heres a long winded explanation..
I have costco in walking distance, and when I moved out here, as a steak eating nut, i was thrilled that i could walk 2 minutes and get a package of fresh steaks..
well... over time, my steaks.... rib eyes, tenderloins, sirloins, just wasnt appealing to me the way they used to.. they were getting grainey, tough, leathery, bland, etc... all too often.. and eventually, i wasnt eating them very often. Maybe once a month if that.
Then on a whim, i walked into one of the local cimmunity markets that expanded into a full butcher shop and it turned out the owner was an old friend of mine. He showing me around and had porterhouss on sale, 8.99 lb.. i got 2.. cooked them that night.. all the crappyness i remembered was gone.. the steak was like butter and full of flavor... So i go back to his store and get more.. same thing..
So as a test i want to see if its just me, or costco steaks suck..so I go to costco, and mind you it was probably 6 months that i stopped buying there at that point. and got a package of shell steaks.. mad ethem for the family, and holy crap, you can actualling here a "sawing' sound when cutting thru the steaks..they were stringy and tough.. all along I was buying crappy steaks and weening myself off beef... and after buying form the butcher shops, we are back to steaks a least once or twice a week, sometimes more.. we vary the cuts, sometimes full roasts, sometimees steaks, he will always cut to order anything we want. 2 inch thick porterhouses at 8.99lb(normally 12.99) on sale is not unusual. So with all this, I will NEVER, and its been at least a year now, buy steaks at costco again.. sure, I pay a buck or 2 a lb more than i would if buying costco choice, but its worth every dime... the butcher is all USDA prime, and sometimes i can get in on the aged stuff. But his prices are LESS than costcos prices on their prime stuff, which I found to be no better than their choice product.