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FTC head wants investigation into grocery stores over inflated prices
(www.independent.co.uk)
I'm going to lay a bit of the prices on consumers. Anecdotal, I know, but I don't have to pay outrageous prices.
We have several grocery stores within 10 miles. The new Publix, by far the most costly option, is packed out everyday. Those same customers could go 1-mile down the road to Winn Dixie for far lower prices. Or, go a few more miles and hit Walmart for even lower prices.
Hell, if you went that far, you already passed Aldi FFS, and they're hilariously cheap. And on the same trip, you would have passed two old, raggedy grocery stores that are as low or lower than Aldi. Just tried another place a little farther along and my beer is 22% cheaper. Everything was cheaper. We packed a grocery cart full of goods, including 3 cases of beer and plenty of meats, for $130. I can put $130 in a Publix hand basket.
Yet the cheap stores are empty in comparison to Publix and Winn Dixie. Guess people are willing to pay double for a modern, brightly lit store instead of going in the "poor people" groceries? Not my problem, let 'em pay for their snobbery.
And before anyone assumes I have 7 choices by living in a big city, my town and the town next door total 36,000, and that covers a lot of square miles out in the countryside. It's anything but urban around here.
The people truly getting fucked are the ones for whom a Dollar General is the only reasonably close store, along with the people who can't afford a car and have to walk to one. While I'm a big fan of them serving (if unserved) rural communities, grocery shopping there is a hella bill.