The Butchers “Organic and Naturally raised meats shop” has sold over 15,000 coupons in Toronto for approximately $175 each worth of meat at the cost of $55. It is over $2.6 million dollars worth of meat. If we take an average price of the most selling meats by The Butchers as $30 per kilogram (chicken, ground beef, etc…), we get about 90 tons of “organic and naturally raised” meat. For a really small shop! Everyone can speculate about these numbers and conclude that it is not possible to meet this huge demand without dramatic decrease in quality of meats and service.
The Butchers shop has been featured by Webpiggy, Dealgetters, DealFind, Dealticker, TeamSave, BuyTopia daily deals websites (did I miss anyone?). There were a lot of complaints on service, products and prices at The Butchers after the major offer on DealFind. It turns to be a scam at some discussion forums. They simply can not handle all the customers. They significantly reduced working hours, assortment, quality, etc. The only thing they should care about now is to service all customers with already purchased coupons because The Butchers has real problems with it (actually vice versa – many customers have problems with The Butchers). But! What do they do instead?
They are offering another deal on WebPiggy again:
$100 for $400 worth of organic and naturally raised meat from The Butchers, inclusive of a $50 credit to the opening of Marlin’s Fish Shop. Don’t miss The Butchers 10th Anniversary, Deal of the Century!
It is running through the weekend (April 8 – 10) and 1600 already bought the deal. I think they just need more cash to purchase more meat from some cheap place. I don’t see another explanation.
Well.. There were only speculations before in this post.
Now Trueler provides real proofs of how “Organic and Naturally raised” the meat from The Butchers is and what it actually worth.
Most of the products purchased with one of the coupons at The Butchers in the beginning of April 2011 were of bad quality. I have prepared and described facts about sausages bought at The Butchers. They definitely do not worth $10.99/pound (or $24.40/kg). Probably $1.99/pound is a fair price for them (I’m not sure what is the exact percentage of starch and carrageenan they have added to the sausages).
Let’s see what “Organic and Naturally raised” sausages from The Butchers represent.
After thawing of frosted sausages there were about 50ml of water in the plastic bag per 1 lb of meat. It is over 10%. Here is a picture:
The consistence of sausages were very suspicious to be claimed as “Organic and Naturally raised”:
It looks like a sponge which is a sure sign of starch presence in the meat. I used Iodine Test to show everyone that sausages from The Butchers contain a lot of starch. Iodine reacts with starch to produce purple black color or blue black color (depending on how much of starch is present in the product). I’ve written a letter “S” by Iodine on the cut of sausage and it turned purple black:
It means that there is a lot of starch in those sausages. Here is a comparison to understand the reaction. Potato contains starch and pear does not:
Iodine written “S” remained brown on a piece of pear. Iodine reacted with starch contained in potato and “Organic and Naturally raised” sausages from The Butchers.
Is the starch used by The Butchers organic and naturally raised? It could be. But it also could be a modified corn starch or even something less natural. I don’t know.
But sausages with significant amount of starch definitely do not worth $24/kg (or $10.99/lb)! It is like cheap prepacked sausages from the nearest supermarket.
Let’s try to cook them!
I have never seen good barbecue sausages exploding when cooking…
It is because of natural sausage casing which does not crack.
Sausages from The Butchers started to crack quite soon:
Then sausages exploded!
This definitely means that sausage casings are artificial and NOT natural.
Meantime Iodine almost evaporated from the pear without reaction, but left its footprint on the sausage made from starch:
After cooling sausages significantly shrinked:
Inflation of sausages in the oven, shrinking when cooled, excess water – all of these is a sure sign of carrageenan (E407 food additive) in the meat. It is used in the food industry to increase or even double the weight of meat. Carrageenan may cause allergic reactions for some people.
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Scented sausages with preservatives from The Butchers
(update as of April 11)
I left piece of UNCOOKED sausage out of the fridge at a room temperature for about two days.
It did not spoil at all! It has absolutely the same smell as it had two days ago. Natural meat should spoil in a warm place very quickly. However sausages from The Butchers kept their scent which is most likely artificial. Unfortunately I can’t post and share the smell here, but it is absolutely the same as two days ago. It definitely means that at least preservatives have been added to the meat being claimed by The Butchers as “Organic and Naturally raised”. It is a sure sign of artificial flavor added as well. Or has the meat been raised with antibiotics?
This is just one example of bad quality products from The Butchers. For other products and services I have not prepared a visual demonstration, but can add the following:
- Beef had almost the worst quality I have ever tried. It was sinewy and hard (cooked well as usual)
- Poor choice in the store on weekend at around noon
- No receipt provided!
It looks like a million dollars scam with current unfair support from WebPiggy who manipulates with comments on their discussion board by removing valuable truthful posts from the customers in order to conceal information about The Butchers and promote the scam.
Too many unnatural things are happening at The Butchers, don’t you think so?
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The “Last and Final” deal from The Butchers?!!
(April 12, 2011)
Unbelievable! Now on Buytopia with the “Final Deal“:
$99 for $400 Worth of Organically and Naturally Raised Meats from The Butchers – LAST DEAL FROM THE BUTCHERS
Is it really final? I hope this scam will end soon… Will anyone buy this deal from Buytopia.ca after all things happened with previous deals from The Butchers on other daily deal websites?
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Update: We have a report from one of the customers:
Where do The Butchers “Organic meats†come from?
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One more “Last Deal” at DealTicker
(April 15)
“The Butchers” deal on DealTicker with the same $99 for $400 deal. One more last deal?! Let me guess… Next one will be on…
$99 for $400 worth of Organic and Naturally Raised Meats and More from The Butchers (includes a $50 credit to use at soon to be launched Marlon’s Fish store) ($400 Value)
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Attention!
The Butchers website states that the deal on DealTicker is NOT valid!
However DealTicker still states the opposite and encouraging to buy more and more coupons:
What the heck is going on?! Just another promotion?
Here is the answer from DealTicker who sent an e-mail to subscribers very late:
…
It has come to our attention that The Butchers are turning away customers and refusing to honour vouchers purchased through our site.
This action has been taken unilaterally by The Butchers without consultation with or prior warning to DealTicker.
As a result of this conduct, we are obliged to discontinue this deal. We are currently in consultations with our legal team and are considering all legal remedies available against The Butchers.
…
We sincerely regret any inconvenience the actions of The Butchers may have caused.
…
DealTicker was knowingly running the not valid deal for almost entire day looking for profit. Moreover, they solely blame The Butchers for this. This is the worst thing the daily deals company could do. They wanted to sell thousands of deals in five days making tens or hundreds thousand dollar profit regardless of all the negative experience about redeeming earlier coupons shared in the Internet by coupons holders. Unfortunately DealTicker let their users down.
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The article in The Globe and Mail
You may find the original article here:
Ninety-nine bucks for $400 worth of organic meat. Seriously?
written by Tim Kiladze for Saturday’s Globe and Mail.
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Several interesting things in the writing caught my attention and I’d like to comment on them:
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1. Looks like The Butchers is very short on cash now, so they asked daily deal companies for a quicker payment plan.
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2. Marlon Pather and The Butchers are going to run more deals (maybe later).
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3. The author and editors of The Globe and Mail are not aware that Chemistry is indeed science. Here is a definition from Wikipedia for those who still in doubts: “Chemistry is the science of matter and the changes it undergoes”.
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They also claimed:
Then there’s the marketing potential. “What people don’t realize is every customer that’s come into my store, they write their e-mail address,†Mr. Pather says
Has anyone been requested to write e-mail address in store?
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Siesta at The Butchers every weekday!
The company made it almost absolutely impossible to redeem the coupons for people. The Butchers is closed now from 11:30am until 1pm during weekdays and does not accept vouchers on weekends.
For most of the customers lunch time is the only possible time to visit the store during a working day.
This is one more very serious change to the voucher conditions by The Butchers. “Keeping our standards”…
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What’s next with The Butchers? Re-branding!
Marlin’s Fish Shop, Marlons Butchery, Marlon’s Meat
Even if The Butchers goes under there is a good plan. But maybe it is the plan itself… who knows…
There can be only be one reason why this deal with DealTicker did not go through and that is $. The Butcher are already maximizing their potential by listing with a lot of groupbuy sites. They have sold excess of 15000 ‘vouchers’ so it is not a reason they can’t fulfill them because they have extended some listings based on popularity. Probably the commission % was not favorable as they gain experience when they dealt with new groupbuy sites. Either way something happened and the last minute The Butcher played hardball and didn’t get their way. DealTicker can probably vindicate themselves by showing the contract which they have signed. Has DealTicker listed a deal with ‘The Butcher’ before? I’m curious why ‘DealTicker’ would risk their reputation if the deal was not authorized. Companies that want to list on theses sites are dime a dozen, we have seen some unethical business practice from ‘The Butcher’, have we seen this from DealTicker? Who knows, I’m leaning on ‘The Butcher’ rescinding on their contract obligation. Their business model is not sustainable and it is obvious they cut corners on their product. I suspect they are lying through their teeth about organic products.
We’re also seeing a lot of useful comments removed from Chowhound while the shills are allowed to post.
People would be absolutely insane to buy a single advertised voucher for “Butchers” feature right now. The Butchers will be out of business inside of 6 months, and have litigation issues coming out of their wazoo! These last few deals are nothing but last attempt cash grabs….buyer beware!
now the butcher is differentiating between different group buying sites. webpiggy customers cannot redeem vouchers on weekeds whereas buytopia customers can! why wouldnt anyone who bought from webpiggy get a full refund and buy from buytopia since the deal at buytopia is better and can be used on weeekends. shame on webpiggy for not looking out for their customers!!!!!
Hi ylsf,
I bought all the meat in store including frozen sausages.
I saw an update on the butchers website that they were going to be closed during the day for filming. I don’t know what was the taping for.
I might have missed it, but, did you get your meat delivered or did you buy it in store? It is very weird how they sold you sausages like that.. Normally when product is sold frozen you would see it vacuum sealed…
What exactly was the taping for? Why are they doing so much “filming” and closing down their store?
Hi Joseph,
Yes, there is “The Butchers” deal on DealTicker again, but The Butchers claims that it is NOT valid. However DealTicker encourages people to buy vouchers. See an update to this post.
Will it be later today something like “The Butchers and DealTicker came to an agreement to provide the VERY last daily deal to the customers satisfaction”?
However, it would be the best if DealTicker will understand the situation around The Butchers and just cease this “deal”.
Thanks,
Trueler
I saw the dealticker ad today as well.. what should these guys do? pull the deal? don’t they have like signed contracts and stuff?
Interesting update to “The Butchers” massive deals:
Where do The Butchers “Organic meats†come from?
Thanks,
Trueler
Today’s new dealticker deal DOES have a discussion board:
http://www.dealticker.com/blog.php/product_id/1964
Hi James,
I’ve seen a lot of valuable comments removed by Webpiggy on their discussion forum. I saw yours as well :) Thanks! Respected daily deal sites should not behave in this way. It is unacceptable. Webpiggy does not care about customers at all thinking only about the profit. They already became a part of “The Butchers” scam.
Buytopia just removed discussion board link from the deal page. They wanted to save time on removing truthful comments with real customers experience. They disinformed people. Buytopia became a part of “The Butchers” scam also.
What will DealTicker do? Will they try to save their reputation by ceasing this deal after the feedback? Or will they continue to grab their honorarium of ~$50 (50%) per each deal and become a part of “The Butchers” scam?
Thanks,
Trueler
It’s funny that you updated mentioning the manipulation of comments on Webpiggy’s discussion site. I originally posted links to redflagdeals forums in the hopes of giving people a 2nd perspective on the deal before they went ahead and spent $100.. and it exploded an opinion war! Pretty sure there were some fake comments praising The Butchers made as well, not surprised.
When I posted the link to this blog on the discussion, it was removed stating that it was “unrelated to the deal” Ha! I reposted many times, this time with a question as they had stated, only to have it removed every time, and my account eventually deleted and my IP banned from Webpiggy.
Now the same deal is on Dealticker, minus a discussion page. http://www.dealticker.com/_99_for__400_worth_of_organic_and_naturally_raised_meats_and_more_from_the_butchers___400_value__en_1964prod.html
I just don’t see how they can sustain this level of demand they are getting through these $100 for $400 deals. The only thing to expect is a dramatic decrease in service, product availability, and quality…
@Anthony O.:
It was a good day at The Butchers yesterday since they were waiting for Buytopia visit and preparing for the show. Meat and sausages on the pictures are pretty appetizing :) I regret that I did not go there yesterday to buy some meat…
Regarding those posts. There are many wrong assumptions made by the author about the experiment. Just a couple of them to clarify:
– Sausages had been frozen by The Butchers, not by me. After thawing they produced more than 10% of water. They were stored in the same plastic bag provided by The Butchers. As author stated they were not properly handled by the store. Or even intentionally inflated with the water, because 50ml per pound of meat is too much
– I took sausages from the oven and left on a table for about 15-20 minutes, not 24 hours as author assumed. And again (as in my previous comment) “The fact that sausages from The Butchers unnaturally expanded in the oven and shrinked when removed tells that there are a lot of food additives to increase the weight and volume of the productâ€.
– etc…
One more interesting thing: “Sausages were a bit saltier than usualâ€. It is usually a sign of Sodium Nitrite (E250 food additive) presence in the meat which is used to preserve it.
@Comp: Thanks. But I don’t think it will do anything other than advertising The Butchers on TV or Radio.
@Julia: Weren’t they preparing for the filming and visit of Buytopia team yesterday by providing great quality as they promise?
@all4emma:
1) Isn’t Beretta Organics the place where The Butchers source their meat as daily deal sites claim? How can it be possible to re-sell the meat with more than 80% loss? I’m in doubt that any organic meat farm would sell their products to The Butchers with more than 90% discount even in bulk. Can anyone explain this phenomenon?
2) No. Quality veal sausages in natural casings do not pop. The fact that sausages from The Butchers unnaturally expanded in the oven and shrinked when removed tells that there are a lot of food additives to increase the weight and volume of the product. Does anyone want to pay $24/kg for water, starch and other additives in some unnatural casings (I’m afraid to guess what are they made from) thinking that they are organic, natural and of the superior quality?
So I’ve been following all the twitter chat on the deal, and it’s interesting to see the differences in opinion from people’s experiences with “the butchers”. Specifically there’s a blogger who decided to do his own experiment and offers a counter argument:
http://www.foodwithlegs.com/?p=2976
I’ve Emailed your blog to CBC news. Hopefully that does something.
Yesterday I used the first voucher .The meat was of great quality and delicious. Assortment was pretty good. So, decided to buy more coupons.
here are the prices for another well know organic meats operation in etobicoke…the Butchers prices are very at par to theirs:
http://www.berettaorganics.com/products/
the butchers prices:
http://www.thebutchersorganic.com/onlinepricelist.pdf
i would try one and see…the sausages you purchased look like veal ones…they always pop….they are not pork ;-)
Germany style veal.
Someone needs to start asking just where all the “organic” meat is coming from. they used to list the farms on their site, so it shouldn’t be a problem for them to say(and a customer to call the supplier to confirm).
To be fair, I used the first voucher a long time ago well before many thousands of deals sold on TeamSave and DealFind. The meat was of great quality and delicious. Assortment was pretty good. So, decided to buy more coupons. Recent experience of the next visit to “The Butchers” I described in the post. Things changed…
Someone may call it “Bait and Switch” deal. I called it a scam because “The Butchers” won customers confidence by providing the best quality before major deals happened. They used this confidence to promote further deals. Customers were leaving happy comments about great quality and service. It led to about 15,000 deals sold. It is obvious that it is not possible to fulfill all the orders without significant drop in quality and service. The Butchers knew about it but did not restrict the number of deals. They continued to promise the highest quality organic and naturally raised meats from Ontario farmers and exceptional customer service. But they do not deliver their promise for which customers paid. How should we call it? Trick, fraud, …?
After all the complaints and experience of the customers shared on RFD and here, I honestly hope that “The Butchers” will switch back to provide the best quality and exceptional service soon…
Thanks,
Trueler
I actually went to the Butchers earlier today, and I really had no complains.
The rib eye steak was great, and I can’t wait to devour my NY strip loin steak for tomorrow’s dinner.
I was worried to go there initially because of all the negative comments stated earlier, but honestly, aside from the less selections from when I initially went a month ago, there was nothing to complain about. Went there, bought the steaks, used the coupon from Dealfind, and that was it.
Honestly, for the $$$ that I paid, I had no regrets at all. Yes it was expensive ($25.99/lb for both the ribeye and NY strip loin steak) but that’s why I bought myself some coupons. Would I come back without the coupon? Maybe once in awhile for special occasions, but my point is, for the quality of meat that they offered (at least for the steaks, never tried other things there), I think it is a very good deal nonetheless.
That’s just my 2 cents.
You tell him Marlon!
Trueler’s note: This anonymous comment comes from someone registered on Dealathons (dealathons.com) internal e-mail system. It could be one of the merchants or Dealathons staff. I don’t see that their e-mail system is available for public registration. Are they going to run “The Butchers” deal soon? ;)
Original comment:
I would like to comment on all this hypcrisy coming out about The Butcher. What he (Marlon) is actually doing is marketing his business. Rather than pay thousands to Radio, Print & TV, he works with a deal site and only pays “discount” when he gets a customer. Now if you think it is better to spend $92,000 a month for a 4 Panel Wall at Bloor Station go ahead, but this is the new and proven best way to market your brand.
Unfortunately it is people without jobs like yourself who have nothing better to do than to watch meat de frost (does anyone realize your taking advice from a welfare bum?!?) Thank you to the butchers for the wonderful deal of the century, I have bought 13 coupons and used 6 and I have had the best quality meant I have ever tasted especially the sausages and bacon. So give it a rest shut your mouth and be great full you have an option to save money on meat wheras some people dont know where the next meal is coming from.
This is a shame! Stores claiming to be organic should be held accountable for what they sell. And I agree with others who say that $99 for $400 of “organic” meat is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE. Wake up people and smell the sausages. This store is selling you a dream or nightmare depending on how you see it. They can’t possibly be making a profit unless they’re selling something other than what they are advertising. CAVEAT EMPTOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
there should be a class action lawsuit against the butcher and webipiggy. there is no way the butcher is providing organic meat at 75% off and giving webpiggy another 50% of the total take. and webpiggy is very aware that the butcher is not organic!
Just to be fair Trueler, I did get the lamb and feta sausages there once and they were pretty good. Those sausages you got I think were the veal ones and I have seen them there. They look sickly and disgusting and I would never buy them, so I am not surprised you got wacky results. They had dozens of them there last time and only ground beef and chicken as usual but I settled for nothing and left. I drop by there all the time and they never have anything. I imagine it will be a few months before they get their stock up again.
Organic and naturally raised has such a wide spectrum of definition who knows what they REALLY are.
$21 for 8 sausages is still high – they look like what I would buy at Denningers in Oakville for much less $$.
As an aside – there is no excuse for a butcher to sell products labelled organic and natural (and charge the money it does)and not deliver. This is not acceptable and The Butchers should not be allowed to get away with this. My post was simply aimed at all the people who expect to get fresh meat at 75% off.
OMG people – give your heads a shake. That you expect to pay $55 for $175 (or even $99 for $400!) worth of meat just goes to show how greedy EVERYONE has become. Who in their right mind would offer up to 75% off of good quality food and still be able to make a living – and, keep in mind that WebPiggy and Dealfind are also making a profit. Offering ONE voucher per person at a reasonable discount (say, 20%?) would truly allow the store to get more business and and potentially build up a loyal customer base, however, these huge discounts, people buying up to 10 coupons and The Butchers offering this “deal” through multiple sites is nothing but a get rich quick scheme.
Canad and America are rich nations, but it amazes me how cheap we are when it comes to our food. We demand cheap food (processed crap), expect to pay next to nothing for fresh meat (not to mention “organic” and “natural”) and then we’re surprised that the sausages mentioned above are garbage? When we start paying attention to quality vs. quantity and stop trying to get something for nothing, then maybe every butcher shop will carry “natural” and “organic” meat products. Until then, you get what you pay for.
Hi Tee,
Yeah, it’s shocking… But actually it was two plastic bags of sausages (8 total) and they put label only on one bag.
Thanks,
Trueler
So I’ve actually bought the vouchers from Webpiggy (first deal) and Dealfind.
The first deal was a much lower value, and the prices were lower than they are now. However everyone is absolutely over-exagerating the price increase. It went up by less than (10%). I’m in the restaurant industry, and if you factor in the discount given by the butcher, the prices are on par with what the owner pays at our restaurant. So my take is that they are basically breaking even, with the hopes of creating buzz.
I had no problem redeeming the first voucher. Meat was great, and service was nothing to complain about. However after the dealfind deal the store was absolutely SLAMMED! I had to wait in line for 20 minutes to redeem the coupon. That being said, that is NOT a ridiculous amount of time. I did go at the end of the day, and the assortment of meat was much lower than the first time, basically chicken and a few steaks left. I wasn’t too impressed. After chatting with the owner/manager/butcher, they told me that if I wanted to be guaranteed an aged ribeye, I would have to place an order in advance. Obviously this is an inconvenience, but that being said, I completely understand that the business is overwhelmed and needs to adjust. So for the next voucher that I redeemed, I called two days in advance, and upon arrival was given a prepackaged order with what I asked for. The meat quality was not anything worse than what I buy at Costco, or Metro. Not sure what happened to everyone else, but I have been three times now and have not had anything outrageous happen. I completely understand that it’s not ideal to call ahead, but common, we’re buying 60%-80% off coupons, and clearly I’m not the only one bright enough to buy these.
What I find even more shocking is the price – $21 for 4 sausages?
I too, have had a TERRIBLE time with The Butchers since purchasing my vouchers.
The astroturfing by proponents of this store is ridiculous.
Hahaha, the deal is also on buytopia.ca today and they just pulled the ‘discussion’ link because of all the bad reviews.
This blog is awesome and 100% accurate as I have had all the same problems and experiences with my dealfind coupons. Really funny is the fact that they had many health code violations and a fine!
I agree with CaviarRyan. The quality is good and I have not noticed the problems that this blog is reporting. The selection and supply is a little low as there are so many people buying but this report seems a little over the top. It is not a scam.
Hi CaviarRyan,
When artificial flavors, preservatives, and other unnatural stuff is added to the product it may taste extremely good. Chemical food industry can work miracles. So by taste it is hard to say about quality of the product.
We want to buy “Organic and Naturally raised meats” from The Butchers, not the starch, water and other food additives. You may just search for “Iodine Test” or “Iodine Test Reaction” to get some knowledge. It won’t take too much of your time.
A lot of people already tried it… and many complaints shared.
I think quality of the meat is very important. But don’t forget about other points:
– Significantly changed conditions of the sold vouchers after “money back” period passed
– Some customers are unable to redeem vouchers due to closure for the weekends (new terms)
– Price labels are different from what is being actually charged when you buy (sometimes no price labels)
– Very poor assortment even in the beginning of the day
– Several weeks waiting for deliveries
– Some people are unable to place orders (The Butchers doesn’t respond)
– Missed items in prepared orders, because they are out of stock
– No receipts provided
– They continue to run more and more deals when they can’t handle existing customers with already purchased deals
It shows outrageous disrespect to people who initially trusted to The Butchers and purchased deals.
Thanks,
Trueler
Just a word of caution on this blog.
I’ve been shopping at the Butcher for a long time, and have NOT noticed a difference in the quality of the meat since the coupons started coming through. A decrease in supply on weekends, for sure, line-ups occassionaly, yes. but the rib-eye’s and striploins I’ve been buying have been outstanding over the last few weeks, just now I get them 60% Off.
And last time I was in line there were several repeat HAPPY customers looking forward to getting their local cuts as well.
I’m no expert on iodine or starch tests, but being in the gourmet food industry for the last 8 years I know when things taste good. The butchers was outstanding. I look forward to the opening of his fish shop accross the street.
I encourage people to go try it for themselves. You’re not going to get better aged beef anywhere else: Longo’s charges over $20 a pound, and it was so-so.
UNREAL!
Who is doing the auditing of this business!?
Wow, I am Shocked!
Won’t be purchasing from Webpiggy that’s for sure!
I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys go out of business and everyone looses their vouchers. :(
this is a definite scam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.moneyville.ca/article/967973–online-coupon-sites-keep-sprouting
Vanessa Lu, reporter for Toronto Star, should be contacted. Consumers look to her columns for guidance and trust her advice. If she hasn’t looked into The Butchers & Webpiggy after all this stink across Canadian forums then she?s not fit to write for Toronto Star.
thanks for covering this. it seems like only the bloggers are picking this up. where are the mainstream journalists? oh right, writing stories about how great the store is: http://www.thestar.com/iphone/Business/article/967973
it upsets me so much that people who are trying to eat ethically are being screwed over.
i’ve written about it on my blog too: http://www.k4t3.org/2011/04/02/the-dark-side-of-online-group-coupons/
i’m adding a link to yours.
Thank you for taking the time to post this! It was very helpful & I’m SO glad I didn’t go in on this deal (or the ones before).
Shame on Webpiggy especially for contributing to this SCAM!
Thanks for sharing this – I was looking at this deal on the weekend and thought that it was really too good to be true. Absolutely awful, eh?
I have made a complaint to the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.
You should probably report this to the city agency in charge of this stuff. And encourage other people to file complaints.
http://app.toronto.ca/food2/index.jsp
(Trueler’s note: broken website link corrected. You need to specify “The Butchers” in “Search an establishment” field)