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[Caz]

there's like 8 supermarkets within walking distance here. 5 within a 10-min walk.

Some have better deals on certain things than others. It's all pretty stupid-cheap unless you go to Tesco or sth though. Fuck tesco.


edit: cheap as in £20/week for food per person i guess. i think food in the states may be cheaper.

[Frumple]

*vague shrug* Least in the area I'm in, normal price for low-end is 10-15 cent/ounce, fairly unilaterally -- more than that is what I start considering luxury food, in any case. Bit higher for certain things (meat and cheese, in particular, that I regularly notice), but you're still usually looking at only a ten cent or so uptick for those at most for your low-end pricing. Cheese is probably the most expensive per unit thing I buy regularly and, while it's definitely been going up over the last year or two, it's still only 24c/oz for the cheap stuff (though that's, like, 10+ USD in one go, lasting several weeks. Smaller quantities are substantially more expensive.). You can expect about a 150% increase in more urban areas, from what I've seen, though I can't really comment on regional differences -- most of my comparison points have just been between north and central-ish (Tampa area) florida, but I haven't heard anything terribly out of line in passing regarding other places.

... someone else would have to do the metric conversion. It's entirely too late for me to be messing with that. Does sound a bit less expensive here, though. Not incredibly so, but notably.

[i2amroy]

...is that not just half of the state?

The desert thing was more for the benefit of those souls who don't have to suffer through the madness of Arizona weather than us Arizonites.

[Frumple]

It's the across the street bit that causes it. Shops on different sides of the roads get different amounts of customers at different times of the day and whatnot -- which side of the road they're on has a fairly significant effect on who walks in the door. It's not just competition (in fact, it often isn't competition -- it's incredibly far from uncommon for stores like that to have "understandings" in regards to pricing) that has businesses do that. They're just trying to milk the most out of the customer base they can.

The telling bit is that both stores tend to stay open. If there was substantial competitiveness going on, you'd expect one or the other to go out of business, eventually, but you usually see arrangements like that last fairly indefinitely, in my experience.

[LordBucket]

in the area I'm in, normal price for low-end is 10-15 cent/ounce, fairly unilaterally

It's 17-25 for most things in Orange County. Very little over 35.

For those who have no idea what we're talking about, grocery stores in the US put price per ounce on price tags in fine print beneath the unit price. Simplifies the decision of whether to buy the big or small container.

Seriously, do they really need to put two gas stations across the street from each other at an intersection? Or have two, more-or-less-priced-identically grocery stores across the street from one-another?

Attend a franchise seminar sometime. It's official policy for many franchises to deliberately place their stores next to their competitors. Sometimes it's to take away their business as part of a global strategy. Sometimes it's simple cost savings. Franchise locations require approval from corporate. If you buy a McDonad's franchise, for example, you don't have free reign over where you put it. Corporate spends a lot of time and money researching where they think the best locations are, and their competitors know this. So Burger King, for example, saves that time and research money by simply building next to McDonald's. Because they know every McDonald's location is in a good place for a fast food restaurant.

Most consumers don't care. They decide that they want McDonald's or they decide they want to Burger King, and they go to the closest one. Driving around, seeing both, and then choosing one over the other is infrequent. The franchises know this.

But I don't know how to explain things like this: go to the Del taco store locator and type in Lake Forest, Ca. You'll find two stores .03 miles away from each other:



Both those stores have been there for 20+ years. And they apparently both do very well. Same exact franchise 200 feet away from each other. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess they're probably even both owned by the same guy. A lot of franchisees try to control areas. It simplifies their marketing.

[smeeprocket]

there's like 8 supermarkets within walking distance here. 5 within a 10-min walk.

Some have better deals on certain things than others. It's all pretty stupid-cheap unless you go to Tesco or sth though. Fuck tesco.


edit: cheap as in £20/week for food per person i guess. i think food in the states may be cheaper.

no, it's not. Not unless you buy nothing fresh, possibly buy in bulk like Sams or Costco (which you have to pay a membership for,,but you do ultimately save money)

Actually 20 pounds is like $40 so maybe. Still at $40 or less a week, the quality of the food you get is going to be terrible.

I tend to get bags of beans and rice (sometimes I spring for pricey rice that had wild mixed in or flaxseeds if I have spare grocery money) potatoes, onions, stuff that lasts for awhile and that you can make a lot of food with.

[Caz]

Still at $40 or less a week, the quality of the food you get is going to be terrible.

what do you mean? like street market stuff?

[Frumple]

... street markets don't really exist in most of the US, Caz, at least insofar as I'm aware. The stuff closest to them generally have pretty high quality foodstuffs (usually local grown or something close to it), though. You'll occasionally get someone parked on the side of the road with a pickup truck or somethin' full of veggies selling out the back, but that's probably the nearest equivalent. Beyond that's tiny farmer's markets and whatnot sprinkled around. Nothing like... street vendors or anything. Probably get some in the very largest cities, but most of the ones I've seen that sort of thing just... isn't there.

[smeeprocket]

hmm trying to think what a street market place would entail. Yea there are farmer's markets but that's mostly a suburban thing, you won't see that in poorer areas.

Sometimes I see people on the side of the road selling watermelons or corn or oranges.

Most grocery shopping if you are poor is done in places like wal mart, which pay starvation wages to employees and end up making them use govt assistance themselves, and then most of the money used to purchase food there doesn't go back into the local economy, but back into a large corporation and the pockets of the higher ups.

A wal mart coming to your area means a small chunk of very low quality jobs (that might allow you to get welfare, since you will have something for a job, if you have a family) and a net loss for the local economy.

[Caz]

... street markets don't really exist in most of the US, Caz, at least insofar as I'm aware. The stuff closest to them generally have pretty high quality foodstuffs (usually local grown or something close to it), though. You'll occasionally get someone parked on the side of the road with a pickup truck or somethin' full of veggies selling out the back, but that's probably the nearest equivalent. Beyond that's tiny farmer's markets and whatnot sprinkled around. Nothing like... street vendors or anything. Probably get some in the very largest cities, but most of the ones I've seen that sort of thing just... isn't there.

I guess it's different since everything is so spaced out over there.

hmm trying to think what a street market place would entail. Yea there are farmer's markets but that's mostly a suburban thing, you won't see that in poorer areas.

Usually with some cockney seller speaking unintelligible gibberish about the price of tomatoes.

[smeeprocket]

I bet you get to haggle for that stuff too. heh.

That might exist in large cities maybe. I have never seen anything that extensive where I have lived. Even the farmer's market is fairly small in my parents' town. And it's only open one or two days a week.

[Caz]

I bet you get to haggle for that stuff too. heh.

That might exist in large cities maybe. I have never seen anything that extensive where I have lived. Even the farmer's market is fairly small in my parents' town. And it's only open one or two days a week.

Yeah, sometimes. Markets are pretty ubiquitous around here, most small towns have them. Mostly it's fruit+veg stands, butchers, fish mongers, random furniture, trinkets and the rest filled up by car boot sales. Always with someone selling dodgy fags at the entrance.

They seem to be dying a death though. The markets get smaller every year, probably because they're crap. Everyone likes the fancy German markets these days.

The best ones around these days are in London, unsurprisingly.

[smeeprocket]

yea my town has 1500 people in the city proper. We have a winn-dixie and a save a lot, and the save a lot doesn't even give you grocery bags, and has a security guard watching because (due to the no bags thing) people were just walking out with carts full of groceries. TBH I think that's hilarious. That's what they get for being too cheap for bags, fuck yea free groceries.

[Caz]

yea my town has 1500 people in the city proper. We have a winn-dixie and a save a lot, and the save a lot doesn't even give you grocery bags, and has a security guard watching because (due to the no bags thing) people were just walking out with carts full of groceries. TBH I think that's hilarious. That's what they get for being too cheap for bags, fuck yea free groceries.

O_o a supermarket without bags? i don't even