$4 a pound lobster is not fleeting; it is a regular 5-6 month long price around Boston, in supermarkets and at the docks where lobster boats are found.
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By travel gourmet
"That is an exaggeration. Even during the cheapest time of year, $4 is pretty rare. And it will usually only be for chix. A more normal "good" price in Boston will be around $7 or $8."
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Think what you wish, but we regularly eat lobster for that price from May through the fall. Yes, chix (chicken lobsters, about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs each), but we prefer them to the larger ones. So we eat two each!

A normal "good" price for the restaurant twin lobster deal is $14.

As others have said, James Hook is a great bet for a quality, fresh, lobster roll and I always enjoy it. I would definitely put that up top on my list and then I would go with the "Why aim for one?" approach. Enjoy a good one for Jame Hook and then be open to others you come across. Most of the best, freshest lobster rolls in MA are not found in large restaurants but in more casual, hole-in-the-wall places, in my opinion. I live on the south shore and this holds true down here for sure.

As for the great $4/;b debate. Yes, occasionally, once in a while, a supermarket chain will offer lobster for $4 per pound as a weekly special. This is especially noticed during holidays like the 4th of July and Labor Day. However, they usually are chix only, often soft-shelled, and frequently they are from Canada. Supermarket chains and large restaurants can get lobsters from Canada much cheaper than those caught in the US so you see them often.It is a practice, I can tell you, that infuriates my friends who work on the local lobster boats. Typically lobster anywhere will be at least $7 per pound, especially if it is from MA or Maine.

Right now, it is February. The temperature last weekend was minus 9 degrees F, a brutally cold, difficult time to be working on the water. Not many people do. Lobster prices today were $9 per pound (hard shell, pound and a hall, at the supermarket, and slightly less at the fish market). So you would contend that when the weather is better come May, literally everybody and their brother is putting out traps, the competition is fierce, and there is almost a glut of lobster being caught, that the price only goes down a mere $1.00 or so??? That is not even logical.
(Btw My experience is that the price goes UP from the normal $4/lb only at the holidays you mentioned, though, not down.)
In light of all the blahblahblah, I'd be happy to inform the OP by private message where to guarantee the prices/food I mentioned. As for the rest of you unbelievers, I'll be contentedly eating my $4/lb lobsters all season; and you guys can go haul traps.
:-)

Just to be factual, lobster boats work year round. We have several down the road from me, friends who work on them, and they fish all through the winter. They actually catch more in winter since the lobster move to deeper waters where they can put more traps.

"In light of all the blahblahblah, I'd be happy to inform the OP by private message where to guarantee the prices/food I mentioned. As for the rest of you unbelievers, I'll be contentedly eating my $4/lb lobsters all season; and you guys can go haul traps. "

WOW, do you treat friends and family the same way you treat strangers on an internet forum that don't agree with you? And how pray tell is the OP supposed to private message you for your hidden information? You ignored my questions, so I guess I'm not worthy.

I'm bettin you got those cheap waterlogged soft shelled lobsters from Market Basket as they run specials to draw you in. My experience is like Shandy1977's. BigY, Stop and Shop, Hannifords often have holiday weekend blowout sales on Lobster and steamers and littlenecks.

However it wasn't too many years ago when lobster prices skyrocketed as lobstermen were spending more money on gas and pulling up empty traps due to over fishing seasons before. Lobster coops in Maine and Rhode Island suffered significantly.

Maybe you'll see some more $4 lobsters this summer, but with the Canadian dollar the way it is, and El Nino, who knows how much they will be importing and how it will effect the local prices.

The way I treat strangers who don't agree with me? More like how strangers who don't know me, period, or who I know, or where I shop, still have the nerve to tell me I don't do what I state or go where I go or buy what I buy. Well, maybe next you'd like to tell me what I don't pay for my gym membership and critique the quality of the amenities and the size of the facility. Or maybe tell me what I don't pay for my mortgage, comment on the interest rate, and bad mouth the neighborhood.

Enjoy your lobster.

If you do a deconstruction of Luke Lobster's roll there are about 3-4 ozs. of lobster. According to their site a lobster roll is 380 calories. The average frankfurter bun is 250 calories. And lobster with butter is about 67 calories per ounce.

So even you are generous and cut the calories of the bun in 1/2, that still gives you a max of 4 oz lobster for $17. That ladies and gents means including all ingredients come to over $4 an ounce.

And of course he buys in bulk.

While not in the category of perfume, diamonds, or oil before the crash, still makes for a remarkable profit.

Loster prices argued about above are for whole lobsters - not lobster meat.

<I>More like how strangers who don't know me, period, or who I know, or where I shop</I>

1) You were given the chance to tell us where to find these bargains yet refused.

2) There are several of us that live in New England and, accordingly, have more than a passing familiarity with the retail market for lobster. The rest of us are in near unanimity that $4 is the exception, not the rule.

There are phrases that are common on other forums (non-travel) that we should adopt on Fodor's.

IIRC = If I Recall Correctly. Often we don't. See research by Kahneman and Tversky. It Got a Nobel Prize.

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary. All information is local at some level of granularity. Be humble.

The lobster business, like all shellfisheries, is a very complex business. Very little of that complexity is reflected in this discussion. For example, someone I know in the fish business regularly both buys and sells lobsters at/to James Hook depending on where the supply and demand are at the time. It is not impossible, lobsters being fungible, for the same lobster to be flown to Hook this week and back from Hook next week.

Nothing here talks about lobster cars and lobster pounds as a way of leveling supply and demand over the course of a year.

What Shandy1977 writes has the ring of truth as far as it goes, and that's far enough.

If we want to argue, we could talk about (1) whether a real lobster roll can be served on a sub roll (2) whether the roll itself must be grilled before adding the lobster (3) whether a lobster roll with buttered lobster is a real lobster roll (4) whether a real lobster roll contains anything except lobster, mayonnaise, and a piece of limp lettuce and (4a) if celery or onion are admitted, how tiny a proportion of the whole should it be (4b) what should be done to chefs who add herbs?

YMMV

<I>If we want to argue, we could talk about (1) whether a real lobster roll can be served on a sub roll (2) whether the roll itself must be grilled before adding the lobster</I>

There is actually no debate on either topic. Any lobster sandwich on anything other than a top sliced hot dog bun is a lobster "roll", at best. And of course the roll must be grilled - we aren't savages.

You are wrong travel gourmet. LOL

It must be a top split roll but it must be butter griddled not grilled!!! No lettuce, no onion, no celery, no fillers just fresh shucked lobster chilled with a dab of tomalley infused Hellman's mayo.

Of course if you want to go rogue there is always Alive and Kicking's Lobster Sandwich on toasted buttered scali bread.

The key is the counterbalance of warm buttered bread and cool lobster. And with mayo a little dab will do you. Never a dollop.