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As someone from Romania, I see this as a distribution problem and a consequence of consumer apathy. If you live in a few major urban centers, you can buy high-q

As someone from Romania, I see this as a distribution problem and a consequence of consumer apathy. If you live in a few major urban centers, you can buy high-quality food, often the same products as in Western Europe, and the prices are within reach of the average city-dweller. The problem is that in smaller towns, the sole supermarket or two might source only lower-quality products, so you cannot buy better things no matter how much you want to or how much money you are willing to spend. Wanting a quieter working environment, I recently moved from a big city to a village. The biggest shock for me is how bad the food that is sold here is. Village shops typically buy all their products from a wholesale store like Macro, sometimes the inferior versions of Western European brands, or often the generic brand. The tomato sauce is mostly sugar and food colouring, the chocolate has no actual chocolate in it, and these products are sold at the same prices as the high-quality food in the cities, so it is not a simple matter of rural people not being able to afford better. The people just accept what they get, and none of my new neighbours understands why I would complain. So, while it may seem unfair to blame the bad food on the people who are the victims of it, if there were more concern from the rural/small-town Romanian public about their food, there might be room for competition and distributors would change to serve them.

maxerickson 9y ago
How big is the village? Here in the US, this county of ~30,000 has 3 large supermarkets and many smaller grocers. The 10-15 miles distance to the supermarket means that the smaller places can't get away with selling total crap (it's rather rural, so people mostly have cars). The supermarkets all have store brands with decent quality and several national brands for most items.
- Mediterraneo10 9y ago
  I couldn’t actually tell you how many people live in this village or the whole comună of which it is a part. However, even being 10–15 km away from the nearest two larger towns does not help, because those two towns have only supermarket chains that are known for lower-quality products and inferior versions of Western European brands. If you really want a large selection of high-quality food, you would have to travel 60 km to the nearest major city, and that is too far for anyone’s regular shopping. Having been to the US and spent time in some rural areas (I did work-and-travel in Alabama years ago), I would not be so quick to claim that your supermarkets have "decent quality". Most supermarket food in the US is much closer to the bad stuff I find in my village shop than the higher quality food you would find in Western Europe or the largest Romanian cities. But perhaps that is a topic for another thread.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    There's no fake chocolate being sold as chocolate or tomato sauce with food coloring in it. Perhaps I read too far into hyperbole?
    - SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
      > fake chocolate being sold as chocolate A bunch of candy products have switched to being "chocolate flavored candy". Most candy in the US is total crap, because they've cut out all the parts that make it good to save money.
      - maxerickson 9y ago
        Sure, despite having a sweet tooth I don't enjoy the majority of candy available here. But my phrasing holds up, even in Walmart you can read the packaging and find real dark chocolate (they stock https://www.ghirardelli.com/dark-chocolate-86-cacao-bar-(317-oz)-60725 https://www.ghirardelli.com/dark-chocolate-86-cacao-bar-(317... ).
      - adventured 9y ago
        > Most candy in the US is total crap, because they've cut out all the parts that make it good to save money. That's almost entirely a myth. Along with the myth that most of the cheese sold in the US is "American Cheese" or "cheese product." These are fantasy lines of attack on the US for people looking for an excuse to bash. Here are two more of those myths: the US only sells mediocre, watered down beer (that one has long since been destroyed, it rarely gets used now); and the US doesn't make any good domestic wine that is competitive with eg French wine. The average Walmart (a mid to lower tier grocery) has a large, normal selection for real chocolate of all varieties (including European). Typically they will have a large half aisle filled with real chocolate candy products to choose from. The US is the world's largest market for real chocolate.
        rayiner 9y ago
        Wal-Mart is pretty crap on produce and meat, but they’re good at shelf stable stuff like chocolate. The one near me has, as you say, half an aisle of chocolate product of all kinds.
- norswap 9y ago
  Probably much much less. My municipality (in Belgium) is not considered small in any aspect, and yet it actually consists of three historical villages. My grandparents have a house in the southern of France, and that village/municipality has ~320 residents.
alt_f4 9y ago
You are wrong. In the few major urban centers, you can buy the most expensive and supposedly high-quality food, but that food is still MUCH LOWER QUALITY than the one sold in Western Europe. And we're talking international brand names here too. E.g., for example, soft drinks and candy bars would be sold with HFCS instead of sugar, chocolate will have lower % cocoa. You will find artificial colorings, preservatives and, generally, all kinds of artificial flavor improvers over healthier, more natural ingredients that are found in the Western versions of the same products of the same brand names. And don't get me started on the quality of meat... If you haven't noticed that, it is possible you just haven't travelled enough. I've lived for years in both Western and Eastern Europe, so I can tell you -- the differences are very stark and, IMHO, should be illegal.
- virtuabhi 9y ago
  > for example, soft drinks and candy bars would be sold with HFCS instead of sugar, chocolate will have lower % cocoa. You will find artificial colorings, preservatives and, generally, all kinds of artificial flavor improvers over healthier, more natural ingredients that are found in the Western versions of the same products of the same brand names. Are you talking about USA?
  - alt_f4 9y ago
    Nope, but it is generally well known to us, Europeans, that a lot of the food sold in the US is of lower quality, which is contributing to the US obesity epidemic, cancer rates, heart issues... This is starting to become a problem here too.
    - faster 9y ago
      When I returned to the US after living in Western Europe, the hardest thing to adapt to was the quality of food in the supermarkets. I left the first two grocery stores empty-handed because nothing looked like food to me. It was all cardboard and plastic and sugar in all its various forms. However, high quality food is available, but it requires time (to go where it is, since it isn't always distributed like the plastic-wrapped sugar stuff) and money, though not always more than the stores charge for mass-produced things.
stefantalpalaru 9y ago
> If you live in a few major urban centers, you can buy high-quality food, often the same products as in Western Europe Don't take that for granted. Some of the Italian pasta sold in Romania would not be eaten in Italy: http://stirileprotv.ro/standard-pentru-est/marea-diferenta-dintre-spaghetele-italiene-vandute-in-romania-si-cele-care-se-vand-in-italia-ce-spun-testele-pro-tv.html http://stirileprotv.ro/standard-pentru-est/marea-diferenta-d... In Italy, pasta is made from durum wheat, water and - for some northern pasta types - eggs. Nothing else. Not cheaper common wheat like in Romania, not extra vitamins, minerals or even precooking like in US.

maxerickson 9y ago

How big is the village? Here in the US, this county of ~30,000 has 3 large supermarkets and many smaller grocers. The 10-15 miles distance to the supermarket means that the smaller places can't get away with selling total crap (it's rather rural, so people mostly have cars). The supermarkets all have store brands with decent quality and several national brands for most items.

Mediterraneo10 9y ago
I couldn’t actually tell you how many people live in this village or the whole comună of which it is a part. However, even being 10–15 km away from the nearest two larger towns does not help, because those two towns have only supermarket chains that are known for lower-quality products and inferior versions of Western European brands. If you really want a large selection of high-quality food, you would have to travel 60 km to the nearest major city, and that is too far for anyone’s regular shopping. Having been to the US and spent time in some rural areas (I did work-and-travel in Alabama years ago), I would not be so quick to claim that your supermarkets have "decent quality". Most supermarket food in the US is much closer to the bad stuff I find in my village shop than the higher quality food you would find in Western Europe or the largest Romanian cities. But perhaps that is a topic for another thread.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  There's no fake chocolate being sold as chocolate or tomato sauce with food coloring in it. Perhaps I read too far into hyperbole?
  - SomeStupidPoint 9y ago
    > fake chocolate being sold as chocolate A bunch of candy products have switched to being "chocolate flavored candy". Most candy in the US is total crap, because they've cut out all the parts that make it good to save money.
    - maxerickson 9y ago
      Sure, despite having a sweet tooth I don't enjoy the majority of candy available here. But my phrasing holds up, even in Walmart you can read the packaging and find real dark chocolate (they stock https://www.ghirardelli.com/dark-chocolate-86-cacao-bar-(317-oz)-60725 https://www.ghirardelli.com/dark-chocolate-86-cacao-bar-(317... ).
    - adventured 9y ago
      > Most candy in the US is total crap, because they've cut out all the parts that make it good to save money. That's almost entirely a myth. Along with the myth that most of the cheese sold in the US is "American Cheese" or "cheese product." These are fantasy lines of attack on the US for people looking for an excuse to bash. Here are two more of those myths: the US only sells mediocre, watered down beer (that one has long since been destroyed, it rarely gets used now); and the US doesn't make any good domestic wine that is competitive with eg French wine. The average Walmart (a mid to lower tier grocery) has a large, normal selection for real chocolate of all varieties (including European). Typically they will have a large half aisle filled with real chocolate candy products to choose from. The US is the world's largest market for real chocolate.
      - rayiner 9y ago
        Wal-Mart is pretty crap on produce and meat, but they’re good at shelf stable stuff like chocolate. The one near me has, as you say, half an aisle of chocolate product of all kinds.
norswap 9y ago
Probably much much less. My municipality (in Belgium) is not considered small in any aspect, and yet it actually consists of three historical villages. My grandparents have a house in the southern of France, and that village/municipality has ~320 residents.

alt_f4 9y ago

You are wrong. In the few major urban centers, you can buy the most expensive and supposedly high-quality food, but that food is still MUCH LOWER QUALITY than the one sold in Western Europe. And we're talking international brand names here too. E.g., for example, soft drinks and candy bars would be sold with HFCS instead of sugar, chocolate will have lower % cocoa. You will find artificial colorings, preservatives and, generally, all kinds of artificial flavor improvers over healthier, more natural ingredients that are found in the Western versions of the same products of the same brand names. And don't get me started on the quality of meat... If you haven't noticed that, it is possible you just haven't travelled enough. I've lived for years in both Western and Eastern Europe, so I can tell you -- the differences are very stark and, IMHO, should be illegal.

virtuabhi 9y ago
> for example, soft drinks and candy bars would be sold with HFCS instead of sugar, chocolate will have lower % cocoa. You will find artificial colorings, preservatives and, generally, all kinds of artificial flavor improvers over healthier, more natural ingredients that are found in the Western versions of the same products of the same brand names. Are you talking about USA?
- alt_f4 9y ago
  Nope, but it is generally well known to us, Europeans, that a lot of the food sold in the US is of lower quality, which is contributing to the US obesity epidemic, cancer rates, heart issues... This is starting to become a problem here too.
  - faster 9y ago
    When I returned to the US after living in Western Europe, the hardest thing to adapt to was the quality of food in the supermarkets. I left the first two grocery stores empty-handed because nothing looked like food to me. It was all cardboard and plastic and sugar in all its various forms. However, high quality food is available, but it requires time (to go where it is, since it isn't always distributed like the plastic-wrapped sugar stuff) and money, though not always more than the stores charge for mass-produced things.

stefantalpalaru 9y ago

> If you live in a few major urban centers, you can buy high-quality food, often the same products as in Western Europe Don't take that for granted. Some of the Italian pasta sold in Romania would not be eaten in Italy: http://stirileprotv.ro/standard-pentru-est/marea-diferenta-dintre-spaghetele-italiene-vandute-in-romania-si-cele-care-se-vand-in-italia-ce-spun-testele-pro-tv.html http://stirileprotv.ro/standard-pentru-est/marea-diferenta-d... In Italy, pasta is made from durum wheat, water and - for some northern pasta types - eggs. Nothing else. Not cheaper common wheat like in Romania, not extra vitamins, minerals or even precooking like in US.