I always get my briskets from my s.i.l. Who is a cattle rancher so I was surprised to see them at $9.00 per lb at our local store. Is this a good price?
Not if those are US dollars. Costco (in Hawaii) sells prime packers for $3 per pound. About 1/3 of that is fat so your "trimmed cost" is about $4 per pound.
Other places run higher (up to $5 or so for packers). Flats generally run about 40-50% higher than packers and you can rarely find points (I guess most of them go to corned beef or something else).
That is high, even for my area. In my area the average price for a whole packer is around $4.50/lb. for choiced, but I've seen Angus close to $8.00/lb.. Walmart sells choice whole packers for $2.69/lb. but they are almost mostly fat. Costco generally doesn't sell briskets in my area. In a couple of weeks I'll be going to Restaurant Depot to see what their prices are.
Yes this in Canadian dollars which is worth 75 cents in your money. I was in a A1 grocery store in Columbia Falls Mt. And looked at one in the meat cooler. It appeared to be about four lbs. and the price was over $48.00 total. It may have corned but said brisket on label.
Corned beef meat is generally pinkish with beige-yellowish fat and doesn't look like raw beef (redder meat and white fat). What you saw was probably a piece of flat - the most expensive way to buy raw brisket. Most folks who want to smoke brisket buy a Choice- or Prime-grade packer (raw flat and point still attached) and trim it themselves.
Check out the posts by WTS and Pachanga (here (https://web.archive.org/web/20151005013445/http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?525-WTS-Brisket) and here (https://web.archive.org/web/20151005020920/http://www.susanminor.org/forums/showthread.php?532-Brisket-Pachanga)) for trimming and smoking basics.