Interview with an ethical butcher

Some people are surprised that Outpost sells meat; the perception of some is that Outpost employees and owners are all vegan or vegetarian. That's simply not so; Outpost caters to meat-eating shoppers, but with a careful view to offering grass-fed and humanely-raised, antibiotic-free meat.

That's why we found this an interesting read: GOOD Magazine interviews "the ethical butcher" who "saw that he could address the toxicity of the meat industry by changing it rather than just avoiding it."

Comments

[Vegan]

As a vegan, while I rue the fact that Outpost doesn't have room for as many vegan alternatives, I must admit that knowing that your meat counter is grass fed makes it little less disturbing.

Still, I wish that "caters to meat-eating shoppers" didn't mean loss of options for vegans. For example, yes, La Frontera mexican sauces are organic, but they contain chicken broth. What about a better selection of faux meat products (tofurkey products are...uh....er....awful). Frozen dinner options have declined as meat dinners pushed us out. And WholeSoy&Co's yogurt is out of stock more than in.

I know you can't be every thing to everybody, but over the last 30 years I've seen my options get smaller and smaller...

[LizS]

We love feedback! Thank you for your comment, which we shared with our head of purchasing. You are right that we can't be everything to everybody, but Outpost tries very hard to live up to its standards while meeting customer demands. Our purchaser had the following info, which we hope will help explain the vegan foods situation:

Outpost is at the mercy of supply and demand. We cannot stock products that don’t hold their own on the shelf – sadly there are many items that come and go because they just don’t sell well enough.

Our three stores have a different number of vegan food choices based on how well those products sell in that store. State St. has the smallest selection of both vegan and vegetarian meat alternatives. Our Bay View store has a large selection of frozen meat alternatives and Capitol Drive has the best selection of refrigerated meat alternatives. That is partly because those stores have more space and also based on the products selling much better at those locations.

Regarding Tofurky and other faux meats tasting awful – that too is why the number of alternatives dwindle. We find that many vegans make that comment and when the items we’re trying out don’t sell, we must cut them. If our vegan shoppers can let us know which faux meat products they love, we will try to bring them in. The logistics of acquiring the product must be feasible, though. There are some great products made by small companies on the coasts that we can’t sell here because the cost of shipping makes the retail price ridiculous.

We brought Tofurkey in based on customer requests, and we've noticed the sliced lunchmeats and sausages sell really well.

Finally, we cannot carry vegan products that contain artificial colors, flavors or preservatives because that is not permitted given our product policy. That eliminates Morningstar’s conventional products, Worthington Foods and Loma Linda brands, to name just a few.

We’re bringing in two new vegan products in the next few weeks:
Mamasita’s Tamales – locally made in Riverwest they do not make all varieties all the time but each delivery to us should contain both vegan and vegetarian varieties. These are homemade in small batches so be sure to stock up while we have them in stock – we do not have control over the varieties and quantity delivered.

Frozen entrees from Vegetarian Plus – right now our supplier is only carrying a couple of varieties but we have asked them to add more, such as Vegan shrimp in sweet chili sauce and vegan half chicken in asian curry sauce.

Oh yes – we also carry vegan marshmallows that are in need of customer support. They are called Dandies and are made in Chicago. They don’t have a huge shelf life so please – we need more vegans to buy these more often!

We hope that helps!