Food Auction Popularity Rising Amid Recession SAINT LEONARD, MD (wypr) - It's late afternoon at the Chesapeake Auction House in St. Leonard, a small town in southern Maryland. There are about a hundred people sitting in folding chairs in a huge hall. All eyes are on Larry Forman, the auctioneer at the front of the room.

"What is this? Cocktail hot dogs! Little mini hot dogs! Ten pounds! Ten pounds! Pork and beef "

Bidding is underway on a ten-pound box of cocktail wieners. The food being sold here today all has something in common it's either on the cusp of expiring, the packaging is damaged or distributors just have too much of it in stock. Whatever the case, Larry's wife -- Kay Forman-- says people are here for deals.

"They come to buy. A lot of our auctions, they come to see what prices are. It's more meeting your friends, having a good time out. But this is a serious auction. Everybody needs to eat."

And, preferably, for less than they'd pay at the grocery store. One question that comes up all the time: What do you do with, say, 10 pounds of cocktail wieners? Michelle Ekis is here with her husband Jay. They paid ten dollars for all of those little hot dogs.

"We're going to have a party. And we're going to put them in the crock pot with barbecue sauce and people love it."

With the increase in some food prices last year and now the recession, business has been booming at food auctions. Richard Betz is the middleman here buying up the food to be sold. He's been supplying auctions in four states for the last ten years and has noticed the change.

"The places where it used to be a full house are now standing-room-only. People, when they get their gas electric bills, their health insurance bills -- they get laid off -- they look for a way to try and save a buck. And they have to eat."

Up for bid things like 15-pound boxes of bacon, 24-bottle crates of soda and huge containers of vegetable oil. Betz recently bought 20-thousand pounds of ham from a wholesaler.

"Don't tell anybody, but we're going to have hams galore."
Richards: "How many?"
Betz: "Probably about 500. I hate hams. Ha! It's all good. We have everything you can imagine."

The key to a deal here... knowing the price of the food you're bidding on. Doug Hendrix is buying four of his eight kids drinks at the concession stand while his wife watches the bidding. He points out that the new popularity of food auctions has a down side.

"Well, my wife was in there saying that this is a bigger crowd than normal and that the bids are getting higher than she's seen in the past, because she's saying it's because there are more people here who aren't as experienced with auctioning."

Still, Hendrix says they'll buy enough meat here to hold them for several weeks. At the last auction three months ago, they bought ten, ten-pound corn beef briskets. That's a lot of beef.

"My wife's a very good cook. So, she knows how to make it not the same every time. So, it turns out okay."

Knowing that you got the brisket for cheap doesn't hurt, either.

I'm Sarah Richards, reporting in St. Leonard, for 88-1 WYPR.
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