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Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

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Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#231

Post by throwaway0a5e »

heartbreak wrote: post #214
vianneychevalie wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often do you need to buy dishes, cups and socks?

"Buy once cry once" only works when you have money. If all you can afford are dollar store socks, you're going to be buying a lot of dollar store socks. Being poor sucks.

Of course dollar store socks don't last as long as nicer ones but (I haven't run the numbers) they may very well still be the cheapest (or damn close) on a per day of use basis.

The cheapest things being the most cost effective uncommon for goods that are consumable due to long term wear and tear. You need to actually run the analysis for any given class of product.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#232

Post by throwaway946513 »

jodrellblank wrote: post #151
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

His Chrysler 300? This thing Wikipedia describes as a V8 powered “full-size luxury car”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_300

It's usually a greater-than decade old vehicle, common in the early-mid 2000's. Luxury cars (especially American luxury cars) have a trend of being extremely inexpensive to purchase compared to other vehicles when the age vs. their original price.

For example, a similar year Toyota, Subaru, or pre-CVT Nissans will hold higher values than equivalent American brand vehicles, with some exceptions.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#233

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

jandrese wrote: post #193
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

The big problem with this is that Dollar Stores generally don't have a produce section. Everything is in a box, bag, or can. This is not healthy. $40/week for a single person isn't an easy food budget, but I think could manage that at my grocery store. It's $5.71 per day for three meals. You really need to optimize for calories. Pasta, dried beans, potatoes, not much meat or dairy, even produce is a bit of a luxury.…

Completely off topic but as someone who had to do something equivalent in an European country you can eat well for less than 40$ a week if you know how to cook.

Buying a whole chicken is far less expensive that buying cuts and is a cheap source of meat. You can make good stock from the bones. Vegetables at the end of their shelf life are often substantially marked down and you can often freeze what you cook with them (sauce and curry for exemple). Rice is very cheap, polenta too. Fresh pasta are easy to make and delicious as are homemade tortillas. Eggs are only 16c a piece. Fresh garlic and ginger are not too expensive and with a small selection of spices and soy sauce they will go a long way in making things better. Then, you can somewhat easily grow basil, parsley, thymes and cilantro on a window sill.

Olive oil and butter were the only expensive product I used to buy but a little goes a long way.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#234

Post by [deleted] »

nopassrecover wrote: post #213
asdff wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've asked my landlord if they would let me buy back the quarters from them since it's such a pain getting them in a coin shortage. They didn't respond. Rent is already in the thousands, really my landlord should just stomach the $8 they get off me from the laundry room a month and just make it free. I'd honestly pay my landlord even higher rent if I didn't have to deal with getting rolls of quarters.

Tangential but I find it interesting that as a general rule US apartment tenants don’t have a washer/dryer eg as a front-loader combo. I gather from research online it comes back to the practice of generally renting furnished apartments, a preference for wood building construction, a practice of having non-water-proofed wet areas, historical custom (perhaps coinciding with apartments being constructed post-war when t…

[deleted]

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#235

Post by Jach »

jandrese wrote: post #193
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

The big problem with this is that Dollar Stores generally don't have a produce section. Everything is in a box, bag, or can. This is not healthy. $40/week for a single person isn't an easy food budget, but I think could manage that at my grocery store. It's $5.71 per day for three meals. You really need to optimize for calories. Pasta, dried beans, potatoes, not much meat or dairy, even produce is a bit of a luxury.…

Everything may be in a box, bag, or can (perhaps even frozen!) but that doesn't mean it's not healthy. Nor does availability of produce mean a particular individual is going to buy a (presumably healthy?) sack of apples over that (presumably unhealthy?) super sugary apple juice, or box of Apple Jacks cereal.

Philosophically, man, humans weren't meant to have fresh produce of all kinds from all over the world year-round. That a lot of us do can be a nice luxury for some, but I think it'd be really hard to justify such a state as a necessary component of a healthy diet.

I agree with you that budgeting sucks and is harder the less you have, though.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#236

Post by Sohcahtoa82 »

MrFoof wrote: post #223
dragonwriter wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They do it because it’s literally all they can afford anything else. Dollar stores very often aren’t cheaper than other sources for similar products especially for grocery items (which they tend to have very limited selections of.) People that shop for groceries at dollar stores do it because: 1. They shop for other things at dollar stores (either for price, or for reason #2, or because its the only place close by…

>Dollar stores very often aren’t cheaper than other sources for similar products especially for grocery items (which they tend to have very limited selections of.) Yep. They're usually not competitive on unit price. In areas that aren't shopping deserts, they cater to folks who can't afford to fill their car's gas tank on a whim -- they need X, they need it today, so they'll get what they can today. "It's expensive t…

> "It's expensive to be poor."

This is a talking point I wish more people on HN understood.

Can't afford a dental cavity filling? It becomes a root canal next year. Maybe you'll settle on just a simple extraction, and now you're down a tooth with no hope of ever affording a dental bridge, let alone an implant.

Can't afford to get a lump checked out? Three years later, you're unable to afford the stage 3 cancer treatment.

Buying the massive 30-roll pack of toilet paper from Costco for $15 is cheaper than buying 6-packs for $5, but you only have $20 to last the week, and you gotta buy food, too.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#237

Post by HWR_14 »

jodrellblank wrote: post #151
gkoberger wrote: post #126

I don't think that people in this thread appreciate how prevalent grocery shopping in dollar stores is. In the US, half of shoppers buy groceries from a dollar store. They do it because it's literally all they can afford anything else. There are more dollar stores than Walmart, Starbucks and McDonald’s combined. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General,…

His Chrysler 300? This thing Wikipedia describes as a V8 powered “full-size luxury car”? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_300

And there are 2006 Chrysler 300s in the Bay Area for under $4 grand a piece on craigslist. As an asking price. The parts seem fairly affordable as well, judging from the parted out ones also on the bay area craiglist.

It's entirely reasonable that poor people have older model luxury cars, either purchased 3rd hand or from when they were better off financially. After all, how much do you think you'd pocket selling your old 2006 [any non-collectable car] if you had to buy something new to drive around.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#238

Post by pessimizer »

gkoberger wrote: post #118
0des wrote: post #4

This was inevitable, but rather than maintain the status quo or even introducing shrinkflation, they should have made the jump to 2 dollars. 1.25 is maintenance, and effectively we are still getting what a dollar used to get. 2 dollars would get us a bit more time (inflation is not going to stop) and the ability to introduce a (relative) more premium product assortment. I only mention this premium product range becau…

I think you're thinking of this from the wrong perspective. To me, an extra 75 cents don't really matter. I'd pay it without blinking. But to many people in the US, going from $1 to $2 would literally double their expenses for the month and hurt an already tight budget. "Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General, where he can make $40 stretch into a week’s…

You don't have to eat twice as much because the unit price doubled. I'm pretty sure the suggestion wasn't intended to mean that they should sell the same amount of product for $2 as they now do for $1.

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#239

Post by dylan604 »

vianneychevalie wrote: post #190
tsol wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Dollar stores very often aren’t cheaper than other sources for similar products especially for grocery items (which they tend to have very limited selections of.) Some products are. Especially the unhealthy-- candy and soda is cheaper. I used to get bread there, they'd have the same bread as nicer stores just closer to the 'best by' date. But it tasted fine to me. I would get dishes and cups, silverware, and socks.…

How often do you need to buy dishes, cups and socks?

Everytime you get evicted and the landlord throws your stuff on the curb

Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard

#240

Post by throwaway946513 »

fortran77 wrote: post #226
Jach wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was probably thrown in to give a sense of the variety available, but just about every grocery store or even gas station has cheap motor oil available. It's not like you need very much of it very often. It's just a bad article with bad quotes. I'm sure a huge number of people on HN remember weeks as a poor student and having to hack $10 to last a week or more. $40 a week, that's a luxury!

> It's not like you need very much of it very often You never drove an old hooptie, like I did in my early years!

Oh, how I am reminded that I need to add yet another quart of oil into my Isuzu for the next two weeks.
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