This stuff just amazes me. I was aT Hy-Vee the other day and noticed hardwoods in their BBQ section for smoking and cooking on and whatnot. About $5 a pound. Holy cows! Think how much you'd pay for a cord of these chunks. Makes me glad that I make my own. Also makes me consider going into business!
Can't see why you couldn't sell some chips and chunks if you got them. Used onion bags and sell them at farm stands and grocery stores?
Convenience. Same reason for the $7 a bundle campfire wood. Fred Meyer here actually trucks in those bundles from Texass and Utah instead of buying local.
Back in mid '80's there was a decent restaurant in a suburb north of me that grilled most of their steaks,burgers,pork chops etc over an open pit fueled by long dead mesquite chunks.Mostly golfball to fist sized chunks.When they closed a few years later they placed an ad in local paper selling the wood still in 100lb burlap sacks for something like 20 cents a pound. That was below wholesale,even for back then. Dad & 1 bought 3 bags,I still have probably 100-120 lbs of it left.I do like it for certain things,a nice fat rib eye or porterhouse for example. But with the price of beef (still climbing) its been a while since I had anything like that. Fareway has their nice little 80z bacon wrapped sirloins for 2 for $7 here most of the past few months.I can remember not long ago when they were 2 for $5 any time of the year.Unless its a cold winter day or I'm extra hungry I can normally get 2 meals out of those 8oz chunks,with a couple side dishes.In hot weather I don't eat near as much,especially with getting older now.
At Fareway today I noticed a bag of small hickory splits,7 of them about 10" long,maybe 4-5 pounds max.For $12.99!!! At those prices (even if they bought them from the wood cutter/seller at $5 per bag,this hickory snag I dropped last Saturday (still needs bucked/split/hauled a few hundred feet to processing area & stacked) is worth a couple grand easily!!!
Havent tried Aldi's steaks yet,really like the loinback ribs & pork steak they had about a month ago.I'll check them out over the weekend.
I'm guessing the wood is heat treated. Its just frustrating to see it though when it could be purchased locally. Sounds like you guys have pretty cheap steak. Sirloin runs around )$12 a lb here. Hamburger is around $5/lb