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Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

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Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#181

Post by e12e »

x1798DE wrote: post #153
sitharus wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think GP means Indians from India instead of American Indians but is using a racial stereotype to describe this.

I understand that the dot/feather thing is considered crass, but I will say it's a bit overboard to be offended at it. The idea isn't that all India Indians have dots or whatever, it's just synechdoche, where one aspect of the broader culture stands in for the whole. Like if you said, "He's from America - suit not cowboy boots." (Referring to urban vs rural America) it would hardly be offensive as a stereotype.

You'd be amazed how much a genocide or brutal occupation adds to the (legitimate) offence of a stereotype.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#182

Post by home_boi »

whack wrote: post #41

"Chinatown is way cheaper... I figured the prices were cheap because the selection is all C-grade bok choy and yesterday’s bananas. Wrong again! Chinatown’s 80-plus produce markets are cheap because they are connected to a web of small farms and wholesalers that operate independently of the network supplying most mainstream supermarkets." So what's stopping the mainstream supermarkets from doing the same thing, under…

It's not worth the time/effort of negotiating low volume deals. Whereas local, small businesses try to maximize return on income (ROI) on low volume, bigger businesses try to maximize overall profit.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#183

Post by e12e »

jimmywanger wrote: post #17

I think that one factor is that in the Chinese culture, you don't expect everything to be good and available during all seasons. At a Whole Foods, you can reasonably be assured of asparagus in the winter time. In Chinatown, things are only available when they're in season, like a farmers' market. Also, if you've ever ordered at a Chinese restaurant with a Chinese family, you'll see this phenomenon. Instead of orderin…

> For instance, the spinach might be not up to par, so he'll substitute some nice fresh bok choy. I've not seen that in a western restaurant.

All good chefs/restaurants do this. IMNHO fixed menu a la carte restaurants are rarely very good - but for some reason they seem to be common. Perhaps what's more interesting is how common it is to not do this in many restaurants. It usually just means that the kitchen doesn't care about the ingredients, or about the meals they prepare for that matter (eg: the line chefs/people actually working the kitchen day-to-day might have little freedom to influence the menu).

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#184

Post by ethbro »

home_boi wrote: post #176
steveax wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For example, I have seen one place where if they have baskets of strawberries, and some of the strawberries are getting moldy, they will by hand separate out the non moldy ones, toss the moldy ones, and repackage the baskets. Having worked produce in both regular chain markets, and in "gourmet natural foods" markets, I can assure you that this is a common practice.

Is this common place for frozen berries or are they generally packaged before any mold can occur?

To meet higher USDA grades, it seems like they must be pre-sorted to remove mold (among other things).

Example: https://www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/frozen-strawberrie...

PS: Side note, either USDA AMS hasn't updated their site in awhile, or some "most recent" frozen berry standards date back to the 50s/60s. Which, I guess makes sense; I imagine the process hasn't changed that much.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#185

Post by logfromblammo »

coldtea wrote: post #130
r00fus wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure it works like that - you don't clean context just by changing the spelling.

You do if people also don't jump at the chance to tie it to the old concept.

Or dig deep into English vocabulary and select a more appropriate synonym without the unwanted association: hustled, conned, swindled, scammed, deceived, ripped off, tricked, cheated, flimflammed, bamboozled, bilked, duped, hornswoggled, rooked, fleeced, burned, chiseled, snowed, fast talked, screwed, shafted, bled, suckered, stiffed, milked, gouged, overcharged... there are probably more. Some of them are shaded according to the intent of the other party and how you felt about it.

But I'm not sure any of these apply to the practice under consideration, which is selling substandard produce to people who haven't properly calibrated their expectations.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#187

Post by hkmurakami »

throwaway_bob wrote: post #63

I lived on henry street for a while, and I can't say that I know anything about the back end of the distribution network, but I can say this article is missing a lot of things about the front end. The produce is cheaper than a standard western store, but the quality is much more varied. Moreover, the market (in the economic sense) seems really efficient. If you see something cheap in Manhattan chinatown in every stor…

This definitely happens outside of Chinatown as well. In fact there's a place at the border of Los Altos and Cupertino (right next to a Trader Joe's in fact) that deals with produce that is very close to expiration that was clearly sent over from other supermarkets. They also sell green that aren't "baby greens" -- i.e. they're grown a bit too mature and are now bitter and tougher than what the typical grocery store patron would like.

Obviously the nutritional value is the same, so the place makes for a great source for smoothie ingredients and frozen fruits to be consumed at a later date.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#188

Post by gpetukhov »

e12e wrote: post #180
coldtea wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do if people also don't jump at the chance to tie it to the old concept.

Perhaps if you live in an area where the word "gypsy" isn't well-known - but it would be in most of Europe at least. And given the history of abuse and oppression (eg: forced sterilization, even before the nazi concentration camps) it's not really a word that should be forgotten - in the sense that forgetting history is a great way to later repeat the same mistakes, and commit similar abuse. I don't really see how "j…

Then let's also prohibit the word 'slave' which originates from 'slav', because many slavs were sold into slavery in the middle ages. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=slave

Words do lose their negative connotations, especially with different spelling.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#189

Post by Scoundreller »

mc32 wrote: post #101
throwaway_bob wrote: post #63

I lived on henry street for a while, and I can't say that I know anything about the back end of the distribution network, but I can say this article is missing a lot of things about the front end. The produce is cheaper than a standard western store, but the quality is much more varied. Moreover, the market (in the economic sense) seems really efficient. If you see something cheap in Manhattan chinatown in every stor…

They definitely missed the point about ugly fruit and vegetables. From speaking to some of the vendors of cheaper fruits and veggies at farmer's markets, some of them (but not all) buy the second dibs (what the supermarkets and their other obligations don't buy) as well as more irregular fruit and produce. Now, of course there is a growing ugly fruit and vegetable movement[1]. It's becoming more mainstream and even W…

> some of them (but not all) buy the second dibs (what the supermarkets and their other obligations don't buy) as well as more irregular fruit and produce.

On top of that, the wholesalers know that these buyers will never pay a premium price, so they may get better deals on 1st tier items than mainstream supermarkets when the wholesaler really wants to sell.

Re: Why Fruits and Veggies Are So Cheap in Chinatown

#190

Post by Scoundreller »

ethbro wrote: post #177
patio11 wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, to approximate a synthetic CDO squared, you'd first put all the moldy strawberries in a new basket, label it "Strawberries", send it to the rating agency where it would be rated AAA American strawberries, and then sell firms their choice of the least, middling, or most risky slices of the basket of "AAA American strawberries."

You forgot about also shorting the eventual result of those re-packaged strawberries by buying options on bismuth subsalicylate.

I'd be more worried about the molds (and their byproducts) being carcinogenic (e.g. Aflatoxins)
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