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from the nothing-in-that-store-costs-1$-anyway dept.
In a Washington Post story picked up by the S. Louis Post-Dispatch, reporter Rachel Siegel asks the question "Are dollar stores a response to poverty - or a cause?"
The fundamental premise of the story is
fear the stores deter other business, especially in neighborhoods without grocers or options for healthy food. Dollar stores rarely sell fresh produce or meats, but they undercut grocery stores on prices of everyday items, often pushing them out of business.
this creates what is referred to by one patron as a 'food desert'
their unstoppable rise...keeps grocers from opening.
implications are made
With fewer options for fresh food and health care, people in a North Tulsa ZIP code have an average life expectancy of 11 years less than those in South Tulsa, according to a 2015 city report.
"It creates an overall sense of the neighborhood being run-down," said Stacy Mitchell, [of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance]. "It's a recipe for locking in poverty rather than alleviating it."
Contrariwise, these stores
are a vital source of cheap staples
The last Dollar General to open is across the street from a senior citizens home. That store, Henderson said, is a lifeline to residents.
the council thinks it's appropriate for city government to pick winners and losers in the economy.
and while not typical, some do indeed sell fruits and vegetables
grapes, apples, avocados, potatoes sandwiched between bags of fried pork skins and cases of Michelob Ultra.
It's Walmart all over again in a way.
Grocery stores run on thin profit margins - usually between 1 and 3 percent. And they employ more workers than dollar stores to keep perishable food stocked.
"It's no longer the big-box grocery store" that threatens local businesses, said David Procter, a Kansas State University professor who studies rural grocery stores. "But it's the discount retailer that's coming to town and setting up shop right across the street."
Some localities have added restrictions on the stores, for example
Mesquite, Texas, a Dallas suburb, approved changes to its zoning code last year that will limit the number of dollar stores. The guidelines prevent them from opening within 5,000 feet of each other. And stores must dedicate 10 percent of floor space to fresh food.
Tulsa is working to solve the 'food desert' problem they attribute to the stores
This month, a deal was reached with ECO Farms, a local company that focuses on indoor vertical farming to solve food deserts. Two company executives, Jim Bloom and Adam James, said that while this is their first try at a grocery store, they're intent on making healthy food a reality in District 1 - not a luxury.
"We're attending to this as a human right, not a geographic privilege," James said.
However, as the article notes - "grocery stores have struggled here before"
The nearest dollar store to me is about four-five miles (15 minutes or so) on busy backroads. My experiences with them are lack of selection and significant product gaps. Very hit or miss and you just have to go shop somewhere like Kroger or Publix afterwards anyway to finish out your list, so I don't bother as I don't have the time to spend on the extra commute and double shopping.
If everyone was like me dollar stores might not be experiencing the success they very obviously are.
So how about some other perspectives? Do Soylentils love them or hate them? Is this a first world problem?
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday February 18 2019, @09:22AM (1 child)
What works _really_ well at Grocery Outlet is the stuff that's close to its Sell-By Date, so _every_ time I go there, I examine every item I could _conceivably_ want then note it's expiry.
That leads to my regularly purchasing ten-dollar Brie for $1.99. The Mind Simply Reels.
At G-O, one must take _great_ care to note the "Their Price" on each items' shelf price label. In general "Their Price" is Safeway's (the American Safeway; I'm unclear whether it's affiliated with the UK Safeway.) If there is _no_ Their Price, then "Our Price" is _greatly_ inflated.
For otherwise normal prices, _if_ you have wheels then you should either write each of G-O's and Winco's price in one of those Pocket Notebooks I keep going on about it, or in your device's Notes App.
Keep those prices up-to-date and Ye Shall Save!
Do I hear an Amen?
AMEN!
Thus It Is Written.
However, if you do _not_ have a car, then you must consider how far you'll have to walk in combination for how heavy each item is. Thus I always buy milk, oranges, bananas and potatoes at G-O.
There are also concerns for Animal Cruelty, so I only buy Organic Free Range Eggs - Eggs Like To Strut Their Stuff To You Know - Organic Bananas and Organic Meats - to the extent they have any in stock.
There's also the volume occupied by each item, thus I always get bread and English Muffins at G-O. If I'm flat busted, I buy a dozen moderately tasty bagels at G-O, but when I'm - never - flushed, I pay $$$$ for far-tastier fresh-baked bagels at WinCo.
I've been asymptotically approaching all these ideals more or less just one step at a time since three years _before_ I got my HUD Permanent Assistive Housing apartment. After my having experienced desperate sorrow at having shopped at G-O and WinCo Foods in North-East Portland - sorrow because _none_ of my fellow homeless ever went so far - after that I'd go out of my way to shop at the Downtown Safeway - $$$$ but good selection - or North-West Portland's Fred Meyer - OMIGOD Selection, some prices are for California Hipsters and Lumbersexuals, some are for us tempest-tossed huddled masses.
(To This Very Day I Remain Yearning To Breathe Free.)
I Swear I'm Not Making This Up:
Damn near the very finest shopping of any sort is to be had on Burnside in North-West; the very finest are on NW Burnside's side streets.
NW Burnside's Fred Meyer is _truly_ a sight to behold, as the half of the store closest to Burnside has a _vast_ array of - mostly local - Craft Beer, Fine Wines, an Honest To G-d Sushi Bar, a Mother Fucking Bistro, and what Corporate Juggernaut could be complete without it's very own In-Store Starbucks, a $$$$ hot and cold Deli and the like.
The Mind Simply Reels.
Fred Meyer is a subsidiary of Kroger; scout around for a Kroger subsidiary in your home town.
Oh, Yeah: F-M has a $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ $$$$ Olive Bar.
My _Fuck_, Does It Have To Be So HARD?
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 18 2019, @01:52PM
Yes, if you don't want to get hosed, you need to remember or record prices. Going by the $/oz is also helpful since you can quickly compare different sizes. Make sure they didn't print mistaken math, however.
Carry a backpack, fill that backpack. If it somehow ends up at 40+ lbs, man up and walk it off. Optionally carry one more reusable bag with lighter items that could get squashed (soft bread, eggs).
I prefer Cruelty-Prone eggs.
We can remove the cruelty all in one go with lab-grown meats (and eggs?). Until then, I'm not sparing an extra dime for slightly coddled animal slaves and misleading labels [certifiedhumane.org].
Olives are expensive (even more so at the bar) and have relatively low nutrition and calories. If it's not an on-sale jar or needed for a recipe, don't get it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]