Those "cheap ribeye" Facebook ads around the 4th are a scam. I fell for it.
Posting this so nobody else wastes their money like I just did.
I saw a Facebook ad for a ribeye deal that looked too good to pass up. Showed up expecting to grab some cheap steaks and leave. What I walked into was a full sales trap.
First, they make you wait. A long time. By the time you get to the front you've already stood there 30+ minutes, so you're not about to walk away empty handed. That's on purpose.
The "deal" from the ad? It's like 20 tiny pieces of steak, nothing close to what the ad made it look like. That's just the bait to get you there. Once you're at the table, the real pitch starts. The guy pulls out a big box, around 15 lbs of assorted cuts, Porterhouse, ribeye, all of it frozen, and quotes you something like $450+. Then he "throws in" a free box of chicken or frozen seafood so it feels like a steal.
Here's the part that got me. They never tell you the price until the very end, after you've waited forever and there's a line of impatient people behind you. You feel like a jerk holding everyone up, so you make a snap decision. The second you say yes, another guy grabs your box and walks it straight to your car. No standing around, no chance to talk to other customers, no time to think. You're gone before it hits you what just happened.
The whole thing is engineered. The wait, the pressure, the hidden price, the fake freebie, the escort to your car. None of it is an accident.
Red flags if you run into this:
- A price that only shows up after a long wait
- "Free" add-ons that make a huge number sound reasonable
- Someone rushing you to decide with a line watching
- Getting walked to your car so you can't compare notes with anyone
If you see the ad, just skip it. Buy your 4th of July steaks from a real store or a butcher you trust.