thoughts on the future?

[formerly grueldelux]

Mr. Cutlets,

Thanks for all your great info. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the future for meat retailing? Here in Boston, noted chef Barbara Lynch (and partners) just opended a specialty butcher shop that turns into a small meat-focused restaurant by night. This joins another specialty butcher shop that opended in the same neighborhood just a short while ago. I'm sure the same thing is happening in major cities across the country. Do you think stores like this signal a start of a major change in this country? Do you see potential for a revolution like that which we experienced over the last 20 years with coffee, for example? Do you see the demand for better meat and better service driving mainstream grocery chains to improve their offerings? Or will premium meats remain a treat for "elites"? I'm optimistic that educated and passionate consumers will fuel the marketplace and maybe help increase production (and eventually bring down the prices) of high quality meat. But sometimes these changes seem impossible to envision because the price gap is so vast between regular grocery store meat and specialty shop meat. Chuck on sale at my local Whole Foods is 4 times more expensive than the chuck at regular price in a nearby mainstream store, for example. Are these two worlds going to influence each other?