I am an Air Force brat. We didn't live on the base, but it was a bit of a drive to get to the base. All our grocery shopping was done on the base. Since it was a drive, maybe 30 min, we'd buy 2 weeks of groceries at a time.
Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
201–210 of 337 posts
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#202Grocery Stores closing really is happening, and really is a problem. And it's part of what's killing towns - if only because attracting new folk without one is hard. We live in John Day, Or (pop 1700)(County pop 7200, area: about 2x Delaware), which we chose partially because of it's supermarket. The next closest supermarket is 90min away. (Walmart: 2h). Not having to commute hours for groceries is a big deal, as is…
> Not having to commute hours for groceries is a big deal, as is being able to get vegetables of season - and in the rural west these things not a given. What you are describing is a de facto food desert: https://www.cdc.gov/features/FoodDeserts/index.html There might be an easy (albeit costly) way to fix this. Just today I learned about a govt agency called the Essential Air Service: > The United States Department o…
Why should we be subsidizing rural communities with free services that are terrible for the environment? If people want the benefits of modern civilization like air travel and grocery stores, they should move to cities. We are doing enough harm to the world in cities, we don't need to encourage sprawl even more.
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
Out of curiosity: why did you choose to live in such a remote/rural place?
It seems a lot of people “suffer” from the problem of wanting to live in a nice rural area without a lot of people or hassles but then want most of the same amenities of large cities. And by working remotely and exploiting the situation it never occurs to them to open up their own business/ grocery store. I’m sure other people that live in those areas would love to have a well stocked grocery store as well.
Yes, and then they often blame "the system" (could either be corporations or the government, or both) for the natural outcome of living in an area without many people, which is that there are fewer useful services around, or that they're more expensive.
Rural America as it is, is already heavily subsidized by urban America, but it's common for people to say that we're leaving them behind, when even as it is they're being carried along. Collectively speaking, rural Americans are extremely dependent people.
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#204Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what it's worth, the IGA near me seems pretty nice. I think it's the best grocery store in town.
Counterpoint, IGA near me (rural area) is dark, dingy, looks like death worn over, over priced, and bad quality on everything.
But I’ll be damned if everything on the shelf isn’t cheap as dirt. Wouldn’t do my grocery shopping there but mine was a solid improvement on the CVS nearby.
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#205You don't need a grocery store. You can live off a couple bags of legumes and cereals. People want meat, eggs and milk, though. I have very little sympathy. If it means less animals will have to die for some bommers' gluttony, then I hope more grocery stores go out of business.
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you explain what you mean by "this"?
Towns that are unliveable without a car.
"What is 'most cities in the US', Trebek?"
But it doesn't have to be that way. I'm in Munich now, and little Bavarian towns of 10k or less are nearly always much more walkable than US cities 20x their size.
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#207Walmart and the like killed local competition. There’s a gas station I stop at from time to time in the country with a Walmart next door. It’s insanely busy. I have family in the country and they accept having to drive to get decent groceries. There are seasonal vegetable and fruit stands but you couldn’t get everything you need. A local ranch sells beef but it would be quite expensive to buy year around unless you w…
There is a lot of blame for Walmart, but let's not forget the car culture that has everyone leaving their town every day and commuting instead of living and working in a community.
People in rural areas used horses, then horse and carriages, and now cars. If we didn’t use a faster mode of transportation we’d be stuck where we were born.
It’s not feasible to connect every single small town.
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
What real choice did consumers have? Walmart came in and drastically slashed prices on groceries because they had the size, money and infrastructure to cheaply move goods around. This was intentional behavior to kill local grocery stores and it worked, because consumers in these areas tend to be poorer and will shop at places that save them the most money. This is intentional behavior abused by Walmart to intentional…
How do these towns even exist if there are no jobs? One guy talks about a collection of 100+ guns(from my understanding guns are worth quite a chunk of money if well maintained) This story makes no sense to me, just sounds like a town where people don't want to leave and have no incentive to stay. The only sane person is the one who started sustenance farming - that's the way to go if you want to live in the middle o…
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Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#209Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think Dollar General targets places without any businesses, at least around Iowa where I have experience with them. They target places where there is some community, but not enough to support a bigger general store (i.e Walmart). There is a Dollar General about a half mile from my house. It is literally next door to the local grocery store. They serve similar but different purposes. Dollar General is where yo…
The entire strategy for dollar stores (Dollar General, Family Dollar, Dollar Tree, etc.) is to out price their local competition - hence why yours is right next to a grocery store. They carry higher-profit margin goods, which are mostly canned and processed foods, but ditch the lower-margin items like fresh produce. Grocery stores can't compete with them unless they also ditch their healthier foods. There are entire…
I can't recall which episode (maybe the one you linked but there are others) but one NPR Planet Money had a local shop owner complaining that Dollar General even stocks SKUs unavailable for sale to other stores due to purchase agreements, such as intermediate sizes of canned food at a more attractive price point.
Re: Farm country feeds America, but try buying groceries there
#210Earlier quoted context omitted.
Huh? At some point in time these people had $X. They decided that it was better for them to shop at Walmart versus their local grocer. Is this surprising? No. Walmart offers better selection and prices. Economy of scale plays a big part in that. They had every choice to keep spending their dollars at their local grocer. And they decided not to.
The never-ending blame-shifting has to stop. Nobody killed the local grocer except for consumers. Consumers killed the middle class. Sometime, somewhere, someone walked into a store and saw a Philco radio made in Pennsylvania by unionized middle-class manufacturing workers and a cheap Japanese/Tawianese copy of the radio and bought the cheap radio. Sometime, somewhere, someone saw a mailer from Walmart and saw that t…
agreed. But there is also a more aggressive and hostile side of capitalism that is not necessarily consumer driven. As an example, Where I live (in Boston) 7-Eleven bought out and converted or simply closed pretty much all white hen pantry locations that they were competing with. 7-Eleven's quality, products, pricing and selection was far inferior and instead of competing, they simply threw money at the competition to dissapear. Nothing illegal or immoral with that, just that we are now stuck with a dirty 7-eleven in my neighborhood with no deli nor bakery. But plenty of lotto tickets and cigarettes.