Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#91

Post by stcredzero » Tue, May 02, 2017, 6:58 PM UTC

metaphorm wrote: post #33

this rarely gets mentioned in these articles but it's extremely important. The Chinese food culture is substantially different than the Western food culture, and I don't just mean the items on the menu. Chinese don't eat raw foods at all, and especially not vegetables, which they correctly (by the standards of Chinatown produce) view as being unsanitary until thoroughly cooked. They have created a market that is effi…

The Chinese food culture is substantially different than the Western food culture, and I don't just mean the items on the menu.

Things I've noticed about the particular Chinese food culture of my girlfriend: Ginger goes in Chicken soup. Garlic does not. Broccoli is only cooked until bright green. Black pepper is used, basically never. All vegetables are to be rinsed, even the things in Trader Joe's packages that say "Triple Washed, Ready to Use." Almost no claim on the package should be trusted, ever.

Meat is always well cooked. (And there are plenty of ways to make meat very tasty without having it be super-rare.)

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#92

Post by jtchang » Tue, May 02, 2017, 6:58 PM UTC

I think another reason chinatown markets (and mexican mercados) are cheaper is also because they tend to buy up a wider grade selection of produce. When I walk traditional markets every tomato, onion, cucumber is roughly the same size and shape. In a Chinese market they often have a wide variety of sizes and shapes. This is way closer to what actually gets grown. Not every vegetable grows the same size and shape though you may think that going into a normal supermarket.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#93

Post by stcredzero » Tue, May 02, 2017, 6:59 PM UTC

weaksauce wrote: post #90

metaphorm wrote: post #33

this rarely gets mentioned in these articles but it's extremely important. The Chinese food culture is substantially different than the Western food culture, and I don't just mean the items on the menu. Chinese don't eat raw foods at all, and especially not vegetables, which they correctly (by the standards of Chinatown produce) view as being unsanitary until thoroughly cooked. They have created a market that is effi…

I have a persian market near me that has produce much cheaper than any store around usually because they don't have the best looking AAA quality produce. It tastes great and you might need to cut a bit more off than normal and a lemon there won't look like the picture perfect lemon from a large grocery but it's significantly cheaper.

a lemon there won't look like the picture perfect lemon from a large grocery but it's significantly cheaper

Also, that's what lemons actually look like.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#94

Post by Dwolb » Tue, May 02, 2017, 6:59 PM UTC

chimeracoder wrote: post #84

tn135 wrote: post #66

As a fish loving Indian, I was totally surprised to see that in Capitalist America the choice of fish was absolutely pathetic. At American fish places you only get "shrimps" may be "large shrimps" and "small shrimps". Salmon, Bass, Red Snapper and just few handful of usual fish. My small village fish market offers at least 20 varieties of fish in India's coastal region. A proper fish market would offer at least 100.…

> As a fish loving Indian, I was totally surprised to see that in Capitalist America the choice of fish was absolutely pathetic As explained below, the issue is one of demand. For whatever reason, people in the US don't like fish . I'm Bengali, which means our cuisine includes a lot of fish. But in the US, I almost never eat fish in restaurants - only when we're cooking it at home. And that's because the way it's coo…

For reference what are the flavorful types of fish and which types of cooking add more flavor to the process?

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#95

Post by and0 » Tue, May 02, 2017, 7:00 PM UTC

dxbydt wrote: post #60

Ha! I figured out the reason even before I read the whole article... always a gratifying feeling. That said, there are tons of food hacks if you want to save 30-40% and have a strong stomach. Buy your cashews, cumin seeds, turmeric, groundnuts, papayas, guavas from the nearby Indian store - there's tons of them in CA. Most of these are sourced from Fiji, Philippines, India etc, whereas Safeway would source cumin from…

Seconding buying spices from Indian markets. Here in NoVA you can get a pound of spice for as much as Safeway sells 2oz of it.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#96

Post by pault » Tue, May 02, 2017, 7:01 PM UTC

kbutler wrote: post #68

s0rce wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I met people in London who also pay people to grocery shop for them. For most staples I'm pretty sure this could probably be cheaper then having a grocery store in SF, they could have a warehouse in Fremont.

We could call it "HomeGrocer" or maybe that's too specific - how about "Webvan"? (I agree though, I think this is something that is going to happen - just have to find the right business model at the right time.)

Eh? I don't have a car and do _all_ of my shopping via amazon now and instacart (direct from Whole Foods). I get deliveries 3-4 times per week.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#97

Post by metaphorm » Tue, May 02, 2017, 7:01 PM UTC

sleepingeights wrote: post #75

Capitalism in America means as close to monopolization and price gouging as much as possible. Even Silicon Valley is a very close approximation to a monopoly, sponsored by masses of delusional participants deluded into thinking they're accepted within the same ranks. The people in the US eat only two types of meat, a handful of types of vegetables and crops. Also the cost of fish in the US is very high because the US…

re: meat

https://www.meatinstitute.org/index.php?ht=d/sp/i/47465/pid/...

relevant numbers from linked page

25.8 billion pounds of beef

23.2 billion pounds of pork

5.8 billion pounds of turkey

286 million pounds of veal, lamb and mutton

38.4 billion pounds of chicken

beef, chicken, and pork are all highly prevalent, but chicken is king. there are other meats produced as well but in much lower quantities. turkey is getting a lot more popular though.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#98

Post by gumby » Tue, May 02, 2017, 7:01 PM UTC

tn135 wrote: post #66

As a fish loving Indian, I was totally surprised to see that in Capitalist America the choice of fish was absolutely pathetic. At American fish places you only get "shrimps" may be "large shrimps" and "small shrimps". Salmon, Bass, Red Snapper and just few handful of usual fish. My small village fish market offers at least 20 varieties of fish in India's coastal region. A proper fish market would offer at least 100.…

This may have something to do with the area/perimeter ratio (lots of fish dishes if you live near the coast).

Fish is hardly common in most US restaurants that are near rives though, so my conjecture may be false.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#99

Post by mncharity » Tue, May 02, 2017, 7:02 PM UTC

pm90 wrote: post #32

throw9966 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my opinion this model works & keeps prices low, there is nothing to disrupt here. Similar like the Indian Dabbawala network. The Dabbawala System: On-Time Delivery, Every Time http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=38410 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabbawala

It works only as long as there are more Dabbawallas willing to do what they do. Once their kids (or grandkids) decide they can earn more/do other professions...who will deliver the lunch?

Urban last-mile delivery robots. Eg, https://www.marble.io/ et al.

Re: Why Chinatown Produce Is Cheap (2016)

#100

Post by bcaulfield » Tue, May 02, 2017, 7:02 PM UTC

thesuitonym wrote: post #42

penpapersw wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could it be that they just don't have the cruft & boilerplate & inefficiencies that traditional retail has? Having been in several types of workforce, I've seen plenty of missed opportunities that continued indefinitely because of management incompetence, so I wouldn't doubt it if they're able to have high quality & cheap produce just by cutting out the middleman and by being competent.

Calling it management's incompetence is probably unfair, although certainly there is a lot of incompetence in the retail sector. I think it's more accurate to call it corporate inertia. It's easier to build such a network for a single stall on a busy street than it is for 500+ retail locations that all have to be exactly the same to keep the brand image.

Or perhaps management competence? If goal is to sell more product to more people for more money, then perhaps the traditional grocery store model is better. They're just optimizing for different things.