I don't know the answer to your question but things in the mean industry certainly seemed to have changed.
I called a butcher shop yesterday to see if they had any ham or soup bones and was told no. When I asked if they knew of any that did he said probably not except for one place aways out of town that still butchered - because the meat industry is now all about pre-packaging and distribution. He said for him to get soup or ham bones he had to order them by crates of boxes.
The only place I can find a ham bone is Heavenly Ham and that's a drive. One grocery store has neck bones because of an Asian pop but that's it.
I also think that some of my standard brand sausages etc. have had their quality go down instead of increasing their prices.

marys1000 - thanks for the reply even if you can't answer my specific question.

I guess we all have the same problem with bones etc. due to the disappearance of small pork butcher/smokehouses. Seems that a "butcher" mostly doesn't exist anymore. Also, as you say, butchering has mostly moved from supermarkets to industry centers.

I'm in Connecticut, but I know more about northern New Jersey where they long ago created local ordinances requiring stainless steel walls, ceilings, and specific floors for small local meat processors and smokehouses. These were probably good ideas, but also somewhat aimed at eliminating smoke houses. That's when my pork butcher had to shut down.

I'm surprised and disappointed though, that you're in the midwest and the heart of hog country (isn't it?) and even there, you don't have a pork butcher.

For soup I've gone to smoked pork hocks, which oddly, are still in local supermarkets. Don't you have these?

In Radburn, New Jersey there is still one great place, the Swiss Pork Store, which still has a smokehouse license and still makes everything: hams, bacon, hot dogs, German sausage types, the works. They have fabulous smoked pork butts, big ones. Only problem is, I'm no longer close enough to go very often - used to go every Saturday. Another problem is that you don't see any younger people behind the counter, so who knows about their future.

I agree about standard brands sausages.

We can "thank" Wally World for the lack of real butchers. They were the ones who started the pre-packaged distribution that has made real butchers nearly obsolete.

IMO, it's a combination of several things going on with "smoked" meats -- a litigious society who will sue at the drop of a hat, an industry that cuts corners, a public that wants fast and cheap more than they want good, and a demise of craftsmen. Cargill or Excell isn't going to take the time or effort to smoke anything the old-fashioned way. They'll duplicate the flavor as quickly and cheaply as they can, often with chemical additives. And since a very few companies produce the majority of the food, we either eat what they produce or go out of our way to find the real thing at much higher prices from someone who is willing to do it the old-fashioned way.

Yea I can't get with the whole hock thing, they just look gross.
Yep, midwest farm country here. There is the place on the far northwest side of town. The family back aways was some sort of religious sect, not amish but along those lines,and they still butcher twice a week.
There may be a butcher closer that has somethings I haven't checked them out yet. But as you can see I'm really having to look. Dayton is farm country (not Iowa though which is pork central) but didn't have that ethnic european immigration thing so I find the food shopping a little lacking in general cuz thats what I was raised with.