Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#281

Post by fny » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:28 AM UTC

kjeetgill wrote: post #220

fny wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This true, but it's actually not the proximate cause for higher food prices: excess stimulus and higher energy prices are. 1. Government spent $1T. 2. Fed made it stupidly cheap to borrow money. 3. We have under invested in the oil and gas industry for years, further industry consolidation after the COVID crash has led to high natural gas and diesel prices. We lack the equipment, manpower, and capital to expand. 4. F…

I hope this doesn't get buried. I don't know enough to agree or disagree, so I'd like to see how people respond.

I'm sending you articles pre 2022 from various sources just to make the point these effects were well understood and foreseen before the Ukraine war. While I include articles here about Biden's spending, it's worth noting Trump also spent a truckload of money. Use archive.ph to read anything paywalled.

[0]: Energy and Food Security: Linkages through Price Volatility https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030142151...

[1]: Nat gas and fertilizer https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fertilizer-prices-soaring-...

[2]: Biden's Stimulus Is Stoking Inflation, Fed Analysis Suggests

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/business/economy/fed-infl...

[3]: Biden’s ‘America First’ Policies Are Spreading Global Pain (Adviser during Trump admin)

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/05/12/biden-global-food-infla...

[4]: Yellen Wanted Biden Relief Plan Cut by a Third, Biographer Says (Recent article, but mentions her hang ups in 2021)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-04/yellen-wa...

Another thing to consider is that the Fed bought bonds issued by any high-grade corporation in the US. There was record issuance during 2020-2021. This means that those companies now have more cash on their balance sheets they can use to steer the economy going forward... so yes Apple can pay $22 an hour as a base rate now in part because they borrowed $12.5B last year but your local community hospital with razor thin margins can't compete with that. Also, many people were able to retire early from stock appreciation and home value appreciation alone which put a huge dent in the labor force.

There are a LOT of distortionary effects that remain to be seen from the stimulus alone. Now add deglobalization to the mix, and everything becomes even worse.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#282

Post by philwelch » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:32 AM UTC

tengbretson wrote: post #83

thehappypm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t understand, can you elaborate?

Can you tell me by looking at this photo what section I am in and what else I might find in this aisle? https://i0.wp.com/www.dailycal.org/assets/uploads/2021/09/TJ...

There’s like 6 aisles, it’s not hard to remember which products are where. It’s not like one of those 20 aisle stores with unrelated endcaps. There are gas stations bigger than Trader Joe’s.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#283

Post by philwelch » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:33 AM UTC

dhosek wrote: post #199

ssully wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you go there when it's busy, the checkout lines can get pretty large (they don't have dedicated baggers) and crowd parts of the store. With that said, I've noticed a similar trend at bigger stores by me lately as they added more self-checkout lines.

I've generally found that checkout times at TJs are much less than the local supers. Price- and quality-wise they totally win on cheese and pasta by a huge margin. Supermarket cheese is generally pretty awful (the only cheeses we get at the super are Mexican cheeses that TJs doesn't stock. I’ve occasionally bought, say cheddar at the super and it’s awful and costs more than TJs). The big thing for me for the last two…

> It seemed like they were encouraging people to go maskless.

What year is it!?

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#284

Post by JJMcJ » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:34 AM UTC

WalterBright wrote: post #273

JJMcJ wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> fast with few ingredients Slice an onion. Slice mushrooms. Fry up with ground beef. Add a little water or soup stock or bone broth. Let simmer for a minute. Quick meal. Just one of a million examples for quick recipes that take minimal skill. You can even run the veggies through a chopper or food processor.

I regularly grind up a pile of vegetables in the vitamix and drink the result. Prep time is 5 minutes. Cleanup is 1 minute. I'm not really buying the "no time to eat healthy" thing.

That's another way. Fruit/veggie balance up to you. Add Spirulina powder or similar if you want.

Do you find the Vitamix ones reliable. I've run though a number of blenders from other companies and had them fail after a while. Usually the motor just stops working.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#285

Post by MisterBastahrd » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:35 AM UTC

JJMcJ wrote: post #259

DubiousPusher wrote: post #172

I grew up in Montana so I am probably one of the few millennial Americans that probably recalls what life is like before supermarkets. They were just becoming a thing there as I was growing up. (Very, What's Eating Gilbert Grape.) We had an IGA in the small town I grew up in. The fresh food options there were borderline Soviet. We went to a butcher to get our meat when we didn't have meat from hunting. We got produce…

> fast with few ingredients Slice an onion. Slice mushrooms. Fry up with ground beef. Add a little water or soup stock or bone broth. Let simmer for a minute. Quick meal. Just one of a million examples for quick recipes that take minimal skill. You can even run the veggies through a chopper or food processor.

Something I came up with one day because my gf wanted a cabbage dish:

Slice a head of cabbage, an onion, and 5 slices of bacon (or alternatively use smoked ham hocks or turkey necks).

In a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat, saute the bacon until not quite fully cooked. Add the onion to scrape up the fond and cook until soft. Add a cup of chinese cooking wine, cook for 3 minutes, then add two cups of chicken stock and a tablespoon of chicken bouillon. Add cabbage. Cook with lid on for about 45 minutes over medium heat and then another 15 minutes with lid off, stirring occasionally until the liquid is evaporated. Finish with pepper and season to taste with a bit more bouillon. It's slightly sweet, savory, smokey, and salty. My kids tear it up.

Want to make it a main course? Add some cooked ground meat and a few of cups of cooked rice. Now you have a meal that can last you all week. LOL.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#286

Post by w-ll » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:37 AM UTC

ramraj07 wrote: post #279

DubiousPusher wrote: post #172

I grew up in Montana so I am probably one of the few millennial Americans that probably recalls what life is like before supermarkets. They were just becoming a thing there as I was growing up. (Very, What's Eating Gilbert Grape.) We had an IGA in the small town I grew up in. The fresh food options there were borderline Soviet. We went to a butcher to get our meat when we didn't have meat from hunting. We got produce…

I’d trust a good can of tomatoes before I touch the borderline unappealing off season strawberries they have in those markets. Happy that you’re trying not to judge but looks like you still have a ways to go before getting off a high horse. As oogway says, “one often meets their destiny on their path to avoid it.” When I remember the solid research showing people taking multivitamins die faster I keep thinking what m…

I feel the same with with orange juice FROM concentrate vs the shelf stable stuff, everyone calls me crazy for it.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#287

Post by philwelch » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:37 AM UTC

grendelt wrote: post #89

HEB is loved in Texas (suspiciously absent from NE Texas), but has a pretty great line of private label foods, competitive prices that are usually at or below Walmart's prices. For example, when meat prices spiked because national meatpackers had problems, HEB's Texas meatpackers didn't have such high costs (less of a spike). They have to be doing well financially with a decent markup, but the quality is pretty great…

I’m in the process of moving to Texas from the West Coast and the first time I visited an H-E-B, I felt almost like Boris Yeltsin (cf https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news...)

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#288

Post by WalterBright » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:41 AM UTC

JJMcJ wrote: post #284

WalterBright wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I regularly grind up a pile of vegetables in the vitamix and drink the result. Prep time is 5 minutes. Cleanup is 1 minute. I'm not really buying the "no time to eat healthy" thing.

That's another way. Fruit/veggie balance up to you. Add Spirulina powder or similar if you want. Do you find the Vitamix ones reliable. I've run though a number of blenders from other companies and had them fail after a while. Usually the motor just stops working.

I know many people who use them. The only one that burned out did so after about 10 years of 3x per day use.

Also, the optional stainless container is a lot easier to clean than the plastic one that comes with it.

I've had various juicers and blenders in the past, the vitamix replaces all of them.

No, I am not shilling for vitamix. I'm just a satisfied customer.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#289

Post by hedora » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:42 AM UTC

slang800 wrote: post #268

hedora wrote: post #242

So, the article claims the average price for a day of nutritious food in the US is $3. How is that possible? Is anyone here close to spending $21/week for all the food they eat (ignoring luxury items, etc)? That hasn't been possible for me for at least 20 years, and when travelling to cheaper places (pre covid), it doesn't seem possible there either. Where are these average food prices?

I couldn't find the UN report that they got their chart from. However, they only said "providing adequate calories and nutrients", which is a low bar. I'm guessing 1.5kg of dry white rice can be found for around $1, and that covers the "calorie" needs. The rest of the budget can be spent on vegetables, nuts, beans, lentils, etc. to cover the "nutrients". It would be a pretty sad diet, but I think you could hit the nu…

I see. I was assuming it would be a balanced diet, at least.

In that case, I'm having difficulty getting worked up over rice and beans (a tiny percentage of my grocery bill) having a small markup on average in the US.

Re: Americans are poorly served by their grocery stores

#290

Post by Georgelemental » Sat, Jun 04, 2022, 4:43 AM UTC

astrange wrote: post #181

Georgelemental wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad cooking habits are a problem for sure, but they are not the whole story. Good cooking can only do so much to redeem bad ingredients, and American ingredients are often simply terrible. Our meat is bland, tasteless, and stuffed with seed oils (American chicken especially is execrable compared to the what the rest of the world eats). Our fruits and vegetables are bred for size and productivity at the expense of var…

> Our meat is bland, tasteless, and stuffed with seed oils (American chicken especially is execrable compared to the what the rest of the world eats). Think you have your conspiracies confused there. The chickens are different because of being washed in chlorine. The cows are fat because they eat soy. It's you who's fat and feminized from the seed oils. …is the current alternative health food theory. But you can easi…

When I say American meat sucks, I am not referring to what some random internet blog says, I am referring to my personal experience living outside the US. You don't need to listen to some obscure podcast to realize the difference, you can just taste your food.