was so bad they felt it could not be fixed and would damage the OU’s repution and so they refused to supervise it.
As a side note for many years Coke had a rabbi, when he died they did not want to tell anyone else the Secret Formula and the OU wanted more of a hint, They then went to the Triangle-K and supervised it for a while. Rumor had it Coke wasnt kosher, but most people just kept using it. Eventually the OU and Coke came to an agreement rearding the secret Formula
The Rov who knew the formula was Rav Tuvia Geffen a talmid of Slobodka. He was Rov in Atlanta. His son or nephew was Rabbi in Forest Hills West not so long ago. Yes I knew him.
We live here in Cleveland and i just had this discussion with the meat buyer. He said there is not enough flanken in the states from their old supplier to service all the stores. There is a law that says imported meat cannot have bones so being that flanken is boned they cannot get it from the south american plants that supply their deboned meat like ribeye steaks, london broil, brisket and ground beef. This law frustrates him to no end as flanken was his best seller. Hope this answers the quandary.
ZD, that makes no sense. If the OU had taken over Hebrew National its reputation would have been instantly repaired. I don’t know whether the OU was ever asked, but if it was I’m sure the reason it didn’t work wasn’t because of marketing but because they would have insisted on higher (i.e. more expensive) standards than the company was willing to pay for.
The actual reason they switched hechsherim was very simple: their old rav hamachshir, Rabbi Tibor Stern, passed away. No marketing research was needed; it was obvious that a hechsher cannot be given from Gan Eden. So they went looking for someone else and found Rabbi Ralbag.
That much is fact. Now what I have *heard* but can’t verify, so take it for the rumor it is, is that under Rabbi Stern the treifus rate was under 10%, which is not really plausible. When Rabbi Ralbag took over it jumped to the high 20s or low 30s, which is still low but not impossible. And of course it’s not glatt, because that would raise the reject rate too high.
Now here’s what I don’t understand: How is it economically viable nowadays to inflate non-glatt lungs? My understanding of the reason why almost everyone has switched to glatt is that once a lung is not glatt, the labor needed to determine whether it’s kosher (for Ashkenazim) cost more than it’s worth. It’s cheaper to simply send it to the treif line at the slaughterhouse and move on to the next animal. So if the Triangle K’s bodkim are truly inspecting the non-glatt lungs properly how does Hebrew National justify the cost? Or are they cutting corners?
Costco does not carry anymore the famed solomon brand beef
They cary the Teva brand , certified by reb dovid miller.Dont confuse with tevya brand which is……
Before the Miami Rov, HN was under the well known Radiner, Rav Yehuda Altusky zl a Rav Gadol Vechashuv from the Bronx and later Boro Park. A member of the Agudas Harabonim. He was related to Harav Gorelick zl. Yes, I knew both.
Ben-Eprhaim: For those with a LONG memory, Rav Altusky, Z’L was also the rav at the Congregation Mishkenoth Yisroel Shul (aka Hachnasas Shearith Yisroel Shul) on Intervale Ave in the East Bronx, which if I recall, was the only shul in that neighborhood that had a mikvah. And yes, I realize is off-topic so apologies the the CR enforcers. Back then, there were a lot of smaller “niche” hashgachos with creds tied to the rav hamachshir, which for Rav Altusky were the highest.
Some brands are so damaged they bring down others with them and with kashruth its all about reputation, loss of reputation damages the kashruth agency .
regardless of what you think companies are not stupid, they know more about marketing than you think, Conagra which is a multinational food corporation that owns Hebrew National did their proper homework once they bought it
Again, ZD, your story is simply not true. Conagra didn’t drop Rabbi Stern because of marketing, they stopped using his hechsher because he passed away! That is a fact, not an opinion. They HAD to find a new hechsher, and Rabbi Ralbag was the most lenient they could find.
And the idea that the OU would suffer by taking on Hebrew National is just ridiculous. If the OU had taken it on, the brand would be universally accepted (for non-glatt, if that’s what it would still be). The problem is that meeting the OU’s standards would be so expensive it would drive away all the current customers who don’t care about kashrus, so it makes no economic sense to do it.
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