‘You’re gonna have to go to the butcher and ask for it’: Costco shopper exposes ribeye hack that can save you $1.50 a pound. But is it worth it?

A shopper claims that if you bypass the meat counter for the butcher's station at Costco, you can find an incredible deal on ribeye steaks—provided you're willing to cut them yourself.

The advice comes from lifestyle creator Opie (@opie_petsitting). The TikTok got more than 571,000 views as of Sunday.

"If you like ribeyes, this is the hack," she states. Then she lays out what Costco customers need to do.

"So instead of going to Costco and buying a case of like, the four of them, or whatever, get yourself the big one, the big 20-pound," she advises. "You're gonna have to go to the butcher and ask for it. But it comes in a big, giant brick of meat, and then you just slice them yourselves."

Opie does some math for the benefit of the viewers. "This was a 20-pound ribeye roll for $257, but it works out that you'll save approximately $1.50 per pound by buying the big quantity of it," she says.

The TikToker shares that they got 11 one-pound steaks out of it. This doesn't quite account for where the other nine pounds went.

Is this really saving a lot?

If the full 20 pounds of meat is usable—and a shirtless man in the video with Opie cutting meat next to her is showing trimming some fat off the steaks—that should work out to $12.85 a pound. But if it's really just 11 pounds worth of usable ribeye for $257, that's a less economic $23.36 per pound.

On the Costco website Sunday morning, the big box store was offering a package of 14 ribeye steaks, cut at 12 ounces each and 10.5 pounds total, for $249.99. Per Costco, that worked out to be $23.81 per pound.

Opie's not the first to make this claim. A Redditor took to the r/carnivorediet forum two years ago to encourage the practice. They wrote, "All you have to do is take the whole roast and slice it into steaks and trim it a bit. You save money on labor, you get to keep the trimmings, and you get to choose how thick they are cut."

"I can’t afford 25-30 dollars per ribeye, but I can afford 100 for a roast I cut into 10+ ribeyes," said another who agreed with the original poster.

Still, some skepticism

Not everyone agreed with Opie's math, her assertion of savings, or her video co-star's trimming skills.

"So you spent $23 a steak," one assessed. "You didn't save money."

"It’s not that much difference," sniffed another. "Rather buy in small quantity but always fresh."

"Why is he trimming off all the tastiest parts?!?!?!" another queried. "The butcher will slice it for you and price is the same."

Opie had a ready explanation.

"He’s putting me on a diet," she said. "I was already complaining last week about the sirloins and told him i wanted Ribeyes, so I guess the compromise is I get heavily trimmed ribeyes now."

@opie_petsitting #ribeye #steak #costco #costcohack #groceryhaul ♬ original sound - Opie | UGC & PETSITTER

The Daily Dot has reached out to Opie via TikTok direct message and Costco via online website form.

Internet culture is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email. Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here. You’ll get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.

Sign up to receive the Daily Dot’s Internet Insider newsletter for urgent news from the frontline of online.

The post ‘You’re gonna have to go to the butcher and ask for it’: Costco shopper exposes ribeye hack that can save you $1.50 a pound. But is it worth it? appeared first on The Daily Dot.