Why is lunchmeat so expensive?!

Lunch meat is very processed. Fresh meat is just killed at the packing plant, cleaned, cut up, packaged and shipped to the supermarket. Lunch meat is made up of meats that don't necessarily make it to the fresh meat counter (carcass too big, lack of marbling, etc). They're shipped to another plant, processed, seasoned, packaged and then shipped to the supermarket. They take more time and work to produce than fresh meat. But they are a sort of byproduct of fresh meat, so they don't cost as much as fresh meat.

A main food staple for cattle feed is corn. Corn prices are way up (ethanol), so it costs more to finish a cow in the feedlot. Gasoline prices are going up again, so putting in that corn crop is more costly, as is transporting live cattle and meat. Live cattle prices are up, so beef prices are going up, in part, because the US cow herd is the smallest in many years. There simply aren't a lot of cows out on the range having calves. And partly because demand is up, especially international demand. We're shipping a lot more of our beef out of the US. And because of the demand, ranchers are sending their heifers (young females) to the feedlot instead of retaining them to increase their cow herd size.

It's because it's processed. The corporation already did all the work for you to make it into lunchmeat. I agree with whomever said to just buy cuts of meat and slice it up yourself for sandwiches. Like we just made a pot roast yesterday, so my husband will be getting pot roast sandwiches tomorrow.

depends on the meat, and where you get it

the best way to get inexpensive lunchmeat is making it yourself

you can get a roast for about $2.00 per pound on sale.... roast it, and then slice it thin, you will have roast beef. most pre-cooked roast beef near me is about $6+ per 8 ounce serving... so thats $12 a pound.

the economy is **** thats why
It's five buck for a jar of mayonnaise even though i don't like it

have tuna,or have like a salad:D