Chuck or "stew" beef labeled in the super market

"Stew beef" is slightly cheaper than buying a whole roast and cutting it up, because the stew beef is made up of bits and pieces that were left over after the prettier roasts had been carved.

If it's not to your taste, spring for a whole roast and cut it up yourself.

WARNING: Fat content in meat that is supposed to be cooked for a long time is a good thing. Keeps the meat from drying out. It's more efficient to simply cook the stew in advance, and then skim the rendered fat off the top, before you reheat it.

Generally speaking, fat in your beef is considered a good thing, as it carries a lot of flavor. The "laced inside and out" you mention in a comment is called "marbling" and again, it's generally sought after. I suspect some of the reaction you're getting is because you're rejecting meat that sounds pretty good to many of us, and rejecting it for the reason we think it sounds good.

As others have said, if you find it too fatty, trim what you can and make your stew, let it sit off the heat for a while, and then skim off the excess fat. You can also put the stew in the refrigerator overnight and just lift off the hardened fat in the morning.

Finally, if you really want beef stew meat that's lean, you need to stay away from cuts from the shoulder/chuck area. Stick with meat from the round (top round or bottom round), which tends to be much leaner. If you can't tell from the package of stew meat where it's from, then you'll need to buy a roast or other cut from the round and cut it up yourself.

Not much of a question here, more of a rant. However, here is what I do to avoid all of this fatty stew beef...

Buy the chuck roast whole (I perfer the one with the '7' shped bone in it) and manually trim the outside fat and any other huge fat pockets when you dice it. When you go to brown it you have alreay reduced the fat so it should come out better.

If doing a little bit of butchering of your beef is too much for you I do believe they sell beef pot roast in cans.

I think maybe you don't recognize what is in the pot and you're just assuming it's fat. First of all, cooking any cut of beef will produce a fairly good amount of water. But when you say the entire pot is full of fat and meat with no liquid, I suspect that what you're seeing is not fat at all but gelatin, which is a natural product of cooking any kind of meat, just as water is. The more skin and bones you have in the pot, the more gelatin you will get, but you will get some even if you're cooking boneless skinless meat and poultry. If it's the consistency of jello, it's gelatin and is harmless. If you're using meat that truly appears as the meat in the photo you posted, I assure you, you are NOT getting a pot full of fat. Next time, put it in the fridge overnight before eating it - I would be very surprised if you were able to skim off all but a tiny amount of fat.

I would suggest manually removing as much fat as possible before browning the meat.