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A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

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Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#221

Post by Scoundreller »

throwaway55554 wrote: post #206
mattigames wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specialy given making bread better than the store is very likely, my father used to be a baker and has told me how stores use a yellow coloring to make it look like bread has lots of eggs but it has near none, or how they push yeast to the limit where bread gets the most air inside possible to make it look big, or how they buy the cheapest butter and so on.

Also, store bought bread today lasts a lot longer than store bought bread from when I was growing up. I can't imagine the chemical concoction that allows for this...

Probably calcium propionate.

And source control to keep initial mold spore counts low.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#222

Post by klipt »

toast0 wrote: post #138
njarboe wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After you buy them with the logos removed, it is just a box van/truck.

I mean when you buy a Penske truck with the logos removed, it's just a yellow box truck. A u-haul is always going to have the distinctive shape, and they usually don't do a great job at removing the logos... They might have scraped off most of the logo, but they don't paint over it.

Not much incentive - the logo is essentially free advertising.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#223

Post by yufeng66 »

adamcharnock wrote: post #199
Scoundreller wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rural Croatia too, except it’s a truck that comes to all of the villages 3x/week with staple items. Plays ridiculously stereotypical Croatian music through a loudspeaker to announce his arrival. And then a meat truck once a week and a fish truck more irregularly. Took requests as well. I think of it like villages having Amazon Prime starting in the late 90s.

It’s the same here in rural Portugal. However, if you just go to the van and ask for some bread (for example), they look at you as though you’re mad. After all, you didn’t order it yesterday, therefore why on earth would they have bread for you today?! I get why it works that way, but I was bemused nonetheless.

Here in Maryland, there are trucks from New York Chinatown stop at local park and ride regularly to deliver specialty Chinese food. You order through an app.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#224

Post by pacamara619 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #25
dx87 wrote: post #5

That's actually how a lot of businesses in rural parts of Alaska work, even places that don't require a boat or plane to access. My dad lives right off the highway in a small town in Alaska, and the closest thing to a grocery store is an old airplane hanger that one of the locals runs a general store out of. The owner makes weekly trips to Costco, which is ~4 hours away, and buys as much as they can fit into a big U-…

Rural Croatia too, except it’s a truck that comes to all of the villages 3x/week with staple items. Plays ridiculously stereotypical Croatian music through a loudspeaker to announce his arrival. And then a meat truck once a week and a fish truck more irregularly. Took requests as well. I think of it like villages having Amazon Prime starting in the late 90s.

That's really interesting! I'd be curious as to what part of Croatia since I find it hard to believe.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#225

Post by notyourday »

jefftk wrote: post #214
notyourday wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since of those I will only buy a few items I can tell you the prices here, in NYC in a non-ethnic but non expensive supermarkets: * Cherry tomatoes when available: $1.00/pt * Tomatoes: $0.99-$1.50/lb, right now up to $1.69lb * Onions: $0.59/lb * Honey crisps: $4.99/bag ( 5lb per bag ) * Baby spinach: $2.49/lb So the mass consumed vegetables are are about 2x the price of a local super market and they have $250 min. Tr…

None of the examples you're listing are 2x; those are 1.4x, 1.6x, 1x, and 1.7x. The prices you're listing are also lower than what I see in the cheap grocery stores here, not sure why? (They also are delivering to consumers; we've been putting in a weekly order and it's a way better experience than Instacart.)

1.4x - 1.7x is less sales which happen on perishables all the time

>The prices you're listing are also lower than what I see in the cheap grocery stores here, not sure why?

No idea. I don't even remember the last time I got onions for over $0.55/lb.

> hey also are delivering to consumers; we've been putting in a weekly order and it's a way better experience than Instacart.

That's because very few consumers are getting this delivery though I'm with you, they are definitely competing with instacart.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#226

Post by Spooky23 »

spockz wrote: post #139
Spooky23 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no “bread” in bread, so the commercial bakeries are always going bankrupt, consolidating and squeezing every penny possible out of the business. The average American has no access to good bread at retail, with some frozen stuff at a supermarket bakery probably being the best available.

Bakeries in The Netherlands do quite well actually. Although they also sell patisserie and sometimes (too expensive) baking stuff, the main part is bread.

In the US, probably half of bread sales are through Group Bimbo and Flower's Foods. Direct bakery sales are a drop in the bucket.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#227

Post by ALee »

As I live and breathe - we're talking about ToshCo. I have shopped here, spent time in Gustavus, enjoyed the greatest July 4th celebration in the US here while climbing a grease pole. Funny thing is that not all the residents can buy stuff from ToshCo because it's more expensive, so they go to the local thrift store instead, aka Treasure store.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#228

Post by gnopgnip »

joncp wrote: post #10

The scarcity of flour, especially bread flour piques my curiosity. I haven't heard about anyone eating vastly more bread than before the quarantine. It's just that everyone is making it at home instead of buying it with meals at restaurants. One would expect the flour not being shipped to the restaurants would be redirected into the retail supply chain but that doesn't appear to be the case. The only explanations I c…

Is it really scarce, and how would you measure that objectively?

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#229

Post by tentboy »

yufeng66 wrote: post #223
adamcharnock wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s the same here in rural Portugal. However, if you just go to the van and ask for some bread (for example), they look at you as though you’re mad. After all, you didn’t order it yesterday, therefore why on earth would they have bread for you today?! I get why it works that way, but I was bemused nonetheless.

Here in Maryland, there are trucks from New York Chinatown stop at local park and ride regularly to deliver specialty Chinese food. You order through an app.

Marylander here - where is this? Sounds cool.

Re: A man feeding a remote Alaska town with a Costco card and a ship

#230

Post by rz2k »

arkis22 wrote: post #86
bluedino wrote: post #22

There's a video of a grocery trip in Alaska, the prices are insane. https://youtu.be/3TVlmmVqgnQ

Alaska still has fresh bananas... Incredible

This photography book[1] about weekly grocery shopping around the world looks like a find the bananas puzzle.

[1] https://fstoppers.com/food/what-week-groceries-looks-around-...

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