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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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And tomorrow will be like today, only more so.
-- Isaiah 56:12, New Standard Version
(Score: 3, Touché) by TheRaven on Tuesday September 26 2017, @08:53AM (5 children)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Informative) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @11:43AM (3 children)
Ikea's not wrong, here. Storage is the key. We get those mega packs of TP, paper towels, etc. We put in extra storage to contain it. We live in an apartment in Brooklyn, so we are supposedly people "who don't have room." Yet, we manage.
I didn't pay extra for the storage, either. I built it using lumber people leave out on the street all the time in New York, and finished it with trim and a coat of paint so you can't tell. Of course that takes creativity, some basic skills, gumption, and a general lack of expectation that whining until other people give it to me for free is the way to go. Sadly most of those qualities are lacking in the big city, and certainly among the poor in the big city.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:51PM (1 child)
sudo mod me up
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday September 26 2017, @01:28PM
I don't know how it is where you are, but poor people in New York City don't move around all that much. In public housing they're there in that spot for generations. With rent control/stabilization, they can't afford to move any place else.
There is the different class of poor, the homeless, for whom mobility is high. But then, we're not really talking about whether bulk shopping and storage thereof makes sense for them. They're more worried about the portability you're talking about. Even then, though, homeless in a city like New York could do much better for themselves if they were resourceful. There's so much wealth here in terms of cast-off material and foodstuffs that a Cro-Magnon person would think he had died and gone to heaven. Even a native American would do just fine here because the things they ate are still readily available as the modern New Yorkers consider them weeds or beneath them and don't touch them.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Tuesday September 26 2017, @03:01PM
It's not "extra" storage if the volume is part of your original volume. Yes, a pretty cabinet is neater than just piling things up in the basement, but it still takes up part of the living space that you are paying for. In NYC volume is indeed precious (I grew up in Manhattan, and my son lives there now).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 26 2017, @12:42PM
If you are in a neighbourhood with 6 flats, they all can buy that 36-pack together, and each one gets 6 of those rolls. Everyone saves, nobody has to store an excessive amount of paper, and in addition the neighbourhood relations are strengthened by the cooperation.