Pinks at Whole Foods

[kzoo]

Went to Whole Foods last night at Bellevue, I always like to browse the fish isle. They had whole pinks for $3.99lb. They were pretty big as well.

[ResQ]

Catching your own is tons more fun :D That is cheap though!

[natetreat]

Hahahaha! I always look to see the price of fish at the supermarket. The other day I was at the Pike Place Fish market watching people unload 200 to 300 dollars for beat up kings whole, at 20 to 30 dollars a pound. Paying 25 dollars a pound for prefrozen dungies and 7 dollars a pound for pinks.

I like to think about how at that rate, my freezer is worth upwards of 1,000 dollars, and the fish tastes better. I haven't let my wife buy fish since we got married. WE do like tuna, and can't get at 'em, so sometimes we'll buy that.

[RiverChromeGS]

Catching pinks in a river and eating them is like a last resort for salmon. Buying them from a store cant be much better than buying and eating dog food.

[racfish]

Im with ya there. What I love are the name changes the stores use to better sale their products. Chums dont see using the name Chum. They use names like Keta,Silver Brites. You can change the names but the bleeech is still there. As every other year I bbq one fish. Ate a chunk and threw the rest out. At 3.99 a lb its a major rip off. I dont mind paying 20-30 for a nice white king filet thats all pi boned. The public market is a total rip off. Seafood there is no fresher then any other store.People think its way better quality but in reality its all the same as any other retailer.

[RiverChromeGS]

Yea its not fresh at all, it looks all mushy when i see the whole sockeye and what not. And yea dude the names are HILARIOUS!!! nobody wants to eat "chum" or "dog" ahah

[Gringo Pescador]

I ALWAYS point out the price-per-pound for salmon (including smoked salmon) wherever we are to my wife and try to use it to my advantage "see how much $$ I am saving us by going fishing all the time?".

[natetreat]

I ALWAYS point out the price-per-pound for salmon (including smoked salmon) wherever we are to my wife and try to use it to my advantage "see how much $$ I am saving us by going fishing all the time?".

I know right? My wife lets me go more often because of it. She loves to eat it, and it's way cheaper to catch your own. Although fishing is still an expenditure, when you can catch 20 fish with the same jig, it all comes down to the price of gas.

I don't care what the controversy over pinks and chum is. When they're fresh caught and treated properly they taste fantastic, baked or smoked. In the store, they get all mushy and fishy, and I don't even understand how people could PAY for that! I've got a fridge full of tasty pinks, sockeye and kings. We eat salmon and steelhead 3 or 4 times a week like kings. We have crab chowder and trout too! Seafood is so good for you and at this rate we wouldn't have to buy groceries EVER if it came down to it. With a 20 dollar a month gas budget we could feed ourselves pretty darn well. I never can understand why someone would pay for it. They don't want to take the time to figure out fishing I guess.

[ResQ]

Very true Nate, but at the same tone, I would prefer if more people bought it at the store and left more spots open to fishing

[racfish]

Very true Nate, but at the same tone, I would prefer if more people bought it at the store and left more spots open to fishing

The problem with that statement is the fish are locally native netted . One or the other the sportspeople get screwed.As taxpaying citizens we again take the pooh pooh. We pay taxes and some dont.

[knotabassturd]

I ALWAYS point out the price-per-pound for salmon (including smoked salmon) wherever we are to my wife and try to use it to my advantage "see how much $$ I am saving us by going fishing all the time?".

Nice thought! However, my wife would be quick to remind me I could be at work instead of fishing making $xx more even after buying the expensive stuff from store than what I'd save spending time fishing.

Of course store salmon is rarely to the quality level of fresh caught but that point is harder to 'prove' when trying to win the spousal debate over quality time fishing vs quantity time working. Almost as contentious around my house as flossing vs biting is around the fishin' message board house LOL.

$3.99/lb for pinks sounds expensive for whole fish.

Ahh, 6:23AM. Almost time for a beer.

[chefjake99]

I know the commercial guys were only getting around 45 cents a pound for em. Thats a steep mark up. Then again you said whole foods or as I like to call it whole paycheck.

[racfish]

LOL Chef Jake. I agree. You can go to whole foods and buy Carpinitos lettuce at 2.50 a head or go to Carpinitos in Kent and get a fresher head for .75. That .75 gets you Bib,romaine,green and red leaf lettuce. Whole foods ,Metropolitan markets and even QFC are major ripoffs. One of my favorite stores is Cash N' Carry. Being a chef myself I go where the restaurants shops.(Chef by hobby not by trade).

[Mike Carey]

I try not to look at my fishing as a cost analysis, although I understand that is a factor for some. When I look at all the gear and boats and this that and the other thing, store bought would be cheaper. BUT - no way would it be close to the quality we all get to enjoy. Fresh caught, bleed, and iced. That will always win out over netted, thrown in a boat's hold to rot all day, and eventually get processed. Yuck.

[ingi]

I know the commercial guys were only getting around 45 cents a pound for em. Thats a steep mark up. Then again you said whole foods or as I like to call it whole paycheck.

I commercial fish in alaska, basically my whole family is heavily vested in the industry, the general mark up for most seafood in alaska is 4x what the commercial fisherman get, if the buyers are really making off well than often it goes up to 10x. king crab got something like $7 a lb and at the store it was $30. bristol bay salmon we got about $1.25 its on the store for $6-12 per lb. On the idea of pike place market, you go there for the landmark much the same as going to a baseball game even though you can see the game better on tv. "fresh" ie unfrozen seafood has a shelf life of about a week and pike place buys much of there fish from other stores that wont be able to get rid of their seafood before it is no longer able to be kept good on ice at the stores, maybe not all but much of pike places seafood is 3 day old fish from stores such as safeway, QFC, and whole foods. just my little tidbit of what I know and I think its a good thing to have the pinks on ice at stores, i think they fit in right next to the tiny farmed rainbow trout but if some people enjoy it more power to them :bounce: