Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 530 posts

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#121

Post by assttoasstmgr »

sdfhdhjdw3 wrote: post #76
kube-system wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That explains the fruit and vegetables we have in the US in Aldi. I buy produce elsewhere.

Weird, I just moved to the US and Aldi is one of my favorite places. Where do you go for produce? I'm in Chicago if that matters.

Costco and specific midrange grocery stores like Kroger/Safeway/Publix etc. In Chicago there are many great independent grocery stores especially in the suburbs. Check out Village Market Place in Skokie.

I say specific because I found the quality varies greatly from store to store, and likely who the produce manager is. As much as I hate to say it, the stores in the more affluent neighborhoods carry higher quality produce.

Some of the highest quality produce I've found was at Costco, with a "picked/packed on" date of just 2-3 days prior to purchase. The downside is you have to buy in bulk, so be prepared to freeze or plan accordingly.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#122

Post by assttoasstmgr »

fredley wrote: post #96
sdfhdhjdw3 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think part of it is that UK standards are lower when it comes to food, yes. I know this might be offensive, but I think there's some truth to it. The reason I think there's truth to it is that it works in the opposite direction too. Standards for food are higher in Italy than in Portugal and guess what? Their grocery stores are better than the Portuguese ones. Comparing meat specifically in Portugal vs UK, it's gen…

I think you're right. For example in EU supermarkets you will typically find, separately: white onions, brown onions, sweet onions etc. In the UK: onions. Maybe sometimes also 'large onions'. Same goes for most other produce. It's chicken and egg, as the demand for this won't materialise without awareness and the awareness won't arise without the knowledge there even are different types of onions, I imagine most Brit…

Yeah but where else can I get the unhealthiest food in the world: prepackaged scotch eggs

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#124

Post by HeyLaughingBoy »

seoaeu wrote: post #105
hunterb123 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I doubt that. Personal shoppers can't even pick out the correct produce now. It's like they search out for the least ripe or most bruised thing. Seems like it's because it's not for them so they don't care, or they don't know how to. The other point against that theory is people will buy what they want to buy, that may be healthy food, it may not be. Unless you're talking about taking away the choice and distrib…

I’m surprised there isn’t more discussion of the fees associated with these services. Most people can’t afford to spend 25+% extra on their groceries just to gain some convenience

And some of us simply refuse to. I'd rather drive the 10 miles into town to pick up my dinner than give GrubHub money that I'd prefer to see going to the restaurant.

Frankly, unless I'm drunk, stoned, or sick, I can't see ever using a non-store delivery service.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#125

Post by assttoasstmgr »

olyjohn wrote: post #82
hunterb123 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I doubt that. Personal shoppers can't even pick out the correct produce now. It's like they search out for the least ripe or most bruised thing. Seems like it's because it's not for them so they don't care, or they don't know how to. The other point against that theory is people will buy what they want to buy, that may be healthy food, it may not be. Unless you're talking about taking away the choice and distrib…

I have to say... as much as I don't like them... WalMart does the online shopping properly. I had to switch to delivery / pickup for a while during 2020 and found them to be the best. But I think this is because the people shopping for your food are paid by the hour and not by the job. They are regular employees of the store. They aren't rushed to get your order, and 50 other orders, checkout, and drive around town b…

> How bad is it when WalMart is treating its employees better than most

I work with a number of people that have an irrational hate-boner for Walmart for the reasons stated yet they are all Prime members.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#126

Post by scruple »

kube-system wrote: post #34
saperyton wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Trader Joe's, but checkout there just takes too long. I want to grab products and leave, and not to spend 15-30 minutes on line.

Y'all must go at peak times or something, I've never waited at the checkout at my TJs

I grocery shop with my toddlers first thing in Saturday morning and our first stop is TJs. I only buy about a dozen different products at TJs but they're all staples in our weekly meals / snacks. Checkout is never a problem early in the morning.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#127

Post by rightbyte »

petercooper wrote: post #77
fredley wrote: post #32

UK supermarkets are crap, and have got noticeably crapper in recent years. At even large mid-tier supermarkets you will find a paltry range of fruit and veg, and a maeger selection of almost entirely prepackaged meat and fish. I have noticed many things are routinely out of stock and it can be a lottery shopping for a specific recipe. I recently visited Portugal, and in a small city supermarket there was a bakery, me…

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but since Brexit I've noticed the shelf life of fruit and veg has gone through the floor (I suspect the time the produce takes to reach the shelf has increased). For things that have advisory "best by" dates on (e.g. strawberries), where you used to get a date a week in the future, now you need to take care to not buy something with tomorrow's date. In semi-related news, The Independent…

I have noticed the same thing with Christmas trees. They lose their "tiny green things" (name?) earlier.

Maybe picker/cutter shortages? Like instead of picking the strawberries or cutting trees with 10 people in one week 5 people do it in two weeks? To fill up one truck load.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#128

Post by nightski »

brewdad wrote: post #55
nightski wrote: post #12

This seems like a very simplistic analysis, I'd expect more from the economist. They compare huge chains like Walmart, Aldi, and Whole Foods to Europe's Tesco. Yet we have lots of regional options in our small city and very rarely go to these big chains. Kind of disappointed I created an account just to read this tbh.

This tends to be a forum of financially advantaged people. The vast majority of Americans are shopping at Walmart, Aldi, Safeway, Kroger etc. (Maybe not Whole Foods). In that light, the comparisons are valid. Like you, I shop at a local chain and the farmers market. I know I pay more for my groceries than my neighbors who shop at WinCo and I'm ok with that since I feel I get higher quality meats and produce along wit…

Interesting that is the case elsewhere. Our local stores are not always more expensive. We have one high end chain, one average chain, and one lower end chain all of which are local to the region. Walmart is usually on par or even slightly more expensive in some cases than the average option.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#129

Post by diggernet »

rightbyte wrote: post #127
petercooper wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's just a coincidence, but since Brexit I've noticed the shelf life of fruit and veg has gone through the floor (I suspect the time the produce takes to reach the shelf has increased). For things that have advisory "best by" dates on (e.g. strawberries), where you used to get a date a week in the future, now you need to take care to not buy something with tomorrow's date. In semi-related news, The Independent…

I have noticed the same thing with Christmas trees. They lose their "tiny green things" (name?) earlier. Maybe picker/cutter shortages? Like instead of picking the strawberries or cutting trees with 10 people in one week 5 people do it in two weeks? To fill up one truck load.

"needles"

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#130

Post by jdminhbg »

bragr wrote: post #79
AmericanChopper wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What about all the poor people without smartphones? Poor people have smartphones. Even poor people in developing nations are likely to have smartphones. Basic smartphones are ultra cheap commodities.

>Poor people have smartphones Some poor people have smartphones. I guess some will get to eat. Also while there is penatration of smartphones into poorer countries, it is hardly 100% >However, compared to other markets across the globe, India’s smartphone penetration rate is still relatively low. [1] [1] https://www.statista.com/topics/4600/smartphone-market-in-in...

> Some poor people have smartphones. I guess some will get to eat.

I have no idea how you got from "smartphone apps will affect how people shop for food" to "anyone without a smartphone will be starved."

Post reply on HN