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The entire big box economy is a big honking subsidy to people with cars living in the suburbs by the poor, the singles, the seniors, the urban, the cyclists.
It only works because of the highways and the parking lots and the infrastructure paid for by everyone (road taxes do not cover the cost of the roads) and enjoyed by the drivers. The companies charge twice as much for small packages as big ones because they can; the purchasers without cars and access to the big boxes, the ability to drive between the Walmart and the Costco and the Price Club, don't have a choice.
Read on for Treehugger's reasons. Is bulk buying bad after all?
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Does Buying in Bulk Save Money, or is it a False Economy?
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(Score: 5, Insightful) by vux984 on Monday September 25 2017, @11:54PM (7 children)
This is just irritating on so many levels. It's 30 cents more because really, pretty much everything about the cost of corn starch is in packaging and logistics. How much do you think actual corn starch costs? For fuck sakes, you can buy a 50 pound bag of it for $15. And if you need it by the ton, you'll be paying far less than $15/50 lb.
As packages get smaller, the cost of packaging and distribution just becomes greater and greater. Let's go the other way, let's say we made a 4oz container... a 2oz container... 1/2 oz container. The price reductions are going to flatline somewhere well above zero, because making, and shipping, and stocking, and shelving, and collecting payment for each container costs something, even if the containers were empty. And that doesn't even talk about wringing enough profit from a sale to make it worth the effort.
It's just basic economics. It's not 'unfair'. And its not a subsidy of the poor to the suburbanite, any more than the suburbanite paying an (exorbitant!!) $3.29 for a paltry 16oz container is a subsidy on the restaurant buying it in 50 lb bags? Or the processed food manufacturer getting it by the rail car for... well do can you even imagine what they pay "per oz"? LOL I wouldn't be surprised to see it drop below a 100th of a penny at that scale.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:13AM
You would think treehugger would understand that less packaging means less environmental impact.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:56AM (5 children)
>It's 30 cents more because
that's what the market will bear. Packaging and logistics be damned, pricing is about what people will pay, and buyers of anything in a grocery store will pretty much pay $3 for pretty much anything. Same deal for grape jelly, it's a great lesson for my son who's just starting to buy stuff in the store, he reaches for the small jar of jelly that's priced at $2.69 because it's at a convenient height, in a handy package, even though there's one the same brand and flavor twice the size on the bottom shelf for $2.89. Meanwhile, the wife won't buy anything with HFCS in it, so she gets to pay minimum $3.99 for a medium jar of jelly - because "health food."
Last time I knew anything about grocery margins, overall the margins are very thin and competitive like 1% overall profit, but item per item throughout the store they vary wildly. Produce was mostly sold at a loss due to spoilage, and many competitive items were sold at a loss to draw customers from other stores, but then the profit was made by inclusion of high margin items alongside the losses. Coupon commandos are clear proof that not every cart that leaves the store is profitable, and not all of that coupon money is reimbursed from the vendors - the chain eats a lot of it, and even the local stores.
So, re: TFA mega stores - last time we did a cost-analysis for our household, it wasn't worth the annual fees. Maybe if you ignored the annual fees you might see some per-ounce or per-roll savings compared to the normal grocery stores, but no way did those savings add up to the $40/yr (and climbing) annual fee plus added mileage to get to the big box store, and that bulk purchasing demanded additional storage space in the house, which itself isn't free. I'm sure there are specific cases where it's a good deal, if you use industrial quantities of diapers or something, but for the most part Costco was just an interesting place to shop that had the occasional weird deal that seemed attractive at the time, like a $200 oak file cabinet or a leather office chair.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @04:25AM (1 child)
If you guys are really into jams and jellies, I'd recommend getting a good supply of cans, a big ole pot and make them yourself. You can get fruit by the pound at insane deals at the right time of season, even in regular grocery stores. The nice thing is that you can get plenty of variety in both the fruit type (e.g. apple, grape, peach and oranges) and preserve variant (e.g. jam, jelly, butter, conserve, marmalade), because most have a shelf life of a year when stored properly (but be careful if you decide on a spread and certain confits).
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:03AM
You can make marmalade by zesting limes, lemons, and oranges, too. Gets extra mileage out of the citrus.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @02:07PM (2 children)
Costco offers an Executive membership. $110 a year. Costs $55 more than the regular one. Why do it?
It is guaranteed to pay for itself. If you don't buy enough stuff to have the 2% rebate of the Exec. membership kick back to you $110 or more, your membership cost is refunded.
Also, the "occasional weird deal" you suggest is more like the "always the best price" every day. Briefly, if it is at Costco it will be very high quality and very best price.
(Score: 2) by t-3 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @08:23PM
Costco also has gas stations which are generally 10c/g+ cheaper in my area - that alone covers much of the cost of a membership.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 27 2017, @02:04AM
Thank you to the Costco regional marketing manager.
That's a new plan since the last time we played the game - I do note that even $55 is way up from the $30 we started at.
As for "guaranteed lowest price, every day" - that's what all the groceries around here do, so if you're ready to clip adverts or otherwise "prove it" and take time out with customer service, and find the same brand and size of whatever at another store, they'll all comp you that $0.20 per can of beans in exchange for how much of your time, and theirs?
Our Costco had good prices on about 3/5 of their groceries, matching local groceries on about 1/5, and remarkably high prices per ounce on the other 1/5 - at that time.
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