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The cost of hand-to-mouth living

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Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#11

Post by dopamean »

gruseom wrote: post #2

Walmart's CEO talked about this a few years ago—how crowded their stores get around midnight on the last day of the month, because that's when people's payments clear: about 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs, and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when electronic — government electronic benefits cards get ac…

I worked at WalMart for 3 years. I worked overnight doing inventory management and I saw exactly what the CEO described. One thing I noticed that he didn't mention is that a large number of the people I worked with were part of that group of people waiting at midnight to buy their baby formula. I always felt like the wages at our store were subsidized by the government.

All of the people I talking about worked full time. They all had ungodly sums come out of their paycheque every two weeks to pay for health insurance (from what I understand it was not a great plan either). I don't really know what kind of point I'm trying to make here. On one hand it's nice that there are a lot of cheap options at WalMart for people on small budgets. On the other hand, it's sad that so many WalMart employees (in my own experience) are the ones who so badly needing to take advantage of those prices.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#12

Post by daeken »

danso wrote: post #4

I was hoping to see some data on how limited funds forced people to buy inefficiently...that is, buying cheaper quantities that are per-item more expensive than bulk buying because they can't afford the up front cost of buying bulk. My roommate will do this when buying dish soap for the household, always getting the smallest bottle than just paying for the large one at a 30% discount per ounce. Also, some cheap items…

When you don't have enough to cover all your bills and keep appliances up, your spending patterns change dramatically as well. If you don't have a functioning fridge, you're only buying a tiny (extremely overpriced) package of meat. If you don't have gas for your oven, you're only going to be making things in the microwave.

This is discussed in numerous really interesting ways in "Makers" by Cory Doctorow: http://craphound.com/makers/download/

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#13

Post by dantheman »

dopamean wrote: post #11
gruseom wrote: post #2

Walmart's CEO talked about this a few years ago—how crowded their stores get around midnight on the last day of the month, because that's when people's payments clear: about 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs, and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when electronic — government electronic benefits cards get ac…

I worked at WalMart for 3 years. I worked overnight doing inventory management and I saw exactly what the CEO described. One thing I noticed that he didn't mention is that a large number of the people I worked with were part of that group of people waiting at midnight to buy their baby formula. I always felt like the wages at our store were subsidized by the government. All of the people I talking about worked full t…

I don't think it's just walmart employees that need those prices, it's anyone working that type of job. Most employees at small businesses doing the same work earn the same or less than a walmart employee.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#14

Post by noonespecial »

ck2 wrote: post #3

My personal saying is "It's very expensive to be poor".

"The poor are poor because all of their choices in life suck."

There are about 3 ways to interpret that statement.

How people interpret it at first reading basically describes their political philosophies.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#16

Post by dopamean »

dantheman wrote: post #13
dopamean wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I worked at WalMart for 3 years. I worked overnight doing inventory management and I saw exactly what the CEO described. One thing I noticed that he didn't mention is that a large number of the people I worked with were part of that group of people waiting at midnight to buy their baby formula. I always felt like the wages at our store were subsidized by the government. All of the people I talking about worked full t…

I don't think it's just walmart employees that need those prices, it's anyone working that type of job. Most employees at small businesses doing the same work earn the same or less than a walmart employee.

I didn't mean to imply that I think it's only WalMart employees that need cheap goods. I was simply trying to comment on the irony of that.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#17

Post by Filligree »

danso wrote: post #4

I was hoping to see some data on how limited funds forced people to buy inefficiently...that is, buying cheaper quantities that are per-item more expensive than bulk buying because they can't afford the up front cost of buying bulk. My roommate will do this when buying dish soap for the household, always getting the smallest bottle than just paying for the large one at a 30% discount per ounce. Also, some cheap items…

Well, I imagine so. The calorie-per-dollar ratio for apples is negative.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#18

Post by gruseom »

dopamean wrote: post #11
gruseom wrote: post #2

Walmart's CEO talked about this a few years ago—how crowded their stores get around midnight on the last day of the month, because that's when people's payments clear: about 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items, baby formula, milk, bread, eggs, and continue to shop and mill about the store until midnight, when electronic — government electronic benefits cards get ac…

I worked at WalMart for 3 years. I worked overnight doing inventory management and I saw exactly what the CEO described. One thing I noticed that he didn't mention is that a large number of the people I worked with were part of that group of people waiting at midnight to buy their baby formula. I always felt like the wages at our store were subsidized by the government. All of the people I talking about worked full t…

That is why I like Costco better: the people who work there don't seem as downtrodden. Either I've been fooled by corporate propaganda or they really have figured out a way to make money, lower prices, and treat people relatively well. Walmarts feel like places of despair to me and Costcos like places of hope. I know how ludicrous that sounds, but the feeling is real. I often chat with workers at checkout counters to gut-test my theory, and it seems to hold up, though it could all just be confirmation bias.

Edit: there's one big difference, though. To shop at Costco you have to buy twice as much (plus typically pay membership fees). That step could be too steep for the people most living hand-to-mouth, even though it would save them money within weeks. So there could be sample bias here too.

Re: The cost of hand-to-mouth living

#19

Post by syncopatience »

Filligree wrote: post #17
danso wrote: post #4

I was hoping to see some data on how limited funds forced people to buy inefficiently...that is, buying cheaper quantities that are per-item more expensive than bulk buying because they can't afford the up front cost of buying bulk. My roommate will do this when buying dish soap for the household, always getting the smallest bottle than just paying for the large one at a 30% discount per ounce. Also, some cheap items…

Well, I imagine so. The calorie-per-dollar ratio for apples is negative .

I don't think this is true. According to this table a large apple has more than 100 calories: http://calorielab.com/foods/apples/62
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