The megacorp can provide cheap food, it just doesn't want to. In practice they adjust the margins in a data-driven way on individual goods.

UK supermarkets actually provide pretty cheap fresh produce, because the market is pretty competitive. I think the most ridiculous I've seen was a 1kg bag of carrots for 20p.

Many countries or locations do not have highly competitive supermarkets.

Oh, and there's both volume and self-discrimination effects at work. In my supermarket shopping in the Asian food section is often cheaper as they sell big bags of rice and spices, to more cost-conscious consumers. See also: Costco.

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K0balt 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

It’s just price gouging. There is an item I sometimes buy that is about $1.60 at supermarkets, but is consistently $.85 at nearly all rural Colmados. Same brand, same product , shelf stable , mass produced, large volume mover, imported product. Supermarkets have just collectively decided to sell it for 2x the “rational” market price because it went up with Covid and people kept buying it.

Colmados don’t do data driven pricing, and just do a flat markup on the stuff the suplicadoras bring them.

Data driven pricing is just selective price gouging under a different name.

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hansvm 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Costco is an interesting one to me. They're widely touted as being cheaper, but most foods there have some sort of upscaling factor -- "organic", some sort of regional variation like "sockeye" salmon instead of farmed atlantic, a few extra steps of processing, etc. Rice, pasta, and fruit are all usually more expensive than other alternatives, even at bigco grocery competitors. You have to be a little careful if that's where you do all your shopping.

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aprilthird2021 4 days ago | parent [-]

Costco used to be cheaper bc of the bulk factor, but nowadays I think of it as a good curator. The products are usually good quality. Even if more expensive

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mentalpiracy 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

A good example of this is their meat department, specifically beef as an example. You will generally find that Costco is not any cheaper than your regular supermarket, but the product you’re getting is graded USDA Prime or better.

There was a great comment on Reddit from someone who worked in the meat department that highlighted this comparison with specific examples but alas I am unable to find it.

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hollerith 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>curation . . . The products are usually good quality.

Costco has a strong record of getting me to buy food products that are appealing to me for a while, but that I now consider bad for my health.

About the only food products I will still eat that I can buy at Costco are boneless poultry white meat, Kerrygold butter, olive oil and fresh asparagus.

Costco stocks many fruits and vegetables, but most of them are much too high in sugar to be good for me, I now realize. (Berries are on the low side in sugar content, but Costco does not stock frozen raspberries or blackberries, and I avoid fresh berries because they're about 50 times as moldy as frozen ones.)

Examples of foods that I eat a lot of that I cannot get at Costco are cabbage, radish and (frozen) tart cherries.

In contrast, Whole Foods carries most of the 3 dozen or so foods that are good for me to eat according to my current understanding of nutrition (but not the tart cherries). I would probably be significantly healthier if many years ago I'd never become a Costco member and stuck to Whole Foods and Trader Joe's.

	▲	aprilthird2021 2 days ago \| parent [-]
		I also largely go there for Kerrygold butter, meats, oils, and other bulk household goods. But the occasional furniture purchase, automotive thing, car rental, etc. It's a good deal for the price of the annual membership

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GoatInGrey 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> The megacorp can provide cheap food, it just doesn't want to.

This fails to explain why Walmart, the world's largest retailer, runs a profit margin of less than 3%.