While Calgary grocery shoppers are racking up turkeys and hams over the Thanksgiving long weekend, 660News wanted to know whether they had any current “beefs”—with tainted beef; The opinions from the street are wide ranging.

Food store customer Heather tells 660News she has no plans to give up on the meat she’s always served her family.

“Both my husband and I were raised on it “Old-Country” [style] and it was always meat and potatoes,” she says, adding that during the 1980s she was an office worker at the now-closed Burns meat plant.

She recalls it being a company that did its due diligence with respect to sanitation practices, and notes she’s very disappointed in XL Foods, the company at the centre of the Alberta beef scare.

“There should be some serious consequences,” says Heather. “I guess I wonder when they say they’ve passed inspections; I need to know who the inspectors are, and why they’re not doing their job better.”

But Ladislav and Arlene Zevnik who did their Thanksgiving ham shopping a few weeks back say they have zero intention of backing beef until the health scandal has been resolved.

Ladislav says he prefers his beef medium rare and in the meantime he’ll opt for beef substitutes.

“We’ve got goose and duck in the fridge,” he quips.

Arlene, a retired executive chef is clearly playing the caution card.

“They say if you cook [beef] really, really well you can kill the e-coli. [But] we’re not taking any chances.  I have more degrees in food sanitation so we’re really careful because we know where it can go.”

Arlene says she’s particularly concerned about children and their potential to die from tainted beef e-coli-related illness.

“It’s really sad…when I see people buying ham right now I think, ‘what are you doing?’ “