Monday, March 23, 2009

the corner grocer

Most mornings I eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast.

Last night as I we preparing for bed I realized that I didn't have any milk.  But, I figured this would not be a problem, because there is a little grocer/convenience store at the corner of the street that I just moved onto.

So when I went there this morning I discovered several things.

There was only one kind of milk available:  whole.  They're calling it "Vitamin D" these days.  I guess whole sounds bad.  I drink skim.

But, since I needed milk for my cereal this morning and I would like to support my neighborhood economy I decided to buy a 1/2 gallon of Vitamin D Milk.

I paid $2.99.  If that seems outrageously expensive for a half gallon of milk, then our feelings are mutual.

It wasn't until I got home and looked at the label that I saw that the brand of the milk is "Great Value."  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that's Wal-Mart.  So, I'm wondering if the (stereotypically Arab) store owner just goes to Wal-Mart occasionally to buy groceries for his store, and then just marks them up?

The people who live in the area don't have access to transportation and the little corner groceries therefore have a captive audience, of sorts.  Groceries are most expensive where people are the poorest.

4 comments:

spriestapphotography said...

This is a major problem that we discussed during NYCUP. There is an overabundance of Bodegas, but a severe lack of fresh fruit, vegetables and fair prices in many of these.

Macro Guy said...

I've purchased 'Great Value' products at (reputable, large) non-WalMart stores before.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Yemeni owners use Sam's Club as their wholesaler; with the volume they can deal in, they don't need much more.

They do get real delivery-truck visits for some items, notably soda and beer.

Anonymous said...

That last paragraph is the most sobering thing I've read today.

Tim said...

I guess I'm late to the party cuz...I was hardly reading anybody's blog during Lent.

Anyways...I don't really mind shelling out for those convenience sometimes. As for skim milk...I used to be a skim milk drinker before, but...I've been learning lately that lot of what they are telling us is completely wrong on the topic of fat. They are right that trans fat is awful. But they unjustly lump saturated fat with trans fat when doing all their statistics. I'm thinking of doing a series of post on this sort of issue. But for a starter -- how Indians thrived on this grossly high-fat diet:
http://www.westonaprice.org/traditional_diets/native_americans.html

They were one of the most healthy people ever in the world and look how much animal fat they had in their diet.