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Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

theguardian.com

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Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#31

Post by p49k »

momokoko wrote: post #29
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where real estate is expensive the only grocery stores that can stay afloat are fat margin chains that cater to upscale customers. The poor people are then forced to shop at CVS or wherever, sure it's more expensive than Walmart or a proper grocery store but it's still cheaper than whole paycheck. WF (or Trader Joes for that matter) simply doesn't sell value priced versions of a lot of items. CVS will sell it at a ri…

This is a massive misconception and nicely illustrates how much people are influenced by branding and merchandising. Whole foods 365 brand is actually cheaper than many grocery store generics. The data is available online if you want to explore this further.

Assuming this is true: If you visit WF, your entire shopping needs won’t be met by the available 365-branded foods, which means you’ll either have to shop at multiple stores (extremely difficult if you are poor) or buy the remaining products at severely marked up prices, negating any savings the 365-brands products might have offered. In particular, produce, meats and other fresh products are absurdly marked up in WF.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#32

Post by dd36 »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #9

That's a pity, because doing grocery shopping at CVS is like doing grocery shopping at a gas station / convenience mart: there's a $1-3 markup on damn near everything. And I imagine the people that are forced to shop at a drugstore are probably poor to begin with, so, that hits them even worse.

There’s also no fresh food or produce. It’s all long shelf life processed food.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#33

Post by c0nfused »

momokoko wrote: post #29
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where real estate is expensive the only grocery stores that can stay afloat are fat margin chains that cater to upscale customers. The poor people are then forced to shop at CVS or wherever, sure it's more expensive than Walmart or a proper grocery store but it's still cheaper than whole paycheck. WF (or Trader Joes for that matter) simply doesn't sell value priced versions of a lot of items. CVS will sell it at a ri…

This is a massive misconception and nicely illustrates how much people are influenced by branding and merchandising. Whole foods 365 brand is actually cheaper than many grocery store generics. The data is available online if you want to explore this further.

So, I used to work for whole foods in school. Management made a big deal about how if you used you employee discount and bought 365 brand stuff it was almost the same cost as shopping brand name at giant. As I recall about 5$ a month more. Admittedly this was 20 years ago but it still seems true when I go to whole foods once a year or so.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#34

Post by colanderman »

basseq wrote: post #27

This is a matter of scale. The more interesting metric would be a per-store figure, where TJ and WF outsell CVS by a factor of 5–7x.[1] I'm surprised that it's not higher. > The eyebrow-raising figure probably comes down to an issue of scale – last year CVS and Walgreens each had close to 10,000 stores in the US, while Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods each had fewer than 500 locations. [1] https://docs.google.com/spreads…

Nah I think the more interesting metric would be total sales to populations served by both CVS and one or both of TJ and WF. There may be many more CVSes, but, owing to their small size, there are also many more CVSes serving a given population than there are WFs and TJs, such that those populations have the ability to choose one or the other.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#35

Post by hedora »

samayylmao wrote: post #14
manojlds wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And I imagine the people that are forced to shop at a drugstore are probably poor to begin with Why so?

If you can't afford transportation you're limited to what you can walk to. In the area I live you cannot bring more than one bag with you on public transportation and it takes almost an hour to get across town on the bus. It would be cheaper to buy marked up food from a gas station or drugstore than pay for a taxi ride or waste half a day riding the bus. Edit: essentially, a lot of the time it is expensive to be poor…

Also, “proper” grocery chains are often much more expensive (with lower quality items) in poor areas where residents can’t afford transportation. In those areas, CVS might not a terrible choice.

Kroger used to be so bad in our neighborhood that we drove 30 minutes (past upscale krogers) because their business model of abusing stranded populations was abhorrent.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#36

Post by sct202 »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #9

That's a pity, because doing grocery shopping at CVS is like doing grocery shopping at a gas station / convenience mart: there's a $1-3 markup on damn near everything. And I imagine the people that are forced to shop at a drugstore are probably poor to begin with, so, that hits them even worse.

CVS is has a high/low pricing scheme, so most of the items you see aren't being purchased at full price and people really only buy them on sale. You have to play their games with stacking ECB, coupons and sales though, so it's work.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#37

Post by ARandomerDude »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #30
samayylmao wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you can't afford transportation you're limited to what you can walk to. In the area I live you cannot bring more than one bag with you on public transportation and it takes almost an hour to get across town on the bus. It would be cheaper to buy marked up food from a gas station or drugstore than pay for a taxi ride or waste half a day riding the bus. Edit: essentially, a lot of the time it is expensive to be poor…

Anecdata: I have money and property and plentiful transportation (three vehicles for the two of us). Live miles from town. I drive to one or more grocery stores infrequently to get what I want. Buy quality food and freeze/store it in my large house. Garden provides some more. Waste is composted and feeds the gardens. Meals cost me a buck or two to prepare from my plentiful stock. All because I can afford to. Food is…

You're also handsome, charming, and incredibly humble.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#38

Post by gbear605 »

TheLoneTechNerd wrote: post #11
gbear605 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a lot of people who do all their shopping at Trader Joe’s.

I know a lot of people that don't. Now we can have an anecdote duel!

The claim was “nobody does.” I responded with “someone does.” An anecdote is sufficient proof here.

Re: Fears grow over 'food swamps' as drugstores outsell major grocers

#40

Post by bluntfang »

p49k wrote: post #31
momokoko wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a massive misconception and nicely illustrates how much people are influenced by branding and merchandising. Whole foods 365 brand is actually cheaper than many grocery store generics. The data is available online if you want to explore this further.

Assuming this is true: If you visit WF, your entire shopping needs won’t be met by the available 365-branded foods, which means you’ll either have to shop at multiple stores (extremely difficult if you are poor) or buy the remaining products at severely marked up prices, negating any savings the 365-brands products might have offered. In particular, produce, meats and other fresh products are absurdly marked up in WF…

can you give some examples of products you can't find at WF? I only ask because WF is the closest grocery to me and I don't have a problem getting everything I need. Granted, fresh fruit and vegetables don't have the 365 brand, but I'm assuming you don't mean that? I think the 365 brand is more about staples like milk, eggs, juice? Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though, I'm sure I'm biased.
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