JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Consumers have some serious beef with the rising price of red meat.
"It's just bad, bad, bad," said shopper James Richburg.
Price tags creeping up 20-30% in the past year are forcing Jacksonville customers like Richburg to find something else for dinner.
"I love it, but the price is getting too high," he said.
Meat markets like Harold's Meat Market on the Northside of Jacksonville say they may be forced to make changes to the way they do business if things don't change.
"People tend to slow down a little bit and sometimes we have to cut back a little bit," said butcher Tony Nelson.
Nelson says the growing price of beef has to do with the growing price of cattle feed, and the rising cost to ship cattle thanks to pumped-up prices of gas, and herds that have been snowed in over the winter. He says he's not too concerned just yet because he's seen a fair share of fluctuation in the meat market throughout his career.
"It's going to go up, it's going to come down," he said.
Still Nelson says he hopes prices come down sooner than predicted. Butchers expect prices to peak by summer and come down again next winter.
