Motel 6 used to be $6.
Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
301–310 of 341 posts
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you want to save money on groceries you should be going to Aldi or Sav a Lot, not Dollar stores. Their products are terrible (mostly house brands) and prices aren't even good.
Neither of those are in rural areas. Heck, people I know in urban areas are still excited when the Aldi's come to town.
There’s one in the town of 20,000 next to me (15 minutes away) along with two other grocery stores and a Walmart.
There’s nothing in my town of 2,000 of course, though I believe there’s a Dollar-Something in another local town.
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
$100 is plenty to afford groceries at a grocery store. If they only had $4 or something your point would make more sense. You can take $30 to a grocery store and walk out with a decent quantity of rice and beans, at good prices per ounce.
I'm not sure where "poor people should subsist on only rice and beans" became a valid idea. Sure, I mean, it's a cheap meal. But it's also boring and soulcrushing to have everyday. You're also aside the fact that rice and beans takes a good amount of time to prepare, which is a problem if you're working 16 hours a day - making rice takes 30 minutes and that is coming out of your sleep. But most importantly, only havi…
With an electric pressure cooker, say Instapot ($60 new, 11/23/21), prep time for rice is less than 3 minutes, and beans even less. Just did it. Cooking time from 1 cup beans (no presoak) to cooked is 1 hour, two cups rice to cooked is 20 minutes. Maybe you can do both combined at the same time in an hour. Total time of involvement by chef…about 5 minutes. And the pot keeps it warm until you wake up from your nap.
Don’t go “Four Yorkshiremen” on the price of the pressure cooker. You can get it for less used, and it’s a perfect present from anyone who knows money is an issue for you. Maybe free at dumpsters when college students are clearing out their dorm rooms.
Re: the “boring and soul rushing” bit…I recommend bringing that up with anyone in Mexico or Latin America. Or are those type of people just…different (or more creative)?
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
Costco is known for less of a choice, but whatever choice there is you can trust it to be of a higher quality. When I go to Costco I definitely have my guard down and don’t vet and don’t scrutinize each product as much as i would do at other stores.
Be careful, though; this isn't necessarily the case on costco.com. For example: https://www.costco.com/theradome-evo-laser-hair-growth-devic...
Low level laser/light therapy has been shown to promote hair growth.
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
"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.
This for sure. Been wearing a particular brand of socks for the last few years, a little more expensive. They fit great but I’m not sure they last any longer than my cheap ones did.
There are also plenty of items that will be treated as disposable no matter the “quality” in real life. A $20 toilet plunger that sits unused for a couple of years will have dry rot on the rubber and break on the first or second use the same as a $1 plunger.
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#306Earlier 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.) This isn't true for many of the core staple items sold by traditional retail and dollar channels. There are many identical or equivalent products that are sold at significantly lower price points. I know this because I've literally read product cannibaliza…
Can also see this by finding basically any product on Amazon and then being suggested like 30 competitors offering the same the same thing made in the same factory.
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
A 50lb bag of white rice can be had on Amazon for $88, which translates into roughly 1k calories/$1 delivered to your doorstep for free in two-three days. You can get similar calorie/$ value with pasta, peanut butter, oatmeal. No one who has $40/week to spend on food in America needs to go anywhere close to hungry if they don't waste their money and time driving to dollar stores to buy overpriced non-bulk groceries.…
As pointed out elsewhere, when you are dirt poor it's not about unit price. It's about cash flow. Very often it's impossible to drop $90 at once on anything , not to mention the luxury of having Amazon Prime.
I don’t think that was supposed to be the bottom example, it’s half as expensive per unit at Target for 2 lb bags.
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#308Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure where "poor people should subsist on only rice and beans" became a valid idea. Sure, I mean, it's a cheap meal. But it's also boring and soulcrushing to have everyday. You're also aside the fact that rice and beans takes a good amount of time to prepare, which is a problem if you're working 16 hours a day - making rice takes 30 minutes and that is coming out of your sleep. But most importantly, only havi…
With an electric pressure cooker, say Instapot ($60 new, 11/23/21), prep time for rice is less than 3 minutes, and beans even less. Just did it. Cooking time from 1 cup beans (no presoak) to cooked is 1 hour, two cups rice to cooked is 20 minutes. Maybe you can do both combined at the same time in an hour. Total time of involvement by chef…about 5 minutes. And the pot keeps it warm until you wake up from your nap. Do…
I also have a pressure cooker, cooking time for rice is nowhere close to 3 minutes, it's about 30 minutes.
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
A 50lb bag of white rice can be had on Amazon for $88, which translates into roughly 1k calories/$1 delivered to your doorstep for free in two-three days. You can get similar calorie/$ value with pasta, peanut butter, oatmeal. No one who has $40/week to spend on food in America needs to go anywhere close to hungry if they don't waste their money and time driving to dollar stores to buy overpriced non-bulk groceries.…
Ok, so you now need: A credit card + bank account A stable address and room to store bulk stuff A place to get packages where they won't be stolen $88
That price is not even cheap, grocery stores have rice at a much lower unit price in much smaller packages. Dollar store rice is likely in between them and still a very solid calorie deal. There is still a requirement that one has time, equipment & energy to cook with, though.
Re: Dollar Tree says US$1.25 price point to become new standard
#310Earlier quoted context omitted.
With an electric pressure cooker, say Instapot ($60 new, 11/23/21), prep time for rice is less than 3 minutes, and beans even less. Just did it. Cooking time from 1 cup beans (no presoak) to cooked is 1 hour, two cups rice to cooked is 20 minutes. Maybe you can do both combined at the same time in an hour. Total time of involvement by chef…about 5 minutes. And the pot keeps it warm until you wake up from your nap. Do…
I also have a pressure cooker, cooking time for rice is nowhere close to 3 minutes, it's about 30 minutes.
You misread their comment: prep time 3 mins (i.e. the time you are actively doing anything), the rest is it cooking away on its own.